The average squirrel's brain weighs about 6 grams, less than 2/3 of one percent of its body weight, and the average human brain weighs 1,400 grams and comprises a little over two percent of total body weight. I point this out because there is something sort of pitiful about bragging that I outsmarted a squirrel.
I'm going to do it anyway.
It wasn't even one of our old, wise squirrels.
It was one or more of a new crop that is just approaching adulthood. They recently discovered our bird feeder, and every time we went outside, we would see a squirrel in the feeder and two or three of his compatriots on the ground below eating what he threw out.
The feeder was on the pole in the center of the picture. (Apologies of the quality - I still haven't learned how to take a good picture with my cell phone.) The pole is 3/4 inch pipe, and squirrels run up and down it with no trouble at all.
Last night, I swapped the bird feeder and the hummingbird feeder that had been on the shepherd's crook in the left of the picture. I'm not claiming that the little tree rats can't climb that 3/8 inch metal rod, but so far they haven't.
This morning, I watched one squirrel sit at the bottom of the crook for several minutes, then hop away. Another ran up the pipe, and stopped when he saw the hummingbird feeder. He chattered something that was undoubtedly profane, jumped down and ran away.
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