Did I screw up? (1 Viewer)

I have been feeding cardinals, jays, finch and wren for several years. This year, the doves overwhelmed me, cleaning out each feeder within minutes. I spent many hundreds of dollars buying a variety of feeders to deter them, but they managed to either grasp, break or breakthrough all of the barriers. Someone at a local Audubon meeting suggested that I stop feeding everyone for a couple of weeks, the doves would go elsewhere, and then I could start over. That was the first of August. I put out a feeder a week starting late August, have tried a variety (suet, nijer, flat bowl of black oil sunflower {my preferred seed}, peanut/corn) and have had nothing, not even grackles or doves. Will anyone come back?

Hi Lauri,

A warm welcome to BirdForum from all the Moderators and Admin. Glad to have you on board :t:

I know what you mean about the doves. The Collared Doves here clean out my feeders if I'm not careful.

It may take quite a while for the birds to come back - be patient

Hi Lauri and a warm welcome from me too.

It is quite likely that the birds have plenty of natural food at the moment; I'm sure they'll be back when that becomes harder to find.

And that is why I've gone over to all "squirrel buster" feeders in my yard. 6 of them. They are so slim that the doves in their bulk cannot fit on the perch and even if they could, their weight would close down the feeder ports.

Hi Lauri and a warm welcome to you from Myrtle Beach :t: