Larry Lade
Moderator
That is a great list of feeder birds you have in your yard, Sk8Fan!
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Today at the feeder (1 Viewer)
- Thread starter dianeh
- Start date
Larry Lade
Moderator
The males of the yellow-shafted Northern Flicker have a black marking on the side of their faces. The females do not have this mark.
(In the western race of the Northern Flicker, that is, the red-shafted race, this black marking is red in the male, missing in the female.)
(In the western race of the Northern Flicker, that is, the red-shafted race, this black marking is red in the male, missing in the female.)
Larry Lade
Moderator
During the birdwatch 4 Greenfinches were enjoying my new peanut feeder
Busy in Texas
We've been having a coldish damp spell and it has certainly brought the birds to the feeders. Yesterday we had:
House Sparrows
House Finches
Chipping Sparrows (about 20American Goldfinch (about 50)
White-winged Doves (about 25)
Red-winged Blackbirds
Carolina Chickadees
Tufted Titmice
Blue Jays
Northern Mockingbird
Carolina Wren
Pine Warbler
Orange-crowned Warbler
Ruby-crowned Kinglet
Red-breasted Nuthatch
Red-bellied Woodpeckers
Yellow-bellied Sapsucker
Downy Woodpecker
Northern Cardinal.
We were particularly pleased to see the Titmice, as they used to visit daily but stopped in October 2006.
Jeff
We've been having a coldish damp spell and it has certainly brought the birds to the feeders. Yesterday we had:
House Sparrows
House Finches
Chipping Sparrows (about 20American Goldfinch (about 50)
White-winged Doves (about 25)
Red-winged Blackbirds
Carolina Chickadees
Tufted Titmice
Blue Jays
Northern Mockingbird
Carolina Wren
Pine Warbler
Orange-crowned Warbler
Ruby-crowned Kinglet
Red-breasted Nuthatch
Red-bellied Woodpeckers
Yellow-bellied Sapsucker
Downy Woodpecker
Northern Cardinal.
We were particularly pleased to see the Titmice, as they used to visit daily but stopped in October 2006.
Jeff
1 big brown rat underneath sunflower (hearts) feeder! Any suggestions on how to stop it returning? I don't want to stop feeding the birds.
Cburrier1...welcome to forum.....you should introduce yourself in the "say hello" section.
I see you've got white-crowned sparrows at your feeder. Did you notice that one or two have come on vacation over here...
Liz
Cburrier1...welcome to forum.....you should introduce yourself in the "say hello" section.
I see you've got white-crowned sparrows at your feeder. Did you notice that one or two have come on vacation over here...
Liz
DragonHeart
Member
Today all I saw was our cute pair of downy woodpeckers on the suet and a couple of american crows poking around for scattered seed below the feeders.
Honestly I'm a bit baffled, as the feeder has remained close to full for most of the winter. I cleaned it out just a few days ago, wondering if the seed somehow went bad, but still very little activity. I'd hoped a few more birds would venture over today with our unseasonably warm 43F temperature, but not even a chickadee.
Tomorrow's supposed to be warm too, so maybe...
~DragonHeart~
Honestly I'm a bit baffled, as the feeder has remained close to full for most of the winter. I cleaned it out just a few days ago, wondering if the seed somehow went bad, but still very little activity. I'd hoped a few more birds would venture over today with our unseasonably warm 43F temperature, but not even a chickadee.
Tomorrow's supposed to be warm too, so maybe...
~DragonHeart~
StrikingSlug
As in "Speed of a Striking Slug"
Liz,
Unfortunately, now that the rat knows where the food is, the only way ahead is poison or a trap. I have had to follow this route after watching a rat jump from a stone wall about 2 feet onto the tray underneath my feeder. One I thought I could deal with by moving the feeder, but when the second one appeared....:gn:
Good luck!
Richard
snowyowl
Well-known member
That's tough. Why don't you tell us a bit about what youa re feeding and how your feeders are located. We might have some suggests that might help.
snowyowl
Well-known member
I imagine that most of us get the occasional rat. I seem to see about one per year. If I can I shoot them but when that hasn't been possible they seem to disappear on their own anyway (or at least I stop seeing them).
DragonHeart
Member
As far as food, I'm currently providing suet with seed and nuts, as it seems to be the woodpecker favorite at the moment. There's a pair of downys and a pair of hairys who visit almost daily. For seed I'm using a store-bought mix, but I added extra hulled sunflower and some nijer, as the goldfinches really liked that particular feeder and high winds kept knocking down the "finch sock" we had hanging off the side of the shed.
I only have one seed feeder out at the moment; the other one is not snow-proof, unfortunately, so I took it down until spring.
As far as feeder location, it is somewhat in the open out of necessity. I had a huge problem with squirrels getting into, emptying, and even destroying the feeders, so I had to squirrel-proof them. So far not a single one has managed to get past the current defenses.
Part of that means it's a minimum of eight feet away from anything a squirrel could jump onto it from. However, I also made sure that the wind is at least partially blocked - the feeder is between the shed and the house (there's less than thirty feet of open space between them). The very tall pine trees surrounding both ours and most neighbor's yards are fairly dense, so they help with that.
As far as cover, there's not much I can do about that right now. Our property is small and the feeder is almost on the border between us and the next yard. There is one very happy but young holly at the corner of the shed. This is only my second year trying my hand at bird gardening, but that holly is the first thing I placed for exactly that reason. There is also one large pine behind the shed, and half of one next to it.
Part of the problem I'm having is simply because it's not my house (I live with my mom and her fiance), so I'm playing by their rules. My mom's always been supportive and very in-favor of bird gardening, but her fiance hasn't yet been converted, though he does humor us most of the time. It wasn't until the squirrels completely destroyed one feeder and pulled down the other two that he agreed to put the feeder out in the yard.
If I put the feeders back on the shed, which would block most of the wind, it would take less than a day for the squirrels to get into them. I thought about moving the entire feeder setup to the side yard, but with the ground frozen and covered in snow, that's a definite no-go.
I do find it strange that the downy woodpeckers, which aren't much larger (or in a few cases smaller) than the average bird I observed during the summer, will come to the suet almost daily with no problems, but the other birds will not come to the feeder at all.
I have seen a few smaller birds on the far side of the neighbor's yard, up in the top of one particular tall pine, but they never come any closer than that. I can't identify them at that range even with binoculars, but based on their flight patterns I'm fairly sure it's the goldfinch flock we had all summer.
Editing to Add:
Today at the feeder:
The pair of downy woodpeckers - they're spending lots of time in the general area lately. I might look for a nestbox for them on the weekend. I didn't see many woodpeckers when I was younger, so it's a real treat to have such a cute pair spending their time on our feeder.
Hairy woodpecker - The female again. I see her more often than the male.
Crows - Just hanging out in the trees, not actually feeding.
Black-capped chickadee - Finally, something besides the woodpeckers! Alas, it wasn't in our yard though. It was flitting about in someone else's trees. Mostly chance that I even saw it, since it happened to catch my eye while I was watching the downys. Just one, which I thought was a bit odd. With any luck it'll get bolder with the (slowly) warming temperatures and start visiting again.
~DragonHeart~
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cavan wood
Well-known member
Hi Dragonheart.
A feeder in the open, safe from the squirrels is fine. If you have just the one seed feeder then by far the best food to put in it is black oil sunflower seeds (or I suppose sunflower hearts would be even better, but pricey). Mixed seed tends to have a lot of corn and millet which favours crows, jays, sparrows. The black oil suflower will attract a wider range of chickadees, finches, cardinals, jays, doves, woodpeckers, and nuthatches to name a few.
Just my two cents worth.
Scott
A feeder in the open, safe from the squirrels is fine. If you have just the one seed feeder then by far the best food to put in it is black oil sunflower seeds (or I suppose sunflower hearts would be even better, but pricey). Mixed seed tends to have a lot of corn and millet which favours crows, jays, sparrows. The black oil suflower will attract a wider range of chickadees, finches, cardinals, jays, doves, woodpeckers, and nuthatches to name a few.
Just my two cents worth.
Scott
DragonHeart
Member
Hmm, I suppose I could try that. I just find it odd that the chickadees won't even come to the suet, which I saw them visit in the summer and fall when we first put it out. They seemed quite happy with the mix I used also, as did the other birds.
~DragonHeart~
~DragonHeart~
snowyowl
Well-known member
Cavan's comments are all very true.
I think you are trying too hard. I have no idea what a snow proof feeder is. Snow generally doesn't hurt the seed or or the feeders. I usually have to brush mine off after a storm but that's about it. Wind shouldn't be a problem either. I have 12 feeders up at present, located on all four sides of our house. I place them in a variety of locations from close to large shrubs to right out in the open. If you feed BOS, Niger and suet, you should get a good variety of birds. I go through a 50 lb sack of BOS every three - four weeks, 50 lbs of Niger per winter, about 100 lbs of cracked corn, some peanuts, peanut butter and suet. Commercial seed mixes aren't very good. Try moving the feeder out into a more open area rather than between buildings. Close to cover would be good if you can. What style of feeder are you using? I have a couple of feeders that the birds simply won't use.
I think you are trying too hard. I have no idea what a snow proof feeder is. Snow generally doesn't hurt the seed or or the feeders. I usually have to brush mine off after a storm but that's about it. Wind shouldn't be a problem either. I have 12 feeders up at present, located on all four sides of our house. I place them in a variety of locations from close to large shrubs to right out in the open. If you feed BOS, Niger and suet, you should get a good variety of birds. I go through a 50 lb sack of BOS every three - four weeks, 50 lbs of Niger per winter, about 100 lbs of cracked corn, some peanuts, peanut butter and suet. Commercial seed mixes aren't very good. Try moving the feeder out into a more open area rather than between buildings. Close to cover would be good if you can. What style of feeder are you using? I have a couple of feeders that the birds simply won't use.
Larry Lade
Moderator
We are still getting Red-breasted Nuthatches, Carolina Wrens and Pine Siskins coming to our backyard feeders plus the more usual attendees!
DragonHeart
Member
By snow-proof I mean a feeder that doesn't collect huge amounts of snow. We had a house-style feeder up but the roof didn't cover the seed tray, so the snow would get in and as soon as it started to melt the seed would form one huge clump. I know from experience that the birds I have won't touch it when that happens. That's why I took it down, not because I just didn't want to brush it off.
The feeder we currently have up is a tube-style feeder, thus no snow gets into the seed. Unfortunately, nothing else does either at the moment. I had no problem attracting birds to this feeder during the spring, summer, and fall, so I just don't know why they aren't continuing through winter. It hasn't been moved, and it's been there for 9-10 months now, so it's not new to the environment.
The wind was only a problem for the finch sock at the side of the shed, but that's because of the hook design making it inherently inclined to fall off during the higher winds. The other feeders have never had a problem with wind.
I know the store-bought isn't the best, but I can't always afford the more expensive kinds. That's why I try to mix in something like the hulled sunflower, to try and compensate for the junk that goes in the normal mix.
It's hard to explain, but even though the feeder is between two buildings there is plenty of room. It sits between the corners of the two, so it can be seen both from the back and the front. There's actually a nice little corridor formed with good visibility. They had no trouble finding the feeder when it first went up. There isn't a lot of cover available here other than trees, and I can't put the feeder any closer or all I'll be feeding are squirrels. I'm not talking just one or two, either. More like seven, including at least one red squirrel, and those are the worst when it comes to destroying feeders.
As much as I'd love to put more feeders out, I can't. My mom's fiance isn't yet sold on the whole birding thing, though he humors us most of the time. He doesn't want "things" all over the yard that would make it harder for him to mow, and he doesn't want the seed all over the ground. I'm making do with that I have to work with, but I can't do nearly as much as I'd like.
Anyways, yesterday I only noticed one visitor, the female downy. She perched on the suet for nearly twenty minutes, in the middle of a snow and ice storm no less. I'm sure the male and maybe the hairys came by also, but I wasn't feeling too well yesterday so I spent most of the morning and early afternoon on the couch.
The weather is improving a bit, so that might help.
~DragonHeart~
The feeder we currently have up is a tube-style feeder, thus no snow gets into the seed. Unfortunately, nothing else does either at the moment. I had no problem attracting birds to this feeder during the spring, summer, and fall, so I just don't know why they aren't continuing through winter. It hasn't been moved, and it's been there for 9-10 months now, so it's not new to the environment.
The wind was only a problem for the finch sock at the side of the shed, but that's because of the hook design making it inherently inclined to fall off during the higher winds. The other feeders have never had a problem with wind.
I know the store-bought isn't the best, but I can't always afford the more expensive kinds. That's why I try to mix in something like the hulled sunflower, to try and compensate for the junk that goes in the normal mix.
It's hard to explain, but even though the feeder is between two buildings there is plenty of room. It sits between the corners of the two, so it can be seen both from the back and the front. There's actually a nice little corridor formed with good visibility. They had no trouble finding the feeder when it first went up. There isn't a lot of cover available here other than trees, and I can't put the feeder any closer or all I'll be feeding are squirrels. I'm not talking just one or two, either. More like seven, including at least one red squirrel, and those are the worst when it comes to destroying feeders.
As much as I'd love to put more feeders out, I can't. My mom's fiance isn't yet sold on the whole birding thing, though he humors us most of the time. He doesn't want "things" all over the yard that would make it harder for him to mow, and he doesn't want the seed all over the ground. I'm making do with that I have to work with, but I can't do nearly as much as I'd like.
Anyways, yesterday I only noticed one visitor, the female downy. She perched on the suet for nearly twenty minutes, in the middle of a snow and ice storm no less. I'm sure the male and maybe the hairys came by also, but I wasn't feeling too well yesterday so I spent most of the morning and early afternoon on the couch.
The weather is improving a bit, so that might help.
~DragonHeart~
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