On occasion it becomes necessary to deter, with extreme prejudice, a squirrel from eating all the bird food we put out. We like the birds because they look nice, sound pretty good and eat lots of bugs*. But when a squirrel (aka tree rat) performs their acrobatics to get to the feeder I turn to my trusty pellet rifle. At first I scare them by shooting the feeder itself, which of course causes a fairly loud "pang"! The feeder is about 15' off the ground, which I thought might have been a deterrent. But squirrels jump right off and land, no problem. If the squirrel returns more than 2 or 3 times on a given day, and I'm there to see it, well, its time comes to an end. This time I was the unwitting accomplice to another's hunting mission. I shot said squirrel, it jumped to the ground and then, no more than two seconds later, a red-tailed hawk flew in front of me across the yard. Swooping and returning he then landed atop the injured squirrel and held it tight to the gr...