It wasn’t my idea. My wife insisted that a bird feeder on a pole outside our son’s window would be a lovely idea. The kids could stand in his room and watch fluffy, colorful little animals. The neighbors have one; her parents always had one. What could go wrong? I huffed and muttered and dragged my feet, if only because I knew I’d end up maintaining it, but the feeder was installed in due course.
To her credit, she was right; it attracts birds by the flock, and the kids love to watch them. And I was right, in that I’m the one who has to keep it stocked. Amusingly, I get what I pay for: When I buy the cheap birdseed, we get sparrows, and if I want cardinals or jays, I have to shell out for the good stuff.
So, two days ago, the nanny texted us a picture and asked, “is that a mouse below the bird feeder?” No. No, it’s not a mouse. And he was back again yesterday for brunch.
The upside is that this is not my fault. Because I passive-aggressively opposed the feeder, my wife can’t lay the vermin it attracts at my feet. Getting rid of the rat is my problem, however. I don’t want to have to carry Charlie’s rat stick when I reload the feeder, what with the kids watching through the window. I’ve used rat traps in other homes before, but they’re the size of iPads, and our dog is more than dumb enough to set them off. I pointed out to my wife that the objective was to run a bird feeder, and that if we did nothing about the situation, we might attract some hawks. That didn’t fly.
The hell of it is that we’re already getting outdoor rat treatment from an exterminator. This is not our first yard rat. There was a construction project down the block recently, which was delightful in so many ways, not the least of which was the wildlife that it stirred up. They put bait stations around what we thought to be ratholes, but I guess that has just forced the evolution of a smarter rat. Not sure what happens next, but I expect it won’t be pretty.
I know your pain. My wife has chickens, and is pretty damn lazy in the way she feeds them and stores the food.
As a result, we feed the entire wild bird population of Northern Nevada, with the resultant piles of paint-ruining bird shit on just about every surface in the yard. Most of those surfaces being my cars, tools and stuff. You get the idea…
Something you could try that is harmless to your pet and the birds…
Hot sauce. Birds don’t react to capsaicum like mammals do. The birds are largely insensitive to it. Mammals… well, you probably know from experience. Spray hot sauce around the base of the bird feeder, or better yet, pepper spray, and soak the ground and spilled food. Even dumb dogs usually figure it out quickly.
The rats are a bit of a different issue. A truly starving rat might eat it anyway, but odds are those rats aren’t really starving. The goal would be to discourage them and make other birdfeeders in the neighborhood a more pleasant restaurant for them.
Try it. It should be relatively low cost, safe for kids, pets, and birds, and might work. Bonus: it should also discourage squirrels and other rodents, too.
I have banned bird feeders at our house, my husband misses them but agrees. When we lived in Ohio he fed birds, and mice followed the trail into the garage and from there into the attic and basement. It took months and many exterminator visits to finally defeat them. As it turned out the entry point was a little hole that was hidden under a step that he finally found. What a nightmare, never again. If it had been rats I might have moved out, I hate them that much.
My MIL (v.3.0) fed birds in the back yard. Mrs. Plant (v.3.0) quit when she inherited the house, because hawks staked out the back yard and took pigeons. Frightened and wounded birds careened into the windows. That wonder be great for children to see.
I once saw a bird feeder on a pedestal that I thought was pretty. I said to my son who was about 10 at the time, “Oh, should we get that bird feeder for our yard?” He replied, “You mean cat feeder?” :smack: End of discussion.
Our former next door neighbors had a small gaggle of bird feeders hanging on narrow metal poles that looked like shepherds’ crooks. The crooks left the feeders hanging about 6 feet in the air.
Our screened porch eating area looked out on all this. It was endlessly entertaining to watch the squirrels shinny up the crooks, jump onto the feeders, then knock the top open and tip all the seed out. Then hop down and dine with gusto. Of course chasing away all the birds in the process.
One thing’s for sure: if people are gonna put out food, it ain’t goin’ to waste. Mother Nature *lurves *her some free lunch.
We only feed seed during the winter. While I am sure all kinds of rodents feast on both the dropped seed and climb up and grab fresh stuff I have never seen but a mouse or two tracks. Probably because I have cats that like going outside at night. I have seen a juvenile bald eagle or similar sized adult raptor take a bird from the one feeding station. Blood is so red on a white blanket of snow.
In the spring through fall times we instead hang hummingbird feeds and oriole feeders. You end up with bees/wasps/hornets, butterflies and ants but my flowers draw them in anyway. We’ve seen 2 types of hummingbirds, beautiful orioles, catbirds and the occasional “no idea but that is a cute bird” eating from both feeders.
I despise bird feeders for this reason. Where I live in Chicago, by the north branch of the chicago river, there are a lot of rats and its a dense neighborhood, enough so that pigeons are everywhere. Only 1/10 of bird feeder food wound up going to sparrows and the like, whatever they dropped, attracted rats, which brings a ton of cats around to spray. On top of this pigeons would land on the roof above my bedroom and squabble all day, wating to swoop in with their fat asses and knock the feeder over and make everything worse. Never refilling those things makes all of the problems go away. Simply not worth the hassle, cat spray or pigeon feathers and shit everywhere.
