Man v. Squirrel

Happy May Day!  Do you know The Travel Channel show called Man v. Food?  It's about an incredibly Beasty guy who travels all around tackling massive quantities of food. Sometimes he wins, sometimes the food does.

Well, today I'm thinking about that show as my husband tackles the squirrel in our backyard who has been feasting on the expensive Songbird seed from our bird feeder. It had outsmarted the smart dome we'd bought to prevent this very thing from happening. Watch how the clever critter does it 
and listen to what the birds have to say:

   

That nutty nuisance was winning!  Sure, this swiper shows determination and perseverance in working for its food, but it's keeping our feathered friends from their fair share. John initially tried just filling it up an inch at a time, but we quickly found that this feisty furball was able to elongate the entire length of the feeder and hang by its toenails to get to the sweet stash. 

We considered buying a larger dome, but decided to try a longer chain first. So, link by link using S hooks, John experimented by extending the distance between the dome and the feeder and three times the robbing rodent still managed to stretch itself to snatch the seed. Finally, John put a longer length of heavy-gauge wire in place of the hooks and that seemed to do the trick, but it caused too much movement for the birds to comfortably land. So off to the hardware store he went to buy a new medium-weight chain, and voila, Man perseveres . . . and wins? The squirrel can't get to that feed anymore (at least, we don't think so!) and the Cardinals, Blue Jays and other Songbirds are blissfully back where they belong.  For now. No, wait, hey . . . that's not for you . . . get away from there . . . oh, dear, Man's not gonna be happy . . . I'd better go referee . . . 

Picture a cardinal on the left peg and a blue jay on the right!