Attack of the Red Squirrel!

March 25th, 2007

Squirrel Damaged Birdhouse We have had a red squirrel named Rudy take up residence in our backyard. My wife really likes him, he has been active all winter and she enjoys watching his frenetic search for food. These squirrels are small, maybe halfway between a chipmunk and a normal squirrel, are very active, and are very rare where we live in Southern Michigan. As far as I know in fact they aren’t supposed to live here, and yet this one does. So taken all together I see him as a good thing.

However… I was out enjoying the beautiful (finally) weather on Thursday and noticed some damage to our birdhouses that wasn’t there on Wednesday. Then I remembered my wife said that she saw Rudy tearing nesting materials out of the birdhouses.

Well, we have these large 4 unit bird houses dotting our property and Rudy, in the course of one day, gnawed at all 8 openings of two of them (the two closest to trees). He made the most progress in the opening pictured and it was from there that he stole the nesting materials.

I did a little research and learned from this article that red squirrels are known to raid birdhouses for food, both in the form of eggs and baby birds.

I have mixed feelings about this. Mostly I am annoyed at the damage to the houses that I must now repair, but also I like Rudy but I don’t like the idea of Rudy eating up baby birds. On the other hand its the circle of life and all that, and after I get the newest ones up this spring we’re going to have like 41 “units” of birdhouses on our 1/4 acre so we have a lot of birds. I’m sure this time his raid was just for the nesting supplies (lazy bugger) because the birds aren’t breeding yet, and last fall when there were babies he left them alone. So I do not know what provoked this attack.

4 Responses to “Attack of the Red Squirrel!”

  1. Vegetable Gardener  Says:

    We have a squirrel in our garden. It is becoming a problem as its eating our vegetables and chewing our bird feeders.

    Its a nightmare

  2. Kristi  Says:

    That’s one busy squirrel.

  3. CeeVee  Says:

    Squirrels are my nemesis. We’ve had them eat through heavy-duty plastic trash can lids to get at food and they have even eaten through the aluminum soffets on our home in an attempt to take up residence in our attic. It cost me a pretty penny to get my soffets repaired.

  4. Viva  Says:

    Squirrels have caused more than $10K worth of damage to my home. I have them professionally trapped and the company euthanizes them. I have no love for the rodents, but the other animals around our property have not caused any problems like the squirrels. I’ve always said squirrels are nothing but designer rats with good publicity.

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