Wednesday, September 8, 2010

Salad Spinner aka Yankee Squirrel Flipper

In my post yesterday I mentioned the bird feeder we used to have that  we called the "salad spinner."

We used it at our house in Tampa, because we had a small yard and there was no place to put a feeder where the squirrels couldn't jump from either a tree, fence or pool cage to get at it.

This Droll Yankee Squirrel Flipper was the ticket!  It's a little expensive but I'm telling you....it worked!  It has a rechargeable battery.  There is a ring where the smaller birds can perch and eat.  If a squirrel lands on this perch, it spins them right off!  We watched one or two squirrels try it, spin off and give up!  After that, none of them bothered it, although we wanted them to so we could laugh at them. We got it at Wild Birds Unlimited.  They had the cutest video showing a squirrel making numerous unsuccessful attempts at getting into this feeder.  It was hilarious.  I couldn't find the video I had remembered, but here is another one I found, here.  It's not as funny as the original one, but still shows hot the spinner works!

Since we have a much larger yard here in Georgia we can put the feeders far enough away from anything the squirrel can jump from.  Our most successful squirrel proof feeder is this one.



It has a platform type feeder on the top that even ground feeding birds like Dove's can get into.  The baffle makes it impossible for squirrels to climb it.  We tried a pole feeder without the baffle and they climbed right up it without any problem.  We tried greasing the pole, but you had to grease it daily.  It was fun watching the little buggars try to climb the pole and then slide down though!  This feeder works well and is fairly  inexpensive.  You just have to place it at least 8 feet from anywhere a squirrel can jump from.  In some yards that is not possible.  We have two of these feeders and never had any problem!
 

3 comments:

Margie and Roger said... [Reply to comment]

Funny video! Pricey, but looks good.

Thought of you this morning while ready the morning paper. A guy says he has developed a squirrel-proof bird feeder and is test marketing them at the local Ace Hardware with a money-back guarantee - but they can't be within jumping distance of a tree - won't work for us.

Happytrails said... [Reply to comment]

We have loved the products from WBU and have 2 of their pole feeding systems. We saw the squirrel spinner and how it worked. I agree with you, its fun watching them get 'tossed'.
What you have now in your big open space i know leaves your squirrels "baffled' as to how to get the food.
Take care and I enjoyed the post.
Mike & Gerri

Prettypics123 said... [Reply to comment]

I'd love to see those squirrels getting spun off the feeder! I bet that is hilarious! Thanks For coming by A Camp Host Housewife's Meanderings and leaving a comment. I appreciate your support!