Jumpy The Squirrel

No one told me that once we got a bird feeder that we would instantly be caretakers of 20 new pets. Besides the birds that now need their feeder cleaned and taken care of, there's now a squirrel that we're battling so that these new pets get fed. The kids affectionately call him, Jumpy the Squirrel. On numerous occasions, I have run out on the deck screaming and waving my arms to get this dag-um squirrel to stop eating all the birdseed. First we had the feeder too close to the deck ledge, so he would stand on his tippy toes and reeeaaach out to get the seed out of the feeder. It was funny to watch, but we were going through a bunch of feed because of it. The kids love my antic for scaring the squirrel away, and there has already been talk of us being red necks after discussing shooting him with a nerf gun to scare him off. :)
Kevin came to save the day and moved the feeder further out from the railing, so Jumpy couldn't get to it. It took a week, but we saw Jumpy starting to jump and hit the feeder so the seeds would fall on the deck, and he would eat it from there. Then the kids started rambling about something, and I wasn't really listening. I'm sorry...I was busy. They came running to me the next morning saying, "Mommy! Mommy! Come quick! Jumpy's doing it again!" I ho-hummed to the window and ran to grab my camera. Why? Because I'm always thinking about you guys and reporting how sad my life is that these little things are big excitement around here. Check out Jumpy's latest tactic for his meals.

Say it with me, "What the?" This frappin' squirrel is hanging on by his tail and dangling over the edge and eating. Where is he jumping from? How does he get into position without the top of this feeder falling off? He's really starting to make me mad!

Since this picture was taken, Kevin has moved the feeder higher up and further away from deck rails, chairs, and trash cans. We'll see what Jumpy does next. Kevin's expecting a Mission Impossible move of crawling down the line from the tree trunk. Maybe that's what he's doing now to get into this position? Any advice for annoying squirrels?