Comments on: The grey squirrel from a birder’s point of view https://gregladen.com/blog/2008/01/02/the-grey-squirrel-from-a-birde/ Tue, 14 Feb 2012 21:34:59 +0000 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.4.6 By: Calli Arcale https://gregladen.com/blog/2008/01/02/the-grey-squirrel-from-a-birde/#comment-550651 Tue, 14 Feb 2012 21:34:59 +0000 http://scienceblogs.com/gregladen/2008/01/02/the-grey-squirrel-from-a-birde/#comment-550651 Texas Reader:

Birds don’t have a sense of taste so they don’t mind but I haven’t seen a squirrel on it in years.

I believe this is incorrect; birds do have a sense of taste. They’re certainly picky eaters when given the opportunity to choose. However, they lack the receptor that makes capsaicin so uniquely painful for mammals. They can taste it every bit as much as we can, but it doesn’t burn.

]]> By: Don Parnell https://gregladen.com/blog/2008/01/02/the-grey-squirrel-from-a-birde/#comment-550650 Tue, 14 Feb 2012 20:29:29 +0000 http://scienceblogs.com/gregladen/2008/01/02/the-grey-squirrel-from-a-birde/#comment-550650 Also, if your post was satire, I tend to lose my sense of humor when cruelty to animals is involved. I consider blinding grey squirrels and then joking about how they are now easy pickings for predators cruelty.

]]> By: Don Parnell https://gregladen.com/blog/2008/01/02/the-grey-squirrel-from-a-birde/#comment-550649 Tue, 14 Feb 2012 20:27:41 +0000 http://scienceblogs.com/gregladen/2008/01/02/the-grey-squirrel-from-a-birde/#comment-550649 You are now stating that your post was satirical?

My dogs are Maremmas.

]]> By: Greg Laden https://gregladen.com/blog/2008/01/02/the-grey-squirrel-from-a-birde/#comment-550648 Tue, 14 Feb 2012 05:21:34 +0000 http://scienceblogs.com/gregladen/2008/01/02/the-grey-squirrel-from-a-birde/#comment-550648 No squirrels were harmed during the writing of this blog post.

More of a satire than a parody.

]]> By: Charles https://gregladen.com/blog/2008/01/02/the-grey-squirrel-from-a-birde/#comment-550647 Tue, 14 Feb 2012 05:12:44 +0000 http://scienceblogs.com/gregladen/2008/01/02/the-grey-squirrel-from-a-birde/#comment-550647 Greg, I am not sure that Don gets that this is a parody.

It is a parody, right?

]]> By: Greg Laden https://gregladen.com/blog/2008/01/02/the-grey-squirrel-from-a-birde/#comment-550646 Tue, 14 Feb 2012 05:03:35 +0000 http://scienceblogs.com/gregladen/2008/01/02/the-grey-squirrel-from-a-birde/#comment-550646 What kind of dogs are they?

]]> By: Don Parnell https://gregladen.com/blog/2008/01/02/the-grey-squirrel-from-a-birde/#comment-550645 Tue, 14 Feb 2012 01:05:01 +0000 http://scienceblogs.com/gregladen/2008/01/02/the-grey-squirrel-from-a-birde/#comment-550645 My livestock guardian dogs serve as protection against raptors. I think from now on, I will set snares for raptors and then clip their wings, like you would do for a pet parrot, and then use them as sport for my LGDs. Is that OK with you?

]]> By: Greg Laden https://gregladen.com/blog/2008/01/02/the-grey-squirrel-from-a-birde/#comment-550644 Tue, 14 Feb 2012 00:13:47 +0000 http://scienceblogs.com/gregladen/2008/01/02/the-grey-squirrel-from-a-birde/#comment-550644 Don, better to cripple a moose, wolves prefer them.

]]> By: Don Parnell https://gregladen.com/blog/2008/01/02/the-grey-squirrel-from-a-birde/#comment-550643 Mon, 13 Feb 2012 20:44:05 +0000 http://scienceblogs.com/gregladen/2008/01/02/the-grey-squirrel-from-a-birde/#comment-550643 I do have to say, if your hypothesis is true, it is despicable. Crippling an animal to make it an easier target for predators? You are one of the last people I ever thought I would see writing something as repugnant as this.

I am off now to go hamstring some deer to make them easier targets for wolves.

]]> By: Texas Reader https://gregladen.com/blog/2008/01/02/the-grey-squirrel-from-a-birde/#comment-2470 Mon, 07 Jan 2008 20:24:23 +0000 http://scienceblogs.com/gregladen/2008/01/02/the-grey-squirrel-from-a-birde/#comment-2470 My understanding is that squirrels observe each others’ behavior. Therefore, if one squirrel chooses not to eat from the feeder because of the taste of the pepper or for some other reason, other squirrels will avoid this. This is supported by my personal experience. I have a suet feeder on one of my trees and I use pepper suet in it. Birds don’t have a sense of taste so they don’t mind but I haven’t seen a squirrel on it in years.If you hang your feeders from one pole with various arms and hooks you can put a squirrel baffle on the pole below the feeders to stop them from climbing up it to get to the feeders. However, it also must be at least 5 feet from anything from which the squirrels can jump.My pole currently has a thistle feeder feeder for the goldfinches that should be arriving here in north Texas soon, a peanut feeder for blue jays and other species, a safflower feeder for the cardinals and chickadees (white wing and mourning doves eat the spillage from it off the ground) and a small dome feeder with a mix of seeds for the smaller birds such as house wrens and chickadees. The big ones can’t get in it so the small ones can eat in peace.

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