Three days ago I posted a Blog on Flying Red Squirrels, with photos of a very determined red squirrel being tossed by a mechanical bird feeder. Well the small but feisty red squirrel was back during the ice storm yesterday. Not only did it guard its territory under the feeder well, chasing numerous larger red squirrels away, but it showed it had learned its lessons from three days ago.
It certainly did not avoid the feeder that threw it so often the last time it visited. But this time it did not spin round and round. The squirrel had learned to hold on to one of the feeding holes with its back foot, which he did most of the time. But most importantly, if it shifted and the perch started to turn, the squirrel immediately jumped to safety.
The sequence below shows a very short visit to the feeder.
Below you can see it chasing a chickadee away only to have to jump off.
This time it had a longer stay before the perch began to turn.
Another quick trip up and down.
I’m mostly showing the times the squirrel had to jump quickly. A number of time he was able to sit and feast for many minutes while the birds had to wait.
In this sequence the feeder started to turn immediately.
I close with two photos when the squirrel mistimed its jump and hit the pole on the way down. It was fine. It came back for more.
