Snobelen: Big bucks not for bird brains

There is a gang our political leaders seem unwilling to confront.

I am, of course, referring to the Sciuridae. You know them better as squirrels.

Specifically the diabolical squirrels that are known to attack urban and rural properties, knocking over, mangling and destroying bird feeders of every design. Their malicious behavior forces good men and women from the comfort of their homes in the dead of winter to try to resurrect the %&*# feeder.

Otherwise solid relationships have been ruined as spouses are ordered out into the cold to deal with squirrel carnage.

I can report from four decades of personal experience that the offending rodents sit in trees and laugh almost audibly while the feeders are resurrected.

I don’t begrudge the politicians for avoiding the whole squirrel issue. After all, there isn’t any solution. Or at least there wasn’t until now.

A 13-year-old student from Alberta, Ty Godfrey, has invented the planet’s first (as far as I know) squirrel-proof bird feeder. He will, I assume, soon be receiving the Order of Canada from a grateful nation.

I might have missed Ty’s remarkable invention if his father hadn’t casually mentioned they were visiting Toronto this weekend.

Attending a ball game I asked? Nope, attending the Canada Wide Science Fair (CWSF), he replied.

Ty is one of 500 young people who won the right to represent their region in the CWSF finals held this week in Toronto. This is the 50th anniversary of the CWSF and the competition is intense. But then it should be; there is almost a million dollars in prizes and scholarships to be won.

The young scientists who have earned the right to compete in the CWSF come from every corner of Canada. Their projects span the range of scientific inquiry from insects to quarks. The only common elements in the projects and papers are rigorous study and inquisitive minds. That, it seems, is a powerful combination.

Young Ty is a case in point. The invention of the squirrel-proof feeder, an ingenious combination of a two-litre pop bottle and a plastic tie, was a byproduct of research into the effect of colour on the feeding habits of birds.