We Beat the Squirrels
Dear Bay Weekly:
As an avid fan of Bill Burton’s columns, we truly enjoy two subjects he frequently addresses:
1. The governor’s continued meddling with the Department of Natural Resources and related agencies and the disarray that results.
2. Your continuing accounts of how squirrels are able to defeat any and all attempts to keep them out of bird feeders.
We too have been put in our place by the “thieves of the night,” but four years ago, we achieved success in defeating them.
Enclosed is a photograph of our successful feeder. It stands approximately 12 feet high, and at about the five-foot mark there is a dome, now quite scarred, that prevents the pesky critters from crawling up. Please note that we erected two hoists akin to flag pole hoists that are tied off above the dome, thus preventing the squirrels a purchase to clamber up. The pole is positioned between two large trees. When the squirrels crawl out onto the nearest limb, their weight causes the limb to sag down and prevents them from successfully leaping upon the feeders.
After many years of unsuccessfully dealings with the squirrels, this pole, and the success we have enjoyed with it, provides us with great pleasure. It’s amazing how successfully defeating a rodent with an almost negative IQ can provide so much joy.
— John and Jill Caposella, Sherwood Forest
Hunters Smoked Out
Dear Bay Weekly:
Recently a legally placed duckblind on the jetty in Deale was suddenly found burning.
Under the cover of darkness, this legal structure has been repeatedly vandalized and dismantled. In one incident, blaze-orange paint was used to inscribe anti-duck hunting sentiments upon the duck blind. The hunters themselves have endured disruptions involving nuisance complaints.
I don’t believe a sometimes salt-spray soaked hut with no electricity suddenly conflagrates. All evidence points to a strong possibility of crime. A hate crime against hunters? Maybe.
Like the brownshirts and their odious cousins, the nightriders, the ecoterrorists or greenshirts operate under cover of darkness.
The torching of books, places of worship and religious icons is a far greater crime than smoking some guy’s duck blind, but the intention in both cases is the same. And that is to intimidate, to instill fear and to deny people their rights.
I don’t understand why the greenshirts resort to this type of terrorism in light of the fact that hunting is slowly being legislated out of existence anyway.
I hope these hunters rebuild this 40-plus-year-old duck blind. In doing so, they will be standing up to the tyrannical greenshirts for all hunters and standing up for the freedom of all Americans.
—Jim Anderson, Churchton
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