Big City, Little Homestead

Living rural in the city is great – you can do it, too.

Category: Birds and Wildlife (page 4 of 7)

A Squirrel Buster Bird Feeder play-by-play 

November 5, 2018 / / 4 Comments

Back in early summer, I went to Bird Fest (I blogged about it there). I put my name into the raffle, and what luck! I won!

Nature-Expert (formerly known as CCFA, or Centre de conservation de la faune ailée de Montreal) sent me the now-famous and very effective Squirrel Buster feeder (the Plus model) from Brome Bird Care (you have to see their “404 Not Found” page!). Now, as you might know, I don’t mind feeding the squirrels, but bird seed can be a bit expensive when you have a lot of ravenous mouths to feed over the winter, so having one feeder for the birds’ exclusive use is helpful. So here goes the pictorial, from its unboxing to a play-by-play of a squirrel trying to get the goods:

In the box: the feeder, user manual and bird ID kits, and a ring to support perching cardinals
Label and QR code (obscured by distortion)
I’m really not surprised; this thing is solidly made!
No Squirrels!
Here we have contestant #1!
He really can’t find a place to leap to…
OK so let’s try it from the top, shall we?
She/he is going for it!
So close, but WT…?
Oh! what a fail.
Here’s Contestant #2 (or maybe it’s still Contestant #1 back for Round 2)
Here he/she has perched on the vine that’s…just…
out of reach
OK, back to strategizing from the flower box
A perch and stretch, but not far enough!

So there we have it, folks. The Squirrel Buster on my front porch is definitely not for the squirrels. And that’s the way it’s gonna be!

Updates:

Here and above, some action pics of the feeder’s intended purpose. I participate in FeederWatch and take pictures because it helps me count the birds, but honestly, I take pics anyway because: cute. Here we have all six portals occupied (or maybe five). The flower box (below) stays there all year round so that they have a place to browse and get ready to launch their next volley at the feeder:

House sparrows on a snowy window flower box

Squirrels come and go, but every year I put the feeder out in November. Here’s a fresh victim contestant, obviously destined to fail:

Squirrel looking at a bird feeder
A new squirrel becoming acquainted with the Squirrel Buster

I’d just like to say that while I am a little gleeful here, I’m still a soft touch for the squirrels. They don’t have to scrounge for what scraps the birds scatter below. Here’s one with a nut I left out for it:

Red-winged blackbird
One of our famous dive-bombing Red-winged blackbirds

How can you protect birds during nesting season? Don’t cut trees. And: BirdFest.

June 9, 2018 / / 1 Comment

Migration is pretty much over now, and all birds are where they want to be if they’re sitting on eggs in a nest, or raising a clutch of nestlings, or even (as is the case here) out showing their fledglings how to navigate the big world and find food. It might give us an opportunity to have a peep into their nest boxes and niches and see them raise their babies (mostly by web-cam — something we all love!), but it doesn’t mean the dangers they face are completely over. There are still things to watch out for in the city…

Tree Felling During Nesting Season

Every spring, members of my local birding club notice incidents of tree cutting and felling in and around Montreal during the period when birds are nesting. Even trained ornithologists have difficulty locating nests, so we’re concerned that these activities may harm or even be fatal. People need to proactively protect nesting birds, and not assume “oh it’s fine no one is nesting here.” How many times have we heard of Christmas trees arriving at their destinations with very frightened and hungry owls hidden in their branches?

Perhaps making matters worse is that, while tree felling is an activity a homeowner needs a permit for, the permit process might not take into account the season of the felling. Finally, the businesses that fell trees, like landscaping services, do not need to have a license from the Régie du Bâtiment du Québec. Theoretically, this is at least one reliable avenue for educating contractors.

What can you do if you witness tree felling during nesting season in your neighbourhood? One or all of the following:

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Visiting one of the last remaining urban wetlands – the Technoparc

April 15, 2018 / / 0 Comments

Two weekends ago, I participated in the Good Friday Migration to save the Technoparc Wetlands. Read more about it – and see the French-language Pimento Report on YouTube (embedded) here.

With this post, I wanted to mention to readers that I’ve got a new pop-up to subscribe to my email list. See a similar box at the bottom of this post for more details.

I’ve been draggin’ my heels on writing this post ever since, for a false reason. I’ve been making it a bigger deal of writing a blog post than in than the writing actually is, because the issue is a bigger deal than most people realize. So I might say something controversial, but seems clear enough for someone to say.

Part of the game of development is “build it and they’ll come.” There’s no big influx (except if it’s downtown – proper brownfield building development!) but in the meantime, the first occupants will pay for servicing the building and the taxes. Though this is just kicking the can down the road, cities sees that new development, that new tax base as proof of … something usually vanity-related, and a revenue base for existing services. In time, because there’s no incentive for municipalities to forego development without a large NIMBY crowd, their services:tax base ratio will get skewed again. Development sure looks like a Ponzi scheme.

This is the view of the park from overhead, from the south.

Situated in this tension, with no voice but for those who speak up in time, is nature, where the birds carry on with their nestlings like they always have, only the conditions are less and less optimal while development games are played to make them unwelcome. Continue reading

Squirrel at window

Meet my squirrel! Mangey, but adorable.

January 13, 2018 / / 1 Comment

This little guy or girl comes by my backyard every day and raids my two bird feeders, sometimes with the help of another squirrel. Because it has sarcoptic mange, I’ve been concerned about its winter survival.

You can treat mange with ivermectin, selamectin, or any of the avermectins. These are insecticides that kill mites and other parasites (some internal worms, too) in pets and livestock.

Left without treatment, this squirrel will suffer fur loss and diminished immunity, not to mention being driven mad with the itching. It will also lose out on time better spent food gathering and stashing.

Finally, there’s an increased risk of transmitting it to other animals and species. I certainly don’t want this, though I’m not sure if mites that affect squirrels also affect birds.

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Mission

My mission is to spread appreciation for ecological resilience and encourage you to live a little closer to the land. I want people to take actions that increase the beauty, biodiversity, and climate-change readiness of our towns, cities, and regions. That begins with people who own property, but includes anyone who can just go forth and do something at hand, from planting a public space to persuading a company to create green space. 

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