I had bird feeders of the deck at our house in Great Falls, it was the first year filled my bird watching book in no time. The one day all the birds disappeared, later that week I found a large hawk sitting on the railing of the deck .... if a hawk could smile I am sure he was! After that the squirrels became regular marauders of the bird feeders. For awhile I was keeping the "Wild Bird" shop well into the red. I was about to rig up one the squirrels favorite feeders with electricity so I could shock the little dears. The so called "hot pepper" treated seed didn't phase the squirrels; they seemed to develop a taste for Cayenne pepper.
As time went by I noticed that the main feeder was being monopolized by a very large, fat squirrel whom we dubbed "Mondo." The other squirrels did need to climbed onto the stair landing where the feeder was located because "Mondo" would just empty the feeder in minute as his gluttony took over. Then one day my German Shepherd, who hated the deck went out there and was standing under the feeder when "Mondo" fell off and landed right in her mouth. The Shepherd was so shocked by this happening that she flung super sized squirrel off the deck ..... and he was never seen again!
Seeing as we had tall trees with limbs stretch very near the deck on the house here in Midlothian I didn't even bother setting up feeders, knowing that I would the battle once again.