bird feeder just.... disappeared!??

When we went to check on the cats this morning, feed them, etc.... I went also to check on the bird feeders I had put up. See thread ...
http://www.thecatsite.com/forums/sho...d.php?t=213757

Well, lo and behold the suet box is GONE! Now, I live in a condo complex and there are rules... so my first thought after looking on the ground was that one of the rules Nazis had taken it. but then, the hook was still in place and the seed bell was still there. too.

My BF and I think a raccoon got it.... climbed the tree and slipped the wire suet box off the hook and made off with the goodies. It is just the only thing that makes sense since they are nocturnal, eat anything and have clever little hands.

Any ideas to raccoon proof the feeders? Or maybe a possum? I think it is took big for a squirrel. Besides, they would just hang upside down on the seed bell and gnaw away, right?

Around here it's Bear season. The warmer weather brings them out of hibernation and they are hungry. Bird feeders are a favorite of hungry bears.

On the news and in the paper they regularly remind people about removing all types of feeders for the next two months at the least. But there are still reports of bears raiding feeders.

This is not good for the bear. I hate seeing them in the news because I know it may end badly for the bear.

That's interesting, but I have NEVER heard of a bear in suburban SE Michigan. Coyotes and foxes, yes. Bears, no.

^That would be pretty rough for a bear. The closest I've seen was maybe a mile out of Cheboygan and just down the road from where I lived in St. Ignace.

It's warming up, though. I don't like to feed the birds in the warm months here. It's all greedy house sparrows and starlings.

According to this site it might be too early for bears in Michigan.

http://www.michigan.gov/dnr/0,1607,7...5034--,00.html

The part about what they eat is right on the mark.


Around here we have had a mild winter and have already had reports of bear sightings in the northern part of the state.

Last year someone had video of a bear raiding a feeder in their yard and the house was less than a mile from where I live.

A few months before I sear I saw a bear standing on a hill next to the road I live on. I was so shocked I nearly drove in the ditch. I went back to look again but it was gone.

At the time nobody believed me. I was happy and sad to see the video. There have been other bears in other towns that were trapped and relocated. I don't like seeing animals up rooted from their homes.

Oh I wouldn't be surprised to have a bear raid a bird feeder and yes.. I also would have driven off the road if i'd seen a bear!!!!

I can't say I've ever seena possum climb up to eat out of my feeders, they usually scavenge the seed on the ground. It could be raccoon as I see alots of dead ones in the past week on the roads while driving to work. The only birds I ever see eating my suet are woodpeckers.

There have been bear sighting in central Wisconsin and of course less than 1 hour north of my location!

As to not feeding in the spring, I mix my own seeds and I eliminate corn this time of year to deter the red-wing blackbirds, starling and grackles. The birds migrating back to the area do need food and water.

Originally Posted by GailC

I can't say I've ever seena possum climb up to eat out of my feeders, they usually scavenge the seed on the ground. It could be raccoon as I see alots of dead ones in the past week on the roads while driving to work. The only birds I ever see eating my suet are woodpeckers.

There have been bear sighting in central Wisconsin and of course less than 1 hour north of my location!

As to not feeding in the spring, I mix my own seeds and I eliminate corn this time of year to deter the red-wing blackbirds, starling and grackles. The birds migrating back to the area do need food and water.

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Yeah I have seen a lot of dead ones, too. They don't hibernate, do they? It must be mating season as I am also seeing and smelling skunk.

The black capped chickadees had been using the suet box. They are tough little birds based on what I have read and I was glad to provide them with some easy pickins.

Now, I live in a condo complex and there are rules

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You may have ruled them out (or think you have), but never underestimate the condo-commandos! They have so little to do, and so many people they want to yell at.

At another apartment I lived at, not my Minneapolis one, there was a condo-commando. She was just awful. Funny story too, she actually used to work for my aunt, but was such a miserable human being that my aunt fired her. So I had to constantly hide that side of my family from her. She was always yelling at people whenever I'd come into the office to do something. She hired people to go up on the roofs of nearby building with binoculars so they could spy on what we all had on our balcony. They had a rule where all furniture kept outdoor must have been designed specifically for outdoors (and say so). They were always out to enforce that one. They also didn't allow bicycles to be stored on the balconies, no grills (I can at least see the sensibility in that one), and a million other rules. To move in, I had to take a class on the rules, and pass a test on the rules.

After 3 years of never causing any trouble, one day she calls me over the most minor stupid thing and is yelling at me on the phone and I just lost it and said, "Enough. My lease is up in 2 months and I'm gone." She later apologized and tried to convince me to stay, but I had no desire. She is crazy!

Sorry to derail your thread. Anyways, as for the bird-feeder, I know mine has fallen off the window a few times, but never gone flat out missing.

Are you on the first floor, or higher up?

We live on a creek and have no shortage of raccoons. They have also taken our bird feeder and I had to go in the gully and get it back!

We have our feeders on a branch of a tree. We had to wrap stove pipe around the trunk of the tree from the ground up about four feet. This way they can't get a grip to climb up.

It is a challenge.

I think a raccoon is probably your best bet, although I've seen a dog manage to steal suet. It wasn't in a metal suet feeder, it was in a plastic "onion-bag" type thingy (sorry, but I don't know what to call it). The dog jumped up, pulled the suet free, and ran.
We've had squirrels raid our suet feeder, too---even after I thought it was varmint-proof. Those little hands of their's can do amazing things.

Originally Posted by LawGuy

You may have ruled them out (or think you have), but never underestimate the condo-commandos! They have so little to do, and so many people they want to yell at.

Anyways, as for the bird-feeder, I know mine has fallen off the window a few times, but never gone flat out missing.

Are you on the first floor, or higher up?

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Hey, LG... I busted out laughing at the highlighted comment above!!

I have a townhouse... and the suet box was hanging in a tree in front of the condo. I am inclined to go with the raccoon theory.

I'm going to say Raccoons. I had raccoons trash my suet feeder when we lived at a townhouse at the edge of the woods. They pulled down 2 of them, and actually tore apart the one that is wooden with suet cages on each side.

A deer tore down a seed feeder we had there too. We caught him/her red hooved. And it was one that advertised holding something like 3-5lbs of seed. The deer actually pulled it down and ate all the seed!

Now that we live further in town, squirrels are my only problem. But not so much lately. I think someone else must be feeding them.