fatty the squirrel

here is a picture of my backyard moocher, whom i affectionately refer to as 'fatty'. our birdfeeder is one of those that, if the weight of the creature is too big, the opening won't work so intruders can't get to the birdfeed...well, fatty here has mastered the art of eating what doesn't belong to him. he positions himself perfectly (and i happened to catch him with this very creative stance) so he can eat all the birds' food. he drives me crazy. i'll walk by the window and see him on there and bang on the window to scare him off. i have to be careful, though, because as the story goes, my mother-in-law used to do a very similar thing years ago until her hand crashed through the window! yikes! my favorite episode with fatty the squirrel was the other week when i saw him, grabbed a piece of wood that secures our back door and ran out the house yelling, "get away from here, fatty!". i know if anyone saw me, this pregnant woman yelling at, seemingly noone named 'fatty', they would definitely think i was crazy!

any ideas for keeping squirrels away from birdseed that doesn't belong to them???