Turns out I’ve been living in a dream world. I thought Syd and his buddies were generous and considerate, leaving the bird feeders to the birds. Turns out it was just because I had so much birdseed and sunflower seeds available to the squirrels, they didn’t feel the need to forage any wider. Since I have begun to reduce the scattered birdseed, this is what the squirrels are doing. This rascal just stretched and grazed from the tube at his leisure. When, in exasperation, I removed the tube, he stretched a little farther and went after the seed cylinder, plucking morsels to be nibbled at from the branch above. I threw a snowball at him, but it didn’t faze him a bit. Finally I draped a kitchen towel over the cylinder and retreated for the evening. Tomorrow is another day.
