Squirrel revenge

This summer after getting tired of chasing squirrels off my bird feeders several times a day, I got smart and switched my birdseed. I stopped using sunflower seeds and changed to safflower seed which is supposed to be unpalatable to both squirrels and grackles -- the two champs of feeder emptiers in my yard.

Well, at least one squirrel had the last laugh -- or at least a really good meal or two.

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You see, it discovered that I had a sunflower feeder of sorts in another part of the yard.

Not only did it devour all of the seeds it could find...

...but it also ate (or just chewed) much of the heads themselves!

Even took a few of the smaller heads with it when it left:

The secondary blooms are starting to come in, so these plants are not ready to be pulled out yet though:

So safflower seed one point for me, but squirrel gets two points for finding and fully utilizing its favorite snack!


Note: I did see one squirrel eating safflower seeds one day, but that was it. No grackles either. Unfortunately chipmunks like these seeds, as do deer -- I caught one eating right out of the feeder yesterday afternoon!

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