Michigan Backyard Journal

Observing & Reporting from our backyard

  • Welcome – Discover Topics
  • Barn Hunt
  • Library
  • The Backyard
  • About us
  • All Posts

Squirrel Proofing Platform Feeder Cam

April 24, 2021 Elizabeth

This is Steve’s first attempt at putting a baffle on the TPost where we connected the bird photo booth after his first adjustment. We need to have it close enough to the platform feeder so we can get good close up shots. Yet, we have to make sure that squirrels cannot get up there. We had a dome from a feeder we no longer use and my husband had the idea to make that into baffle. We had a bet. I said that I thought squirrels could get around it, but he was confident they would not be able to breach it.

For almost 48 hours it looked like my husband was winning. I had conceded defeat in fact on Saturday night. However, Sunday morning, the feeder cam captured an unwelcome visitor on the platform feeder!

So, he moved the dome a notch higher on the T-Post in the position you see it in in the photo above. We didn’t actually see how the squirrel got around the baffle.

We were able then to see how they were beating the baffle. They were climbing up the 4×4 post as high as they could and then jumping to the T-Post above the baffle and they were then up on the platform.

Steve decided to move the baffle to the very top of the T-Post, pound it in as far as possible while keeping a good line of site to the platform. He also used an old piece of downspout we had around here to encase the T-Post and prevent squirrel climbing. The crimped the downspout securely on each end to prevent it from becoming a wasp nest zone. He also removed our old platform and the sheet metal flashing we’d installed below it and added a piece of wood to make a larger overall platform. It’s been out 3 days and a number of squirrels have tested it, but so far, none have made it onto the platform! Here’s our final squirrel proof design for a platform feeder cam.

Bonus is that the whole setup looks much neater & cleaner in the yard!

And, what’s a bird watcher post without any bird pics? Here’s some of our photos from the new larger platform. We even got a Mourning Dove to land up here and hang out a while!

  • Male and female Cowbird and Male House Finch
  • Mourning Dove and Female House Finch
  • Male Red Bellied Woodpecker and Male Red Winged Blackbird

Now, that we’ve mastered squirrel proofing the T-Post in this setup, we are going to try to take what we’ve learned and setup a Suet Cam to try to catch some good closeups of Pileated woodpecker in his favorite location. We plan to use a similar setup for our hummingbird feeder and oriole feeder in coming weeks as well. We want to setup a few different locations where we can move the camera on different days. We’ve ordered some more of the trail cam brackets designed for T-Posts and also got quick clip attachments to make moving it a breeze.

Helpful Products for Setting Up Bird Photo Booth

When I purchased the Bird Photo Booth 2.0 in March of 2021, I also purchased the tripod and battery pack from the direct website where the photo booth is sold. It turned out that those were just marked up and shipped directly from Amazon. The tripod listed here is the exact one being sold by Bird Photo Booth. I could not find that exact battery pack any longer on Amazon. I have this Anker one listed and while it is slightly larger, I still fit it into the booth and I can set it up at night and leave it in overnight and throughout the next day without any issues. The Perky Pet Hummer Bar here is the same one as on the bird photo booth site.

You do not have to click these links to purchase, but if you do, please be aware that these are affiliate links and if you make a purchase after clicking through, a small portion of your sale goes to help fund this website. You will be getting a better deal on these accessories than if you buy them at bird photo booth website. The other items are all items we have used in our setup here to attach the camera to our T-Posts protect them from squirrels. You will need a micro SD card to effectively use the Bird Photo Booth.

Share this:

  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window) Facebook
  • Click to share on X (Opens in new window) X

Like this:

Like Loading...

Related

Bird Photo Booth, BirdWatching, Squirrels Bird Feeding, Bird Photo Booth, Bird Photos, dove, Red Winged Blackbird, Woodpecker

Popular Now

In Defense of the Brown Headed Cowbird
Squirrel eating buds from maple tree
Red Winged Blackbird washes a peanut!

Categories

April 2021
M T W T F S S
 1234
567891011
12131415161718
19202122232425
2627282930  
« Mar   May »

Archives

Backyard Wildlife Journal

Subscribe to Blog via Email

Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Join 43 other subscribers

Follow Us on YouTube

  • YouTube

Show me . . .

#polarvortex2014 American Toad Barn Hunt Basset Hound Basset Hounds BHROM Bird Bath Bird Feeders Bird Feeding Bird Photo Booth birdphotobooth Bird Photos BirdWatching Bufo americanus chickadee Chip Coonhound Covid Dogs dove Duke Feature Friday football Hummingbird Insects June Morel Mushroom Nest Cam New Cat Nuthatch Pandemic Peanuts Quarantine Quincy Red Winged Blackbird Rescue Robin Squirrels Team Tilda Tilda titmouse Toads Video Wild Turkey Woodpecker

Join us on INaturalist

iNaturalist
Thumb View hilaritee's observations »

Check this out!

Winter Wonderland

male baltimore oriole eats a green caterpillar

Male Baltimore Oriole Eats Caterpillar or Grub

New Sighting – White Throated Sparrow

Subscribe to Blog via Email

Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Join 43 other subscribers

Featured Category:

Read all about the monarch butterfly population in our backyard

Read all about the monarch butterfly population in our backyard

Check out our monarch caterpillar posts

View Term Archive

Copyright © 2025 · Backyard Wildlife Journal · Privacy Policy

%d