Hot Dang!!
jlmarta
Posts: 7,881 ✭✭✭✭✭
Heard the first mockingbird of the year this morning. What a happy sound!
You listening, JD? Better days are a-coming..... ??
You listening, JD? Better days are a-coming..... ??
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Just saw a new bird at the feeders....Size of a starling, brilliant black with a red(?) half moon on the wings. Is it a starling?
Sounds like a red-winged blackbird... Usually hangs around marshy areas here in California... Don't know where they hang out back there... ??
No....the ones here have a real half moon shape and a very vibrant black overall. Now a whole posse of half grey and white finches have landed. The starlings have left and the cardinals are back.
Window bird feeders aren't generally a good idea, especially on large windows, because birds do have a tendency to fly into windows because they don't know the glass is there. We don't even have feeders on our LR windows and we get at least a dozen or so collisions every year. Finding dead birds on your patio is not a fun thing. Also, the closer your feeder is to the house, the more likely you are to attract mice and other varmints to the seed that spills. We generally keep ours about 20-30 feet from the side of the house. If you want a closeup view, even a cheap pair of binoculars will do the trick.
Damn good points! lol looks like ill get one to hang in the back corner of our yard then lol
No matter what kind of feeder you get, make sure to get a squirrel baffle of some kind. For hanging feeders, this is kind of a dome-shaped plastic thing with a hook under which you hang your feeder. There's a hook on top of the baffle that you tied to attach to the tree branch. Likewise, if you use a pole-based feeder you can find similar bafflers you attach high on the pole to keep the little tree rats from climbing up. The little mothers can jump more than 10 feet, so you want to make sure they either can't climb down to the feeder or up from the ground.
Yeah ive been looking at those options for guards. Our are area is infested with timber tigers. I love them to death and like seeing them in our trees.... but I don't want them to eat bird food. Ill get squirrel feeders too so they don't feel left out.
LOL, I had to google Timber Tigers. We call 'em chipmunks out here.
Birdseed really depends on what you have out there and what you want to attract. Personally, I prefer using mostly black oil sunflower seeds or hulled sunflower or safflower seeds because I'm most interested in attracting cardinals, which don't like the corn and grain stuff you find in cheaper mixes. Also the cheaper mixes tend to get the birds I'm really not interested in, like sparrows (which basically eat anything), and often birds will just drop the stuff they don't like to the ground, which causes a lot of waste.
If you are trying to attract cardinals or larger birds, a platform feeder is better because the bigger birds don't do well with typical "handing side-feeders." They will eat stuff off the ground, however. If you want to attract finches, Niger (Thistle) seed is best, and you'll need a separate thistle feeder for that. Nice thing about thistle is that most birds and varmints don't like it. I've also started using dried mealworms on my platform feeders; they tend to attract bluejays, grackles and other larger birds.
If you want to attract woodpeckers (especially if you want to keep them from pecking at the side of your house), hang one of those mesh suet holders and fill it with pre-made suet cakes. Once they find it they'll just hang on for minutes at a time. One of the funniest things I saw last summer was a male woodpecker eating suet while two of his brood, both of whom were larger than dad, sat on the feeder pole, waiting for dad to feed them. I never realized that some parent birds continue to feed their young even after they leave the nest.
Also, make sure you get a bird bath, because birds need water to drink and bathe in. You can keep the bird bath near the house. It's comical to see a bunch of birds fighting for space in the water. Some just take a drink, others, like robins and cardinals, will take full-fledged baths.
The seed you provide depends on the kind of bird you want to attract. There are general mixes and specific seeds like black oil sunflower seed, nyjer, etc. Regardless of the type you use, know one thing. Even if you're feeding a specific seed like nyjer for the finches, even the finches won't eat all of it. A good portion of it is gonna end up on the ground below the feeder. First, it accumulates. Next it rots. Then it stinks. The lesson here is that you'll need to clean up the area periodically. And the rotting, stinking seeds also kill off the grass under it.
Back to what type of seed to buy - in my case I encourage finches by feeding nyjer because where finches congregate bluejays tend to go elsewhere. And I detest bluejays. Bluejays are the dog-in-the-manger of the bird world. They're noisy, greedy, and just generally despicable. If they can't or won't eat it, they'll fvck it up so other birds can't get at it. Or they'll just plain run the other birds off.
"If you do not read the newspapers you're uninformed. If you do read the newspapers, you're misinformed." -- Mark Twain
Ah, but doves are really quite tasty - wish I could say the same for the d@mned bluejays. It'd justify my shooting the bastidges... ??
Ive seen pigeons dissected... a few of them (if not most of them) had cigarette butts in their stomachs. Gross.
Hee hee. So, then, how about lobster? Or crab. Do you like ham or bacon? You may already know things that those creatures (among lots of others) will eat. Jus' sayin'..... ??