Squirrels – do you love then or hate them?  I love seeing them but they can be quite
annoying when they dig up newly planted bulbs and plants, knock over plant
pots, eat the veg and raspberries and strawberries, and tease the dog.  They used to try the strawberries before they were ripe so I would find them pulled off the plant and just nibbled (but maybe that was the mice).  I do wish they were the red squirrels and not the big grey ones, but then I would have even more problems with them getting into the bird feeders.  I have tried quit a few so called squirrel-proof bird feeders over the years but they don’t stop the baby squirrels getting into them.  The gaps in the cages have to be big enough to let the birds in after all.  I have to site the bird feeders low enough for me to fill them up daily and as I use a wheelchair  that can’t be very high. The patio is the easiest area for me to access to enable me to feed and water them even in the frozen weather so I do have to compromise a bit where I site the feeder and how large a feeder I can use.  The smaller ones come with plastic feeder ports where the birds sit on a small peg and feed
but the young squirrels can easily get into the cage and destroy these.  Metal feeding ports would be much better but are only on the larger feeders.  The squirrels also manage to
get the tops off and get into the bird seed that way.  I even rammed a couple of bits of wood on top  to try and prevent that but as you see below that didn’t quite work. I then tried a wooden bung but that swelled too much when wet that I couldn’t get it out until it dried off again.   They even worked out that if they shoved the whole feeder up and over they could get it right off the hook and it would fall into the flower bed below scattering the seed.  On a small peanut feeder I resorted to hooking a chain from one side right over the top and into the other side to keep the lid on.  I have been told that if you mix chili powder with the bird seed the squirrels will leave it alone and it won’t harm the birds but I haven’t tried that.  The next time I need a new feeder I might try the ones that shut the feeding ports when a heavy bird or squirrel lands on it.  But they are kind of cute to watch.