Last week we relayed a story about very clever squirrels we'd come across in the book Squirrel Wars. And we promised to mail the book to anyone who could top the story.  I think Kirsten Begg has done it.  Here is her story:

"We thought we had finally thwarted our squirrels (and amused our cats at the same time) by installing a window-mounted bird feeder to a bay window.  It was 6-7 ft off the ground, the seed was covered by a plastic "roof", and there did not appear to be a squirrel in sight, just birds.

Then about 2 wks in, we hear a loud thud.  A squirrel had dropped off a second-story roof onto the bay window roof and had then dropped off (not always succesfully) onto the small roof on the bird feeder, an area maybe 3" x 10", which was only attached to the window with rubber suckers.

At which point, although nose-to-nose with my cats through the glass, the chubby squirrel would sit in the feeder undeterred by bangs on glass or any kind of attempt to scare it away.  He would chomp away until either the seed ran out or the feeder fell off the window, at which point he would be joined by all his squirrel friends.

It turned out to be easier to raid the window feeder than it was to attempt the 8 foot leap from atop a nearby tree to the top of our baffle-protected, pole-mounted bird feeder.

Incidentally,  they mastered that, too, landing on a tiny bar of wrought iron, not always successfully but successfully enough that it was attempted regularly."

Kirsten sent photos to prove her tale.  Squirrel Wars is headed her way.