Dealing with an expensive feeder pest
A problem has developed with our feeding station which we have to address. Many of the birds which visit our feeders are considered by many to be pests, but we decided early on that our general philosophy would be “the more the merrier” so long as the house sparrows and grackles did not actually begin driving other species away. Then the red squirrel found our feeder. But we like squirrels so we came up with a compromise.
This problem is a little more expensive, however, and goes by the name of bandit. So named for those adorable little stripes on his face and tail. Yes, a raccoon has discovered our bird seed. The seed has been sitting outside in plastic containers for months. But two days ago, a raccoon discovered that if it knocked one over, the lid would pop off.
Smart varmint. And expensive. It is now responsible for the loss of half a container of black oil sunflower seed which would be about 10 pounds. I’m not sure how to deal with raccoons, but for the moment, we have put the dog out by the seed. I don’t want to leave him tied out overnight indefinitely, however.
I’m thinking maybe we could build some sort of crate to hold the bins upright so the raccoon cannot knock them over?
backyard birding, birding, bird watching, feeders, pests, raccoons
July 17th, 2007 at 11:47 pm
[...] on camera July 17th, 2007 by Dana Hanley Last week, I wrote about an elusive pest which was responsible for the loss of over ten pounds of sunflower seed in a single night. [...]
August 7th, 2007 at 4:39 pm
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