Backyard Talban

“Eat that, you terrorist,” I yelled at the backyard squirrels that defeated my best technological efforts to have a bird feeder that would keep them out of my seeds. This feeder had cost $70 and guaranteed that squirrels could not break through its defensives. But ti didn’t take their squirrel mind long to figure out that they could jump up under the collapsible perches and feast on the treasure of rich sunflower seeds.

“Damn,” I thought as I watched the master squirrel train the others to leap straight up. Squirrels had defeated my father, a retired navy captain, who spent the last years of his life frustrated by the squirrels in his bird feeder. Bird feeder technology had not advanced much in the 50s and he and the squirrels were on equal ground…and, even though he was a Annapolis graduate and had served bravely through WWII, the squirrels did him in. Now it was my turn.

But even the best bird feed created by the mind of man was free of holes that  squirrel intelligence couldn’t figure our a workaround. Then the light hit me. Why I could just raise the bird feeder beyond their jumping range. I put a pole under the wire. A simple solution. Yes, I can play your game. ” Take that, you terrorists!”

I can’t tell you how much pride and sense of accomplishment you can have when you are smarter than a squirrel.