Now that we're deep into fall, it's the time for an annual battle to begin again. For those of us in cold climates the yearly ritual of feeding the wintering birds is underway. And with that tradition comes yet another annual event - the war against the squirrels.

Why it matters so much to nature lovers that they feed only the feathered and never the furred creatures is somewhat of a mystery. But there have been thousands of dollars spent in the name of squirrel defense over the years. Anyone living in a rural, wooded area can testify to the plenitude of both fur-bearing and feathered free-loaders queuing up to the trough.

From personal experience I suspect that the squirrel wars may camouflage the ugly truth that what we are actually trying not to feed is the squirrel's universally hate…