Squirrel ups the Ante

The squirrel that I have been doing battle with over the last couple of months has upped the ante.

Like most people who have bird feeders, mine has become a squirrel feeder. Squirrels are cute, but they aren't birds, and their use of the feeder is unauthorized. I want to feed the chickadees and gold finches. I tell the squirrels this, yell, chase them away, shake my fist like an old geezer (I have a lot of time on my hands right now). Nothing works.

Until recently, there was apparently only one squirrel feeding from my feeder, but yesterday the unexpected happened. When I opened the front door to chase him (or her) off, two squirrels jumped down. Worse yet, squirrel #2 was obviously a juvenile.

This is a cunning ploy by the squirrel. As much as I realize that the baby squirrel will grow up to be a full-grown nuisance, I still feel guilty in depriving a baby squirrel of its food. Imagine, a squirrel playing head games with me.

That worked for about a day. Today I yelled at the baby (who is already feeding there on his own), chased him, and shook my fist. When I looked a moment ago, he was back . . .