Hawks

[foursquirrels]

Hi all and best regards to everyone. Mister SOB, Sister and Her olderst son, Junior are all well, at least so far. I think Sister has more kids, just not sure the way Mr SOB likes to run everything off. He has at least grudgingly accepted Junior as they all started to crash together for the Winter.

Mr SOB had a tough go of it at first. New wounds, gouges, ripped off nose, many broken toes, seemed like something new everyday. He came home once with a hole in his ear big enough to slip a dime through but that bad nose was the toughest thing to heal. He was difficult to medicate so I crushed walnuts through a garlic press and mixed that with amoxicillin. 4 doses healed him amazingly fast although he's still missing a lot of nose tissue.

Anyway I don't mean to bore you with this stuff. I feed a lot of squirrels now so the big problem is HAWKS and of course to some extant, cats.

I know Hawks are a very sticky issue and as much as I respect their right to live let's just say, my babies take priority. Cats, meh, usually easy to deal with.

Any suggestions?

Thanks!!

[CritterMom]

Some people hang reflective things from the treed - like CDs - but I don't know how effective that is. Best bet is to try to site their feeding spot in a place with cover - I constructed a feeding site (The Squirrel Cafe) that is raised up off the ground (foxes) in my back porch, which is covered by a roof. The hawks will not fly under the eves, even though it appears to me that they very easily could. I have aerial walkways that are about 7' in the air that lead to the Cafe, and the squirrels will pancake on them and ignore a hawk that the ones in the yard are all shrieking about - they apparently know they are safe there. So try covering your feeding spot and providing them a protected way in and out to it.

[foursquirrels]

That makes good sense and I will implement improved feeding stations. But what protection do squirrels have when moving about from station to station, not to mention, foraging, frolicking or mating which seems like the time they would be most vulnerable?

And, no offense meant but I've used actual mirrors, big ones, to scare various creaures, to no avail.

[Spanky]

I have good luck attracting crows with dry dog food. I vary the time of day, number of times each day, even skip days, and the crows come around constantly checking for the goodies. They will mob any hawks and if nothing else raise the alarm that the squirrels recognize as an alarm.

We also have eagles, though they are much more focused on the fish (we are on a lake) versus the squirrels (though I doubt they'd pass up a unwary squirrel) but the other day I had a bald eagle perched in a tree investigating what the crows were eating on the beach. The crows are much more leery of the eagles, not so bold as they are with RTH. And the did not mob the eagle like they would a hawk when I chased it off.

[Rocky1]

-squirrel boxes with suitable guards that prevent hawks from reaching in (see boxes on this thread, http://thesquirrelboard.com/forums/showthread.php?33602-Backyard-Buddies/page139&highlight=squirrel+box )
-a roof or net over or around feeding area with big enough holes for the squirrels but designed to block out fast flyers
-stuff designed to reflect light into hawk eyes, but NOT into squirrel eyes... thinking something high up shining upward with side guards to block light to the sides