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 reachOK, back to strategizing from the flower boxA 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:
Squirrels come and go, but every year I put the feeder out in November. Here’s a fresh victim contestant, obviously destined to fail:
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:
My house is distinctive for the vines I have growing on it. The only other neighbours who have vines are a house on the end of a row, with a big wall to cover.
Virginia Creeper on the house and garage wall
The Virginia Creeper (Parthenocissus quinquefolia) adorning my home has been here for 6 years. It’s ropey all the way to the top of the eavestrough. I trimmed it a lot the past year to stop its spread across the house and into the soffits, but spread is what Virginia Creeper does. Though to be fair, it falls back on its own, so it’s not unreasonable, and the configuration changes every once in a while. This makes it great to green-up a wall, especially if you are willing to “tutor” it across a large expanse of wall. If you don’t tutor it, it will detach and hang when it gets heavy.
For two years, I also let one climb the back wall, on the shady eastern side of the house. At the same time, I nabbed a “real” ivy plant and planted it in the same place, to have both. Parthenocissus tricuspidata “Veitchii” – Boston ivy – is not a native plant, and it’s not from Boston! Its leaves spread out row upon row – nicely, and less rambly. There’s ample room – like 10m2 – for it to spread. But it stayed stunted, so I suspected that Virginia creeper inhibits other plants. The creeper had to go.
The creeper easily climbed to my 2nd story bathroom window, but this was not the effect I wanted
In its place, I wanted to have a climber that thrived in the shade. So I bought Hydrangea anom. petiolaris – Climbing hydrangea (unfortunately, not native). This flowering vine grows upward more so than outward, and it looks like it will create boughs that support birds as well as its own flowers. It’s a slower grower than Virginia creeper and Boston ivy (giving the ivy a chance to get started), and it clings well. It should nicely fill in the rough brickwork without any overgrowth effects.
The climbing hydrangea, rooted in place on the right, with Boston ivy on the left (more pronounced). Later I transplanted the Boston ivy elsewhere, and the hydrangea really took off!
I left the Boston ivy there for now, so both are against the wall. It’s doing much better than when it was with the creeper. Next year, where I could remove the creeper from the front of the house and transplant this ivy there. I wouldn’t do that now, because I’d have to tear down the Virginia creeper just when it’s getting to the best part: the brilliant crimson it turns in fall.
And then again, I’m not even sure I want to replace the Virginia creeper out front, which is a native plant, after all. Maybe I’ll put the Boston ivy along the back fence, where it would cling better and be easier to control than Virginia creeper! (And that’s what I did.)
Virginia creeper in the fall
Finally I must say: It is not true that climbing vines damage your bricks. They attach to the surface by sending out little sucker pads that do not penetrate into the brickwork, and they also wind around each other. If you cut a section so that it dies, the suckers dehydrate and break off. You may have to scrape or scrub the remaining the plant matter off the surface, which is maintenance work, but it’s not damaging the pointing or whatever. Moreover, the vines help shade your home so that it’s cooler. They also give wild birds a welcome place to hang out, and berries and insects to eat. Finally, they just look nice. Stately, even.
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:
If you’ve been to this blog at least once before, you’ve probably seen photos of my green driveway. And yet every year, just like before I put it in, some contractor dude who’s thinking “that ain’t right!” drops by with a card to “fix” it. (I can’t blame him for pounding the pavement looking for clients, but still…).
Sometimes he even jots a quote on the back as to how much it would cost me to rip out my green driveway and put down some blacktop asphalt driveway. You know, my green driveway cost a little more than what he’s quoting, because it was kinda fancy underneath, but I won’t have to “repair” the crack every five years like he wants me to. No, thank you.
I used to have an asphalt driveway. About the only thing you can do on an asphalt or concrete driveway that you can’t do on mine is play basketball. And maybe make chalk drawings, but you know, the sidewalk’s right there, so that’s no biggie.
See, for a long time I had cracks in the driveway where plants would grow. That’s why they’d wanna repair it. But why would I let that crack bother me? Water percolating into the soil and being taken up by plants actually cools the air through transpiration.
“But frost heaves!” – it’s a driveway, not a highway; a little bump from a crack is not a problem.
“But bigger cracks!” More plants!
Why would I want black top + hot sun make my driveway and home hotter, rather than something cooling it down?
Besides, when the plants were growing in the cracks in my driveway, guess what the bunnies’ favourite outdoor snacks were? That’s right – CRACK SALAD!
This is a long-running “lifestyle” blog about the pleasures of living like a farm kid in an urban context. There’s a big focus on ecology and wildlife because this has brought me joy – and this is also the greatest potential we have of restoring some balance to nature where we live.
I write practical content for people to do little projects that basically make things beautiful, but also support climate readiness (energy efficiency, heat reduction, drought tolerance, flood prevention, and more). I’m a relentlless promoter of having a live-and-let-live attitude towards biodiversity.
Comments and questions are welcome! And if you’re anywhere near the Montreal region, you can also use my “Rewilding” service to landscape your property using native plants, convert to a green driveway, and prevent your windows from killing birds.
