I'll keep this review short and sweet, since the book isn't exactly the utmost in literary achievement ever produced. The book is decent, probably right on the 3 star mark given what it tries to do and what it does. The intention of the book is to, well, outwit squirrels - a silly notion given a day or 2 observing the little...um, natural friends. Wit isn't what makes the squirrel dangerous. It's the endless effort a squirrel will go through to get your food. The overall effort described here should probably be called, "Outenduring Squirrels," since that's what you will need to do.

Overall, the book is hit or miss with the advice it gives. Living in a neighborhood with approximately more squirrels than blades of grass, you tend to either pick up ways to stop them from getting to your feeders, or you stop feeding the birds. Or as some have done, you throw in the towel and get used to having your seed receptacles ravaged by these tree rats. The advice in this book is sometimes right, and sometimes off the mark. That opinion is based on copious amounts of personal experience.

I got this as a gag gift from my father-in-law, since he knows how much I hate these animals. It was entertaining enough, though at times his sense of humor wasn't exactly what I would call top notch. Other times it was downright irritating. So it goes. I don't think squirrel banter is going to be on prime time television any time soon. Until then, you'll have to make do with books like this, which are good enough but hardly knocking on the door of your local bookstore's best seller list.

After the squirrels took over my backyard, car, and washroom, I bought this book to figure out how to take back the mean streets from these evil rodents. Unluckily for me, however, they noticed it when they were reading my mail and now they're after me... I had to move to an unknown Eastern European country just to escape them. Hopefully they won't figure out the combination to my wall safe back home, get enough money to buy plane tickets, and follow me here... that would make them flying squirrels, I suppose. Who would have guessed that squirrels could chew through five metres of lead?

This book is a guide to keeping your bird feeder squirrel-free. Adler had a particularly pestiferous squirrel who found ways around every squirrel-barrier Adler could think of to protect his bird seed. The squirrel's notorious feats put Adler on the war-path. In writing this book, he is not only fighting that one squirrel, but all of squirrel-kind. If readers pull-off a successful squirrel battle because of ideas in this book, then Adler can declare victory.

Bird watchers, (or would-be bird watchers) are the intended audience for this book, so the book begins with some suggestions about how to attract birds, along with a list of suggested foods to offer and descriptive profiles of birds who commonly come to North American feeders. Adler then turns his attentions to squirrels and provides a supposedly thorough description of squirrels, their biology, and behavior. Next, he describes and compares common bird feeders according to how squirrel-proof they are. Following this are a list of anti-squirrel devices that can be added to a feeder, and a list of combative actions a bird-viewer can take to ward off squirrels. Adler concludes with "101 Cunning Stratagems" (an attempt at humor?), ideas for squirrel lovers, ideas for dealing with problem cats at feeders, and a list of resources for bird-watching and squirrel-fighting equipment.

It's hard to tell whether this book was intended to be humorous, or what. Certainly, the comparison of bird feeders is far too serious to be funny. (And unfortunately, the feeders are listed by brand-name, rather than by some grouping according to general type or shape.) Some of the "101 Cunning Stratagems" seem intended to be funny, but fall short of the goal. Overall, the entire book reads as if it could have been a decent magazine article, but Adler had to really work to come up with ideas enough to stretch his material to fill out an entire book. For instance, he fills out his list of 101 stratagems with a number of patent descriptions, which are neither funny nor descriptive enough to give you an idea how the devices being described actually work.

Even though he seemed desperate to add to his work count, Adler still left out some key information. Namely, he provides almost no information about different types of squirrels, and how their approaches to feeders differ. Adler lives in a city, where he apparently only sees gray squirrels, which is probably why he barely mentions any other types of squirrels. In our experience, red squirrels are much more aggressive and agile than the grays-with our large population of red hoodlums, grays wouldn't stand a chance in our neighborhood. We also see flying squirrels at our feeder, but they don't bother us since they only come out at night when the birds aren't in the feeder, and they don't seem to gobble as much seed as the reds. They sure can jump, though. Then there are the black squirrels, which are the big gorillas of the squirrel world. I've seen them in Toronto, and I've also heard they haunt Washington, D.C. after escaping from the National Zoo. Do they also make pests of themselves at feeders? Adler leaves us in the dark about these critters.

Adler interviews world-renowned squirrel expert Vaun Flyger in the chapter on squirrel biology, and Flyger assures him that the best way to outwit a squirrel is to treat them like chicken; i.e., use them in any recipe that calls for chicken. In other words, Flyger advocates the "final solution". Adler doesn't consider this approach seriously in this book (but speaking from experience, it works, and better than any squirrel bafflers. Once neighborhood squirrels get the idea you're out for blood, they quickly learn how not to eat from your feeder).

There are no "squirrel proof" feeders or methods. Most squirrels will figure out ways to get the food from a bird feeder that most humans would never figure out.

In fact, watching humans try all sorts of things they THINK will stop the squirrels, and then seeing the squirrels outsmart them always gets a laugh from me, because humans always think they are so much smarter than the "dumb animals"!

Here is the only thing you need to know, and the BIG SECRET to keep squirrels from breaking your bird feeders.

Put out some food for the squirrels too!

If you leave a pile of food for them, they will have no need to raid the bird feeder!

They like sunflower seeds, so just get a bag of all sunflower seeds, or mixed with corn, and everytime you fill up the bird feeder, put out some food for the squirrels too.

Sure, they like peanuts, but most of the year they are going to just bury those, and they will make a pile of peanuts dissapear faster than the same size pile of sunflower seeds, because they will sit and open each seed, and a pile of those will keep them busy for hours.

In fact, I find it is more of a problem keeping birds out of the squirrel's food, than it is keeping the squirrels out of the bird's food.

The birds prefer the seed on the ground than to having to deal with the feeders too.

The key is to put what each likes the most, in their respective feeders. Thus, when they have a choice, they will rather have what they like better, than to bother with the other stuff.

But if you let their pile of food go empty, then don't get mad when they turn to the bird feeder again.

Just having a regular feeding time everyday is good enough too. My squirrels all know when they are going to get their food, and don't bother anything else. The bird feeders never get busted and the birds get to enjoy thier feeders, while the squirrels enjoy their treats.

Squirrels have "nap time" around noon, so you don't really have to worry about them around that time of day. In case you wonder why you don't see so many squirrels around that time, and earlier and later in the day you see them.

Same thing if you have problems with animals ripping apart your trash. The solution is so simple, even some HUMANS have figured it out! Leave some tasty food scraps for the animals so they don't need to rip apart the trash bags! And don't throw away so much food in your trash, use your garbage disposal unit!

If you have some food you don't want, rather than throw it in the trash, put it outside somewhere for the animals, so they don't have to rip apart the trash bags to get to it. Meanwhile, with no smelly food in your trash bags, no animal will have any WANT to rip apart the bag in the first place!

Believe it or not, just as you can train your dog, all the squirrels in my neighborhood, know what they are allowed to take in my yard, and what they are not allowed.

In fact, one time, I was not able to meet one squirrel for his daily feeding, so I just put the snacks outside earlier so I wouldn't have to go out at that time. Well, when I looked out the window, the squirrel was sitting near the nuts and would not take any of them, she was just sitting there waiting for me. I went outside, and as soon as she saw me, she was happy and started eating. She figured to eat the food without my permission would have been stealing or something, so she waited until she knew it was ok to take the food.

Now every squirrel has a different personality, just like people do, so this doesn't happen with all squirrels, but some have more ethics and morals than others do, just like with people.

On the average, most squirrels are easier to deal with and better to get along with than most humans are on average.

But the more you try to figure ways to OUTSMART these animals, the more you will be defeated as they are a lot smarter than you are. The fact they can get into human designed "squirrel proof" bird feeders should PROVE that fact already.

Instead of having a war with them, why not just make friends and make a deal with them? They can have some treats of their own, so long as they don't bother the snacks for the birds.

Has been working fine without any problems for me for years.

I have several broken, chewed through and vandelized metal "squirrel proof" bird feeders in the garage that I keep to show to "newbies" from the days before I became more educated about wildlife and animals.

With bird feeders, your worst enemies are the sparrows! They just throw all the seed out of the feeders, emptying an entire feeder in only an hour or two, because they throw to the side all the seed they don't like, and most of it ends up on the ground. They don't just eat a bit, and then fly away like all the other birds do, they will stay at the feeder until it is completely empty, and will not let any of the nicer, more colorful birds NEAR the feeder.

Other birds will all get along with each other and eat together and share, but the sparrows are the worst of their race. They scare all the other birds away from the feeders, and empty them dry.

With most birds, you can have a feeder up for many days or weeks, but as soon as the gang of sparrows find them, they are empty every day.

Interesting no one ever tries to market a "sparrow proof" feeder or write any books on how to discourage THEM.

Unlike with squirrels, where you can give them their own feeders and food piles, the sparrows won't just take one. If they are eating at one feeder and other birds go to another feeder, the sparrow will go to that feeder and scare those birds away and eat from it.

Sparrows remind me a lot of humans sometimes.

I really enjoyed this extremely humorous book. After reading it, any failure on any birder's part to get rid of his sleek, well-fed squirrels is understandable. They're great athletes, motivated and social to boot.

It is great stocking stuffer for your squirrel-obsessed birder spouse or friends!