Defeat (or, Who Will Win this Battle of Wits?)

Just checking in. I was lazy last weekend and didn't get many pictures, although I got a couple of shots at the bird feeder I set up on Sunday.

As for the feeder, this has been an effort in frustration. I set one up on a steel pole designed (see above) to hold potted plants. I did this because of the increasingly inventive squirrels that happen to live in my neighborhood. I think those guys all have Ph.D.s in pilfering bird feeders. I put it up about three weeks ago and started getting a few customers. Then I looked a couple of days later and it was empty. I was a little surprised but pleased; I thought the feeder had been discovered and was gaining in popularity among the intended beneficiaries. Then, a week later I looked out my kitchen window and there was a herd of five or six deer sucking the feeder dry -- it hadn't been the birds that ate the seed, it was the deer!

I got brave and headed out to Wal Mart. I picked up a supposedly "squirrel proof" feeder to hang in a tree, out of deer reach; I feared the deer more than the squirrels. I filled the thing only partially full, trying to hedge my bets, and hung it on a Scrub Oak branch. There appeared to be few takers, but I decided to be patient, at least it hadn't been drained. Came home last night after our second blizzard of the year had started, and looked out the kitchen window. The feeder, and the branch it was on, was on the ground. It was empty, of course.

I hate to admit it, it seems just wrong, but I 've been bested by our 4 legged, furry, neighbors.