Trapped By His Own Greed!

That sounds like the headline of a sensational story in a supermarket tabloid, doesn't it?  Well, this isn't that kind of article but the title is descriptive.  This is yet another account of the extent to which my resident squirrels will go to consume the seed I put out for small birds.  My husband created a cage to enclose our largest feeder years ago when it became apparent that the squirrels were consuming far more of the seed than the birds.  Then he fortified it with metal sides when the squirrels ate through the original wood slats.  More recently, when the squirrel managed to push in through the bottom, my husband reinforced that with more metal.  But, earlier this week, I looked out of my home office window and saw this:

The squirrel was once again sitting inside the cage surrounding the feeder, eating away

When I came outside, he tried his usual freeze posture to avoid detection

When my continued approach made it clear that didn't work, he scrambled to escape - and failed

He tried hiding from me - he's still there on the opposite side of the feeder

You can just see his tail at the top of the feeder and his little face peaking out at me on the left

Now, he's moved to the right to see if I've gone away yet

I went back into the house to see if he could get himself out of the cage without help.  He tried to find a way out but, failing that, settled down and began eating seed again.

After probing the bottom and sides of the cage for an exit strategy, he gave up and resumed his former activity while I watched from the house

I came out again and we went through a second round of hide-and-seek.

Are the paparazzi back again?!

As the bottom of the cage around the seed canister was still secured, I was fairly certain he must have entered by pushing up the plastic dome cover at the top.  I pushed it up on the side farthest away from me several times to give him an escape route but he was too panicked by my presence to take advantage of the exit.  I returned to the house again to see if he'd work it out on his own.  He did try.

You can see him sitting on top of the feeder below the plastic dome of the cage in this photo taken from inside the house

After another 30-40 minutes, I got some heavy gloves, took the hanging cage down, put it on the ground, and lifted the top off.  He was gone in a flash and hasn't been back yet.  Lesson learned?  I doubt it.