I have two squirrels that play in my sycamore tree and in the garden. They often climb up onto the bird table and eat their fill or take the blackbirds apples off the ground. They are always well fed.
We have lots of Horse Chestnut trees in Temple Newsam Park where every year we go to get the conkers. As conkers seem to be banned at schools etc not everyone plays with them now so I decided to bring some home for my squirrels as we don't have any of these trees nearby. I brought them last year as well so expected them to take the conkers immediately as last autumn.
In the beginning I just put a few on the grass, but after a week or so they were still there. I decided that I would put quite a lot ( as we picked well over a hundred) in a pile on the patio at the bottom of the garden. Maybe they wanted dry ones as the grass has been so wet lately. They stayed for two days so I thought "well they obviously don't want them" but the following day they had all disappeared in one go.
This week I put them in the same place and they all disappeared immediately so I reckon my planters are now filled with conkers for the winter there is no way they have eaten them all.
I still have two good piles left so I think I will leave it a couple of weeks and then put them out. I might even play a great game of conkers.