Wigeons, Bread, and Squirrel Wars

American Wigeons and Mallards

© Diane B. Reed

Some of the seasonal visitors to the pond, American Wigeons, have arrived. They join the resident Mallards who winter over. The recent snow and ice provided a cold welcome for them and they huddled on the walk surrounding the pond, cozying up to their cousins. 
     Occasionally people visit the pond bringing loaves of stale bread to feed the ducks. I know that their intentions are good, but feeding bread to ducks is terrible for them. They can't digest it properly, and it can actually cause them to become malnourished and die. They're used to foraging for themselves and feeding them discourages them from finding natural foods and can lead to overpopulation at ponds.

© Diane B. Reed

Many of us enjoy having bird feeders, but providing nutritional seed for birds is an expensive proposition, and squirrels can eat through your seed budget and chew up your bird feeders in record time. We've found several feeders that are essentially squirrel proof. The first has a heavy-duty wire cage around the feeder which allows small birds to get to the food but keeps it out of reach of the squirrels. They try to get the seed periodically, but they can't get to it and the wire cage is too thick for them to chew through.

© Diane B. Reed

We recently got a new feeder which keeps them away from the seed, and even provides some entertainment. The feeder, made by Droll Yankees, is called the Yankee Flipper (watch the video, it's hilarious). It's pricey, but it beats chewed up bird feeders and bags and bags of seed. This feeder is designed to be too large for the squirrel to grip to get to the seed ports--they just slide right off. And if they go for the perches it activates the battery which twirls the perch until the squirrel goes flying. Eventually, they decide to munch on the seeds that end up on the ground--at least for awhile.