My Feeder After dark (1 Viewer)

[snowyowl]

My feeder got messed up a couple of nights in a row so I decided to put out a trail cam to see what was going on. I expected to get a raccoon but not three. I took the feeder down for a couple of days and my visitors seem to have left.

 

[Lisa W]

Nice, looks like they went to find a new restaurant.

 

[Kits]

Caught red handed! Great shot, Dan.

 

[ptickner]

I have to take a couple of my feeders in every night because of a raccoon. Even with the feeders gone, I can still see her most nights scrounging for loose seeds on the ground. I usually get them when the apricot tree has fruit and last year I had three babies. I think my feeder raccoon may be one of last years babies as she is still pretty small (but growing!).

 

[coal tit]

Those racoons are big animals over in the uk I,ve known 1/2 wood mouse In our garden empty a feeder In one
Night of black sunflower seeds quite a feat really when takeing Into account how many seeds there were
Along with eating most of the fat balls haveing seen them in day light running along the rose trellis to get
At them talk about nimble, the feeders are only several inches long by about three inches wide but that
Is still a lot of seed In one night, I noticed the size of the feeder alongside the racoons there hugh.

 

[sirwired]

Raccoons nearly inspired me to retire my feeders; those little *bleepity-bleep*s! decided they weren't "nocturnal" any more and started showing up to tackle my feeders sooner and sooner. (They'd simply reach over and shake the squirrel-proof feeder via the hanging wire to get food out.) The last straw was when one lifted the feeder off the hanger entirely and dumped it on the ground and then chewed up much of the insides.

I now have the feeders on a proper tall pole with an appropriate baffle.

The cutest "pest" that has ever attacked my feeders would have to be a flying squirrel. That little guy was cute, and watching him fly was neat! He was so tiny, I figured he can only eat so much, and I don't worry about him.

 

[Ruff]

My setup is squirrel and raccoon proof, but over the past two winters I started putting out extra sunflower seeds and occasionally peanuts for the pair of gray squirrels in the hood. The numbers grew gradually until there were roughly a dozen different identifiable tree rats visiting, carefully observing their pecking order in the area as to time of day, and as a group they really liked the heated 'bird bath' setup I put out last winter, giving them access to liquid water, something they clearly appreciated. But then this spring I realised I not only had those dozen coming but all their seasonal offspring, and I was into a welfare-dependency situation, so I gradually stopped deliberately feeding them. They in turn have gradually dispersed, but not before eating all the buds from the locally hard to raise rosebushes in my garden. So to avoid a repeat, I will also have to harden my heart come next winter. Now, all that is relatively harmless little gray squirrels: if it was raccoons they'd probably take over the house inside and out. Therefore I will definitely stick to my mammal proof feeders. Until the bears show up.

 

[snowyowl]

The raccoons appear to have moved on since I changed my feeder setup. I put the feeder on a shepherds crook with a good cone style baffle. The Gray Squirrels and Eastern Chipmunks are also defeated by the new setup.
I don't mind a few squirrels or chipmunks but one fall I live trapped and re-located 17 squirrels. That's too many. I've even had them get into the walls of our house as well which is very dangerous.