Stop, thief!

This morning we cleared a lot of twigs and small branches off the lawn which had been blown down by Storm Eunice. Then we took the bird feeder back outside into the garden and I hung a couple of feeders and a water bottle from it.

After that I hung all the rest of the feeders on to the twisted hazel tree, and topped them all up with food. I then went back indoors and watched from the kitchen window to see how quickly my café customers would return.

By this time it was after their normal breakfast time, so business was slow at first but picked up as the morning went on. Sadly, though, the first customers were mainly starlings and pigeons. It took a while for my favourite small birds to appear – first a robin, then some tits and finches.

After a while, though, a cheeky squirrel came bounding down from the top of the hazel tree and made a beeline for the fat balls. He leaned down and drew out an entire fat ball with his paw, and popped it into his mouth. He then darted back up the tree, still holding the fat ball in his mouth, and jumped off into the garden at speed.

When I bought the fat ball container it had a baffle to deter squirrels, but I found that the small birds were a bit reluctant to fly inside it to access the fat balls, so in the end I removed the baffle.

So now my problem is what to do to make sure my small birds get well fed, and the squirrel doesn’t take more than his fair share. Don’t ask me how I’m going to do that – I’m baffled!