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Old July 24th, 2011, 09:53 PM
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hazelrunpack hazelrunpack is offline
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They're mainly nocturnal, GF, so you'd need night-vision goggles to see them at their most entertaining!

DOG, they use the shepherd hook. They either drop down from the tree, or climb up from the ground, get themselves situated, then either step onto a feeder (a dangerous strategy since sometimes the bottoms fall out of the big ones, spilling the critters into the lilies and dousing them with nectar ) or just pull the feeder over and suck out the nectar. Because of the angle, to be successful at the latter strategy, they need to position their heads under the far ports because when the feeder swings, those ports end up lower than the ones closest to the raccoon. And that means that there is at least one, maybe two additional ports dripping nectar adjacent to the port being used to drink from. Hence all the wet sticky raccoons wandering around!

But I think we've solved the problem--we added hooks under the raised deck just a few feet away from the hummingbird garden. We've been hanging some nectar feeders there at night so they're available for early morning hummingbirds. Since the hooks are on the underside of the decking and far enough away from the edge to prevent a raccoon from reaching the hook, any feeders hanging there are safe. Well...safe until the raccoons start carrying ladders or wearing those Mission Impossible hang-from-the-ceiling harnesses, anyway. They're smart little buggers!
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