The squirrel must die

I have two 1000fps pellet guns. I pay 5 bucks a squirrel to my 10 grandkids. Sadly my nesting owls have not taken in a single squirrel. But they have taken in over a dozen rabbits. I use to trap and release squirrels and I know for a fact they will travel up to 10 miles to get back home. I had proof by spray painting them before releasing them. I used four different colors. I kid you not, I had multi colored squirrels in my yard. This is a true story, I took a squirrel and released it 11 miles away by a lake by my mom's house. As I was releasing it a man walking his dog came by and asked what I was doing. I said I was releasing a squirrel. And when I opened the cage the squirrel went straight north into the lake. The guy with the dog said he had never seen a squirrel swim. I said that is north and I live north of here. This story doesn't stop there. So I quit being nice and my husband started drowning them in our garden pond and I'd dump them on the trail going to the creek. They were disappearing really fast. So after about 15 drownings my husband starting having nightmares so he quit. I didn't have the heart so no more squirrels died. The next weekend our 6 year old grandson was visiting and I was fixing him breakfast and he said, look at that big cat in the window. A huge bobcat was peaking through the window. We had been feeding this bobcat! I waited a month before purchasing the two 1000fps pellet guns with scopes. We quit counting kills after 250. But hear is the bad thing about this whole story. All the dumbass squirrels have been killed off and we have created mega squirrels! Only the smartest squirrels that were left started breeding and it has become really hard to kill them now. It has gone from one shot, one hit to 10 shots to one hit. And I have recalibrated the scopes. So be careful what you wish for and don't just go for the easy shots or you will end up like me in Oklahoma with smartass squirrels.
And I must share my nesting great horned owls. The owlets are starting to branch out and will be gone any day now. Here's a video from last night. It was too painful for me to watch. I am so afraid my owlets will fall :(
enjoy! Stay safe. Terri (okiebirdnerd)
 
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Terri Underhill said:
I have two 1000fps pellet guns. I pay 5 bucks a squirrel to my 10 grandkids. Sadly my nesting owls have not taken in a single squirrel. But they have taken in over a dozen rabbits. I use to trap and release squirrels and I know for a fact they will travel up to 10 miles to get back home. I had proof by spray painting them before releasing them. I used four different colors. I kid you not, I had multi colored squirrels in my yard. This is a true story, I took a squirrel and released it 11 miles away by a lake by my mom's house. As I was releasing it a man walking his dog came by and asked what I was doing. I said I was releasing a squirrel. And when I opened the cage the squirrel went straight north into the lake. The guy with the dog said he had never seen a squirrel swim. I said that is north and I live north of here. This story doesn't stop there. So I quit being nice and my husband started drowning them in our garden pond and I'd dump them on the trail going to the creek. They were disappearing really fast. So after about 15 drownings my husband starting having nightmares so he quit. I didn't have the heart so no more squirrels died. The next weekend our 6 year old grandson was visiting and I was fixing him breakfast and he said, look at that big cat in the window. A huge bobcat was peaking through the window. We had been feeding this bobcat! I waited a month before purchasing the two 1000fps pellet guns with scopes. We quit counting kills after 250. But hear is the bad thing about this whole story. All the dumbass squirrels have been killed off and we have created mega squirrels! Only the smartest squirrels that were left started breeding and it has become really hard to kill them now. It has gone from one shot, one hit to 10 shots to one hit. And I have recalibrated the scopes. So be careful what you wish for and don't just go for the easy shots or you will end up like me in Oklahoma with smartass squirrels.
And I must share my nesting great horned owls. The owlets are starting to branch out and will be gone any day now. Here's a video from last night. It was too painful for me to watch. I am so afraid my owlets will fall :(
enjoy! Stay safe. Terri (okiebirdnerd)
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So that's where all of my big squirrels came from! :lol::facepalm:
We have had 2 big squirrel years and about 5 big rabbit years. They drive my German shedder dog crazy chasing them. We have to put chicken wire on the garden to keep them out. they eat the stems as soon as they come up so the plants don't get big enough to produce. I need a night scope to catch them eating. Hay, that's a good idea, see if I can get that past the purse strings.
Don (OkieNerd)
 
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Old Timer said:
So that's where all of my big squirrels came from! :lol::facepalm:
We have had 2 big squirrel years and about 5 big rabbit years. They drive my German shedder dog crazy chasing them. We have to put chicken wire on the garden to keep them out. they eat the stems as soon as they come up so the plants don't get big enough to produce. I need a night scope to catch them eating. Hay, that's a good idea, see if I can get that past the purse strings.
Don (OkieNerd)
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Invest in a barrel for the owls to nest in and you will never have a rabbit problem again :) But you might not have any chickens to worry about either ;) You might be able to cure the rabbit problem with a outdoor cat. I just wish squirrels were nocturnal so the owls would catch them as well. I might put our trail cam on the dead squirrel outside and see what will carry it off. I figure a opossum or raccoon. I have even seen skunks carry off squirrels. And great horned owls are the only thing that love to eat skunks. Many have been blinded when skunks spray. Makes me sad...for the owl of course :) OOps, I see you don't have chickens, you use chicken wire to keep the rabbits out of your garden. Galvanized hardware cloth works better than chicken wire.
 
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Terri Underhill said:
Invest in a barrel for the owls to nest in and you will never have a rabbit problem again :) But you might not have any chickens to worry about either ;) You might be able to cure the rabbit problem with a outdoor cat. I just wish squirrels were nocturnal so the owls would catch them as well. I might put our trail cam on the dead squirrel outside and see what will carry it off. I figure a opossum or raccoon. I have even seen skunks carry off squirrels. And great horned owls are the only thing that love to eat skunks. Many have been blinded when skunks spray. Makes me sad...for the owl of course :) OOps, I see you don't have chickens, you use chicken wire to keep the rabbits out of your garden. Galvanized hardware cloth works better than chicken wire.
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We have some cats around here, but the neighbors feed them so much they are round, not interested in anything but a toy, and let them go.
We have chickens, and have had all sorts of problems with coons and opossums. Opossums eat from the bottom up, and seldom go farther then the eggs.
I might as well stick a basket up just in case, I have all sorts of other nests up.
 
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wtimothyholman said:
It's worth it. For my part I bought my wife a UTG 4-16X44 30mm scope to mount onto her pellet rifle. She was grouping her shots into an area about the diameter of a half dollar before the cold weather hit. Now the squirrels are coming out again, but she's still recovering from rotator cuff surgery and can't hold the weapon properly. Hopefully in another month she'll be sending more of them off to squirrel Valhalla.
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I would have a blast taking the pellet rifle to them! However, the old guy behind me has a squirrel feeder so he would not be appreciative of me killing his friends.
 
Terri Underhill said:
I have two 1000fps pellet guns. I pay 5 bucks a squirrel to my 10 grandkids. Sadly my nesting owls have not taken in a single squirrel. But they have taken in over a dozen rabbits. I use to trap and release squirrels and I know for a fact they will travel up to 10 miles to get back home. I had proof by spray painting them before releasing them. I used four different colors. I kid you not, I had multi colored squirrels in my yard. This is a true story, I took a squirrel and released it 11 miles away by a lake by my mom's house. As I was releasing it a man walking his dog came by and asked what I was doing. I said I was releasing a squirrel. And when I opened the cage the squirrel went straight north into the lake. The guy with the dog said he had never seen a squirrel swim. I said that is north and I live north of here. This story doesn't stop there. So I quit being nice and my husband started drowning them in our garden pond and I'd dump them on the trail going to the creek. They were disappearing really fast. So after about 15 drownings my husband starting having nightmares so he quit. I didn't have the heart so no more squirrels died. The next weekend our 6 year old grandson was visiting and I was fixing him breakfast and he said, look at that big cat in the window. A huge bobcat was peaking through the window. We had been feeding this bobcat! I waited a month before purchasing the two 1000fps pellet guns with scopes. We quit counting kills after 250. But hear is the bad thing about this whole story. All the dumbass squirrels have been killed off and we have created mega squirrels! Only the smartest squirrels that were left started breeding and it has become really hard to kill them now. It has gone from one shot, one hit to 10 shots to one hit. And I have recalibrated the scopes. So be careful what you wish for and don't just go for the easy shots or you will end up like me in Oklahoma with smartass squirrels.
And I must share my nesting great horned owls. The owlets are starting to branch out and will be gone any day now. Here's a video from last night. It was too painful for me to watch. I am so afraid my owlets will fall :(
enjoy! Stay safe. Terri (okiebirdnerd)
Click to expand...

Nice hooters!! I'm surprised they are not bothered by the light on them.
 
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th182 said:
Nice hooters!! I'm surprised they are not bothered by the light on them.
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No, it is mostly IR light that they can't see. The led light on my roof is too far away to bother them. They have excellent vision night and day. They don't see color like we do either.
 
Old Timer said:
We have some cats around here, but the neighbors feed them so much they are round, not interested in anything but a toy, and let them go.
We have chickens, and have had all sorts of problems with coons and opossums. Opossums eat from the bottom up, and seldom go farther then the eggs.
I might as well stick a basket up just in case, I have all sorts of other nests up.
Click to expand...
We have a deer feeder that throws corn twice a day. My husband just told me he buys 160 lbs of corn a week. So all corn eating critters in our area are probably fat enough stroke out. I throw cat food out for the raccoons nightly. We have a few gray fox that come in and join the coons occasionally. But I will never like squirrels ever again. They cost us 1000 in a new alarm system. We had to have all the wiring replaced in our attic right after we bought our house in 96. I found where they were getting in and there hasn't been an issue since but it was hard writing that check. Those squirrels chew the heads off of our sprinkler every year. And I have four garden ponds and a 20' stream so they aren't lacking in a water source. They are just destructive. I even quit dodging them when they run out in front of my car any more. They are road kill for the turkey vultures as far as I'm concerned. Squirrels are NOT cute!
 
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wtimothyholman said:
Not permanently blinded, I hope. Regardless, you'd think no owl would try to eat a skunk more than once. They must taste really, really good to an owl. :)
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I THOUGHT I read where skunks could permanently blind a great horned owl but I couldn't find my source where I'd read it. Great horned owls can't smell skunks. There was one great horned owl nest that had 60 skunks in it! I can't imagine. I have seen them bring in a few things that had been completely skinned so I couldn't tell what they were other than being four legged. And amazingly the nest doesn't smell bad. If my owls would take all the rabbits out of the barrel I'd never be able to see the owlets. I've only seen them carry off the head of their kills.
 
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Terri Underhill said:
We have a deer feeder that throws corn twice a day. My husband just told me he buys 160 lbs of corn a week. So all corn eating critters in our area are probably fat enough stroke out. I throw cat food out for the raccoons nightly. We have a few gray fox that come in and join the coons occasionally. But I will never like squirrels ever again. They cost us 1000 in a new alarm system. We had to have all the wiring replaced in our attic right after we bought our house in 96. I found where they were getting in and there hasn't been an issue since but it was hard writing that check. Those squirrels chew the heads off of our sprinkler every year. And I have four garden ponds and a 20' stream so they aren't lacking in a water source. They are just destructive. I even quit dodging them when they run out in front of my car any more. They are road kill for the turkey vultures as far as I'm concerned. Squirrels are NOT cute!
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I get rid of all the opossums I can! They take an average of 2 chickens a month. That gets into the flock really quick. I have tried to plug all the holes they get in, but they continue to find a spot. We had a armadillo a couple years ago (opossum on a half shell), but they only tore up the grass looking for food.
 
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Old Timer said:
I get rid of all the opossums I can! They take an average of 2 chickens a month. That gets into the flock really quick. I have tried to plug all the holes they get in, but they continue to find a spot. We had a armadillo a couple years ago (opossum on a half shell), but they only tore up the grass looking for food.
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you should try the wire cloth. It is very durable and they can't sink their teeth into it to chew. you don't need to go very high with it since you already have chicken wire around it.. You do need good tin snips to cut it with. Where about in OK are you? I am north of OKC in Edmond.
I wish I could have a veggie garden. But it would cause a war with the wildlife. They were here first so I let them have their space , I don't want to wreak havoc with them :)
 
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I think I might have mentioned my son killed a squirrel the other day and I didn't think that owls ate squirrel. Well I told him to put the squirrel where the owls would see it and sure enough I got video of the momma owl bringing it in. I'm going to past the info from youtube about the video. It has the time of when she brings it in... Enjoy, Terri (okiebirdnerd)
Because this video is long ( 16 min ) I tell the story explaining what you hear during the timeline. Please watch full video before showing to children since it does show parents bringing in food. At the beginning you will hear the pond frogs singing. At 5:13:53 you will hear a Downy Woodpecker drumming and a Brown headed Cowbird at 5:14:00 At 5:13:50 the male flies in. ( you can tell the male because he is smaller than the female. ) Also he doesn't nurture like the female. He doesn't clean their face or tear up their food for them like she does. The male has food and just drops it into the barrel without skinning it or feeding it to the owlets. The female never dumps food and leaves. Vesper begs for dad's attention by biting his toes and breast. Dad is distracted and flies off. At 6:23:06 Vesper gets on the edge of barrel. At 6:24 you will hear Carolina wrens and Northern Cardinals singing. At 6:30:20 you hear one of the owls attack something below the barrel. Vesper is watching what is going on below the barrel. You hear the male owl hoot after the attack. His voice is lower than the females. At 6:33:51 the female brings in a squirrel. (Opportunist, we laid a dead squirrel where they would see it. ) Since squirrels aren't nocturnal I haven't seen the owls bring in a squirrel before now. Vesper is on the edge of the barrel when mom brings in the food. She has a hard time getting the food in the barrel without knocking Vesper off the edge. At 6:34:30 you will hear a downy woodpecker drilling. ( Vesper is more tan/ brown in the face than Blessing, and Blessing has an over all darker look. Blessing is blacker, bigger and squawks all the time in this video. Here's my live 24/7 feed if you care to watch. https://okiebirdcam.com/owl-great-CAM
 
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I regret to inform everyone that my wife is hanging up her pellet rifle after several successful kills, at least for the time being. Our neighbor's 6-year-old daughter chided her for shooting the squirrels, and refuses to step foot in our house because a squirrel-killer lives here. The last thing my wife wants is to be thought of as a monster by a little girl. :(

On the plus side, we haven't seen or heard a squirrel run across our roof or across our deck for many weeks, so I think she got her point across. :)
 
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