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["Alan Haigh" <alandhaigh@gmail.com>]

There are no acorns or hickory nuts, these species have become biennial around my place since a very hard late freeze we had several years ago that wiped out the apple crop in the Hudson valley for the first time in half a century.  We had no acorns that year either, of course.  It took only 3 years for me to get the apples back to normal annual production but it seems the mast crop hasn't steadied yet.

 

This has meant that the squirrel population has had a kind of biennial pattern as well with populations peaking just as food disappears.  This is just anecdotal observation but at any rate we have all these crazy grey squirrels with no nuts to squirrel away and they are frantic.

 

I have kept them from most of my fruit crop with a combination of shot gun shells and alternative food sources.  First it was the blueberries and mulberries then autumn olives and dogwood berries.  Now they have removed most of the chestnuts well before being ripe.  I may have killed the last one actively foraging so there could still be enough for Thanksgiving stuffing which is all I really need.  Meanwhile I still have my late apples on the trees.

 

The problem is they keep coming from further back in the woods as they search far and wide for anything to eat.  At least I can draw two positives from the situation.  Every kill is merciful because it's quicker than the starvation the animals will otherwise experience this winter and even better- most of the ones I don't kill will starve before next spring.

 

Still fighting nature for my crop in southeastern NY