My bird feeder is gone

[johnd393]

Found the bird feeder It was about 20 feet away from the pole and 15 ft into the brush.

[LIcenter]

Originally Posted by johnd393

Found the bird feeder It was about 20 feet away from the pole and 15 ft into the brush.

Anything to suggest the critter was bigger than a raccoon, like a large matted down area?

[fisheye]

Originally Posted by johnd393

Found the bird feeder It was about 20 feet away from the pole and 15 ft into the brush.

At least it wasn't a human! If it was you would not have found your feeder or they would have destroyed it!

Take a good look at the feeder. Does it have claw marks or teeth marks? How high was the Sheppard's hook that was bent? My feeling was that raccoons would have had a hard time trying to climb just the metal of the taller Sheppard hooks. But you did say that you wired it fast to a wooden stake in the ground; that could have made the difference?

You could try moving away from black oily sunflower seeds as feed in the feeder. Everybody loves the black oily sunflower seeds. In the following link (http://www.humanesociety.org/animals/resources/tips/squirrel_proof_feeder.html) you will see that they recommend the following to help keep out squirrels: "safflower seed (which attracts species such as cardinals, chickadees, and titmice), nyjer thistle (which nourishes goldfinches and others of their kind), or a birdseed mixture that includes a large amount of white proso millet seed (which satisfies the hunger of mourning doves and house finches)." What helps keep squirrels away will also help keep larger animals away. Of course nothing is fool proof.

[johnd393]

There's really nothing much bigger than a raccoon here. A family of 16 turkeys has been walking through the yard. If a large turkey tried to perch on the hook, it might bend down. There are some big hawks that could have landed on it, probably not as heavy as the turkeys. I've seen raccoons on our other feeder that is solidly mounted on a post. We've seen a fox a few times this year. There are ground hogs, rabbits, coyotes (hear them but never see them). It's not reasonable to believe the bear sited 40 miles from here did it. We put whatever bird seed is on sale in the feeder. The feeder is plastic with a strong braided steel hanger wire attached. It was just hanging on the hook. Nothing is broken bit the fill cap is gone. My biggest concern is vandalism. I put a netcam in the window to capture a picture of anything that walks by there. Still working on configuring the camera.

[fisheye]

You will probably catch Big Foot doing summersaults off your hook! Happy hunting!

[LoriNJ]

It very well could have been a raccoon. For a while, I kept finding my thick iron double shepherd's hook bent in half. And my peanut feeders were broken and laying on the ground. I figured it was a raccoon, but couldn't catch it. Late one night, I was sitting in my kitchen and I heard a "thump" on the ground in the backyard. I quickly turned on my back light, and sure enough, there was a raccoon, with the shepherd's hook bent again, with a (broken) peanut feeder in his paws. I have been able to get around this problem by putting the peanut feeder in a closed container in the garage in the evening and then putting it back up in the morning. For some reason, the raccoon is not interested in my platform feeders, which have regular bird seed, not peanuts, in them.

[Rowan123]

It absolutely could have been a raccoon. I've had raccoons literally bend a metal suet feeder to get the suet out. I live in the residential area of a big city so that's the only thing it could have been. I'm virtually certain no one broke into my back yard just to steal suet and damage the feeder. I also talked to a licensed wildlife rehabilitator and her thought was raccoons.

[Foodmuse]

I had 2 stolen by bear last winter.

[Mathguy]

I'd google pictures of damage caused by raccoons and that might give you a frame of reference as to what they are capable of.