For the last week, at least one of my feeders looks like this in the morning:
The seed has been disappearing fast, but it was hard for me to tell how much of it was from the overnight guest(s) and how much was eaten by the large flock of Mourning Doves that drops in every evening at dusk.
I decided to fill up one of the feeders yesterday morning and tie it shut with twine. I left the other one alone. This morning when I awoke, I found the other feeder open and half the seed missing. The feeder I filled and tied shut had been nearly emptied (oh, you know they did it out of spite).
Our apple tree is nearby, but I’ve trimmed back the branches enough that Gray Squirrels don’t even try to jump from it. They just can’t get good enough footing on such tiny branches. That means it would be nearly impossible for even a baby possum or raccoon to balance on them and make the 12-foot leap.
That leaves me with one suspect—the Northern Flying Squirrel. They are small, nocturnal and they can glide 20 to 50 feet. Flying squirrels are very sociable, so it’s possible I have an entire thieving gang of them. If I had been thinking last night when I returned home at midnight, I would’ve peeked out the window to see if I could catch them in action.
Obviously tying the feeders shut is not going to stop them. It’s fall migration season so there’s no way I’m taking the feeders down.
Tonight we’ll just see how far they glide when I cover the feeders with a slippery garbage bag.