Lehigh Engineer vs. Squirrel

So ... who do you think won???

As you know we woods folk are quite busy people ... chopping our own wood, making our own bread, heating our bath water on the wood stove, crafting our own Christmas presents. So you might not think we have time for enjoying the wildlife right outside our door. But sometimes we just have to make the time and today was the day for me.

When I was washing the dishes this morning and I casually looked outside to check on the sparrows and my favorite plump woodpecker, imagine my surprise when finding a squirrel feasting on the newest addition to my clothesline bird cafe, the 'woodpecker bar'. I immediately ran out and scared him away. Round 1 - Lehigh Engineer?

Happily back at the sink, I looked up again and there he was. Round 1 - Squirrel.

So, Caroline suggested that I attach the woodpecker bar to a longer rope so that Mr. Squirrel could not reach the food. I trekked down to the basement, retrieved the rope from the camping box ... which houses everything you might ever need if camping and then some, huffed up the stairs, grabbed the scissors, and headed outside. When I got to the clothesline and attempted to cut the original loop of rope, I discovered that it was hard ... because it was frozen. This explained how the squirrel got out to the bird feeder in the first place: the rain and subsequent freezing temperature, made the line stiff so that he could now navigate the rope Paul and Garrick had strung between the two trees in order for me to hang the bird feeders. I tied the woodpecker bar to a longer loop of rope, grabbed my supplies and returned to the house. Not sure if I had quite outsmarted the squirrel, I placed my supplies on the kitchen counter just in case I might need them once more. Round 2 - Lehigh Engineer?

After a minute or two had passed, I once again peered out of the window ... to find my friend back on the woodpecker bar once again. Round 2 - Squirrel.

Totally miffed, I swiped my goods off of the counter and headed out again. Mind you that each time I went out, the squirrel let me get closer and closer before he darted off. And, when he did, he sat in a tree over my head and chattered at me angrily. So, this time I used an even longer loop of rope to attach the woodpecker bar to the clothesline; this one had to be over a foot long. Round 3 - Lehigh Engineer?

It didn't take him very long to climb down from his perch, climb up the next tree, gingerly scurry across one clothesline, hop across to the other and perch himself right back on that woodpecker bar! Round 3 - Squirrel.

This time I ran upstairs to get ... the blow dryer, thinking I could heat up the clothesline, get rid of the ice, and make the clothesline floppy again so that he couldn't get from the tree to the food. But the cord on the blow dryer was not long enough so now I had to go back down to the basement to get the extension cord. Luckily on the way I had a brainstorm, being a Lehigh Engineer; I would get paper towel tubes and put them on the clothesline so that my little pet couldn't walk all the way to the food. Well when I got to the recycling bin, I found only one paper towel tube but also found two toilet paper tubes. I quickly ran upstairs, again grabbed the scissors and hurried outside, back to the feeding area. I cut the tubes lengthwise and put one on the clothesline on either side of the woodpecker bar and then put the long tube over the loop holding the bar itself. Round 4 - Lehigh Engineer? Nope!

So I went back to the basement and snatched a small soda bottle from the returnables bin and a paper plate from ... the camping box. I cut the bottom off of the soda bottle and put a hole in the middle of the plate and went back outside once again. By this time the tubes were laying uselessly on the ground, thanks to Mr. Squirrel. I put the upside down soda bottle over the loop and then added the paper plate on top. Round 5 - Lehigh Engineer? I wish!

It did take my little friend a while to figure this one out but to my dismay when I looked out the window about 30 minutes later, he was gorging himself on sunflower seeds once again. Since I had not seen him land on the food bar, I had no idea how he had masterminded this. So, I went out and scared him off the bar once more, then returned to the house to watch. He scurried across the clothesline, and headed down the loop. He then cautiously would hit the paper plate but not head down. When he hit the plate just right, he slid down it and onto the food bar. I was amazed but not beaten!

I dug through the kitchen garbage can and pulled out the plastic top of the oatmeal container, rinsed it off, put a hole in the center, and took off once more. As I was removing the paper plate and replacing it with the top to the oatmeal container, the squirrel sat on a branch not three feet from me. He did not say a word; he did not make a single sound; he just looked at me with these sad, sad eyes that went right through me. I don't know if he finally gave up or if my final solution really did work, but he didn't come back for the rest of the day. So, not only will I have those sad, sad eyes looking at me for days to come, but now I will have to head down to Greenville so that I can get him his own special feeder ... just for him. I guess the saying 'winning isn't everything' rang true for me today.

Karyn