Ms Kennett said the squirrels left the nut feeder alone

Sally Kennett said the animals - a common sight in her Swindon garden - even ignored all the nuts she had left out.

Instead the creatures took scores of her candle-shaped bulbs.

Sales administrator Ms Kennett, said: "I was standing in my conservatory when I first spotted one with something in its mouth.

"I couldn't believe it when I realised it was a little red bulb still in one of the green holders."

Stealing bulbs

The 41-year-old said she and her son Joshua, three, then saw the squirrel take no more than 10 seconds to nibble a bulb from the tree.

Over the next day, the family watched as the squirrel pinched bulbs every time their backs were turned.

They recovered around 14 hidden around the garden and by then only half the lights, on separate circuits, were still working.

But the next day a total of four squirrels had appeared in the garden and had begun stealing the bulbs in earnest.

Ms Kennett's partner Mark Cran, 40, said: "I thought they were intelligent animals but people have told me they must think the bulbs are nuts."