Enemy Mine
Fall sunrise over the Fox River is glorious. I think it worth rising for the brief spectacle just before 7AM. This is the view through my windshield traveling on Fabyan Parkway east toward Starbucks in Geneva. The sunlight is a gift to every living thing, trees, shrubs, grasses and the squirrels that inhabit the backyard.
Why dedicate time and effort to focus upon squirrels, even a particular squirrel? The small mammals are adapted to life amidst the trees. I imagine squirrels to be positioned between the fox, an intelligent predator of squirrels bound to the surface of the ground, and the hawk, a sharp eyed hunter and master of flight. The squirrel is an acrobatic, muscular practitioner of the leap, and “nailing” the landing. The squirrel is a definition of the concept of balance, leaping without hesitation from limb to limb.
Not long ago I purchased a bird feeder, a robust metal repository for bird seed, advertised to be squirrel 
resistant. I took care to hang the pivoting red house, by a thin wire, out on a limb some distance from the trunk of a pine tree. I hoped this would be enough to discourage squirrels that love to raid bird feeders. A pivoting mount is designed to make the container difficult to grasp for a jumping squirrel.
At this juncture the squirrel has the advantage. I, as owner and supervisor of the feeder am playing “catch up.” The squirrel has learned to raid the feeder for a free meal of seed, at the expense of the birds, that naturally stay away while the squirrel hangs on and consumes seed. I attempted one strategy to discourage the gray mammal from successfully leaping from the trunk of the tree to the top of the feeder. No more than 20 minutes were enough for the squirrel to solve that problem.
I have another strategy in mind. I’ve decided to avoid technology such as high pitched sonic devices, or chemical repellents. Somehow those means seem immoral, unfair to the squirrels. I will stick to physical obstruction to discourage my opponent. After all, I do have a certain relationship with a fellow creature…
Wish me luck.
