It was a bad week all around

Squirrels, after working on the problem all summer, have finally figured out how to get onto the neighbor’s bird feeder. The secret is climbing 20 or 25 feet straight up a string that, from my kitchen window, looks about as thick as a fishing line. The string’s purpose is to keep the feeder, which hangs from a tree limb on an even longer (and somewhat sturdier) string, from swinging too much in the wind. 

Of course, having a squirrel hanging onto the string might make the system even more stable, so maybe this is a win-win. For everybody but the birds.