5 replies to this topic

[momof4]

The last couple of mornings I have come out to find my oriole and hummingbird feeders empty. They are full when I go to bed. Is there some critter that is known for doing this? They've been up for a couple weeks without any incident until this week. I can't afford to be making a new batch everyday. Maybe I should just bring them in at night and take them back out in the morning....but what if they come and the feeders are not there, will the birds leave?

[jsa47]

I've had raccoons eating my hummingbird feeder, so I put it on the side of the house about 20 feet up. It's closer to my window now and no raccoons yet.

[dklucius]

raccoons will empty both seed feeders and necter feeders. the only cures i have found is to baffle the pole or the tree trunk. and the other is to trap them and relocate them elsewhere. i watched one hanging from a limb turning a necter feeder sideways and drinking the sugar water

[dklucius]

after i replied last week i had the same thing happen two nights in a row. all the necter and jelly feeders were empty and several laying on the ground. i hung a sensor motion light on the back porch and when it came on that night i saw the half grown raccoon still in the tree, the easy thiing for me to do was i stretched a wire from the tree over to a hookeye on the back porch eave. and have the feeders hanging from the wire.
I still have the motion light up so should know soon it it worked ok.having the feeders about 9 foot high between the tree and the porch. I have a aluminum step ladder that i can stand on and fill the feeders.

[zoutedrop]

one vote for the raccoons, excellent

[JimBob]

Agree with coons. They really don't stop for me unless I shoot them. MDC (Missouri Dapartment of Conservation) told me to kill them, don't relocate them. It's actually illeagal now in MO. (it is illeagal to realese coons somewhere else)