I’ve had to post something about this in my blog. It’s just that ridiculous.
I have three backyard feeders, one of which was for niger seed, another for safflower and the largest being for sunflower, peanuts and misc seed.
For some reason this combination never worked.
The niger seed feeder, which is popular at times with the goldfishes, is apparently too close to the wall and squirrels scare them.
The safflower seed feeder was raided by squirrels, who in this area apparently like to eat it – Even though the experts all think they don’t.
And the larger feeder is being constantly raided by grackles, who scare off the smaller birds and blue jays and empty is out just for the sunflower seeds and peanuts I had added to the mix for the blue jays, chickadees, nuthatches and cardinals.
ARGH !
Even the spicy squirrel proof seed I replaced the safflower with was apparently to the squirrels’ liking. Both the gray and black squirrels just thought it was Mexican Fiesta time !
Yes, they ate thought it more slowly but they still managed to empty it out.
DOUBLE ARGH !!
So now I will be using the more expensive safflower and niger seed in my feeders from April to October. There’s no way to avoid it without paying for yet another series of feeders.
Grackle don’t like either so I’ll be using it in the main feeder but I wont make the mistake of putting it in any feeder accessible to squirrels.
The problem though is that without the white millet I wont be attracting as many mourning doves and dark eyed juncos during the season. And I wont be seeing as many nuthatches and blue jays without the peanuts and sunflower seeds during the summer either.
I could buy a squirrel and grackle proof feeder but I don’t underestimate my local squirrels. I don’t think the feeders would stand a chance.
Knowing these squirrels they’d probably try to nibble it open, or hand upside down to get the seeds or try to make it fall and crack open. And at more than $60 per feeder, I don’t think I’d want to risk it. My largest feeder and the feeder’s pole & baffler cost less than $30.
I’m going to keep an eye out for other solutions though cause I already miss my chipmunks from my previous address and I would love to keep as many of the little critters around, including the gray squirrels and grackles.
BTW, here are some of my backyard videos, in case you haven’t seen them already :
There seams to be some confusions in regards to morality in many vegans, anti-hunting and animal rights activists.
Apparently they think that their morals are universal and that they are therefore qualified to determine what and whom is and isn’t moral. And that they are in no way sanctimonious or arrogant because of their ends, which justifies their impatience and ad hominids.
In reality theirs is a belief that is not shared by all cultures so they are trying to add more wight to it by making it appear to be founded in a universal moral.
The majority of people do not want to see animals suffer but not to the extend that it causes them to stop eating meat entirely, regardless of the exaggerations of the activists.
Vegetarian cultures have the luxury of being based in climates that enable this culture. It is not less moral to eat meat where this luxury doesn’t exists or is only seasonal. And it is illogical to impose a morality to the extend that it requires everyone to populate the climates where vegetarianism is fully viable.
Are we not learning from history in regards to the indoctrination and forced relocation of people using morality ?
I’ve just run into a fake DFO account on Youtube on which the “sealer” testimony was posted, in french.
You’ll notice that I used quotes around the word “sealer”. Why ? For one simple reason : These were unlicensed poachers !
That’s right. The testimony taken by the Department of Fisheries and Oceans in June and July 1998 was in reference to illegal activities by unlicensed poachers, from the poachers themselves.
These poachers were hunting hooded seals, without a license, in areas they weren’t legally allowed to hunt hooded seals, with weapons that were not approved by the Department Of Fisheries And Oceans.
These facts are omitted by activists because they want people to assume these were commercial sealers and that these violations happened during the commercial hunt.
Apparently some anti-sealing activists think that anyone that posts the occasional comment against their ramblings are on a “mission”.
I guess they didn’t notice my 50+ videos weren’t about the seal hunt, that I’m subscribed to 140+ people, the vast majority of which don’t discuss the seal hunt and that the vast majority of my friends on Youtube are not even Canadian.
They also didn’t notice that an incredibly tiny amount of my comments on Youtube are about the hunt and that it is only one of my many interests, as made apparent by my profile, videos, subscriptions and favorites.
The purpose of Youtube is to discuss issues but these people immediately dismiss people as trolls, sealers or government paid workers. Why ? Because the activists don’t want to be questioned or want to discuss the issue at all.
They use personal attacks to try to annoy or shame discussions away and that just isn’t what Youtube is for.
Countless seal meat recipes are available online, including the infamous local Newfoundlander delicacy known as “Flipper Pie“, yet these activists keep on insisting that nobody eats seal meat.
So, let’s list the people they’re dismissing as “Nobody” :
The Inuit of Northern Canada, Alaska and Greenland
The Mí’kmaq (and no, they were not wiped out)
The Icelanders
The Newfoundlanders & Cape Bretoners
The residents of the Magdalen Islands
The Swedes, Norwegians and Finns
But of course the anti-sealing and vegans are trying to scare as many people into not eating it with their propaganda films, to keep the shock value of blood and carcasses on the ice.
Let’s face it, these people are practically orgasmic to the fact that the Canadian flag is red and white and they would really hate to have seal meat sell. They’d have nothing to use in their propaganda then.
The fact that they still use whitecoats in their anti-sealing publications is proof that they wont let go of any imagery that they can use on the ignorant and highly impressionable.
In order to make the activists shut up during the upcoming EU election, most of the EU delegates voted for the bill knowing quite well that it would be amended later on to conform to the WTO regulations.
Seriously, how exactly would they justify their claim that the hunt was “inherently inhumane” when the report they commissioned from the EFSA did not in any way claim this ?
“In relation to the killing methods, it was concluded that many seals can be, and are, killed rapidly and effectively without causing avoidable pain, distress, fear and other forms of suffering, using a variety of methods that aim to destroy sensory brain functions.”
So the methods used are fine…
“However, there is strong evidence that, in practice, effective killing does not always occur but the degree to which it does not happen has been difficult to assess, partly because of a lack of objective data and partly because of the genuine differences in interpretation of the available data.”
…the activists didn’t establish their case…
“When seals are hit or shot, but are not dead, they may have to be hit or shot again or may they be moved or skinned whilst conscious, resulting in avoidable pain, distress, fear and other forms
of suffering.”
…the seals don’t suffer for long and the activists complaining about multiple strikes are ignorant…
“As a way to help ensure the humane killing of seals, the ‘three-step’ method of effective hitting/shooting, effective monitoring, and effective bleeding-out, as well as a fourth step of effective implementation should be recommended.”
…and a solution to make the hunt more humane than it is was presented, so they didn’t condemn the hunt in Canada.
Those were all quotes from the summary of the EFSA report. And Dorian Prince, the EU ambassador to Canada, denied that Canada’s was being targeted by the proposal in a July 2008 interview on CTV.
Stravos Dimas had himself stated that he was open to reassessments in the official press releases and videos, so this “inherently inhumane” status isn’t written in stone.
In the end all this will not stop the culls and killing of “nuisance seals” by the nations surrounding the North Atlantic. This ban will likely just result in more complaints about seals being “left to rot on the ice”.
Posted by canucktunes 
Posted by canucktunes 
Posted by canucktunes 