On my way home from work I stopped in at the store Wild Birds Unlimited and accidentally bought $90.00 worth of stuff to feed the birds in the back yard. That is an exaggeration of course. Included in that $90 were three .25 cent mint honey caramels. I went intending to browse and MAYBE purchase a new feeder since the squirrels took apart the inexpensive one I most recently bought. I found one I liked that was above my spending target but really liked it. It is a metal mesh Finch feeder. It's like the "socks" but made of metal and has an easy cleaning detachable bottom. It also has an antimicrobial coating which I guess is important. And then they were having a special on a starter kit for "hot" seed cylinders. You got a discount on a set of two seed cylinder/bricks and a no-melt suet disc. All three in a hot pepper flavor. And it included, for free, a hanging feeder doohickey. The hot seed cylinders are flavored with hot red pepper that the birds like/don't mind and squirrels hate. I added a refill cylinder because they were on sale as well. They had many other cool things which I managed to resist.
The hot pepper seeds seem to work. A few seeds and nuts fell to the ground while I was unwrapping the various disks. I think a squirrel happened upon one of those because I saw it walking quickly away from that area, stopping occasionally to rub it's muzzle on the ground. I feel a little bad because it won't know why it's mouth is burning. But I hope this will keep them from eating all the bird food.
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