Brittly27
Member
I’m having some serious issues with common grackles! I am in Southeast Missouri, USA (southern Midwest). I started out a few weeks ago with about 2 grackles hanging around some days. This never bothered me annd I know we can’t be too selective ..but things are getting out of control now!
Over the past week or so now every morning there are about 20-30 all over the neighborhood! As soon as one of them sees me in the morning, a few minutes later I have at least 10 in my yard/trees. I have switched to only safflower in all feeders and my peanut feeder, which they cannot access. There is nothing on the ground other than safflower. (They were eating everything in my feeders in a day and would constantly bully/get aggressive with the smaller birds so I had to switch!)I really want to keep feeding my Blue Jays, but I have to only throw a few in shell peanuts out when I hear them close by.
These grackles always have at least 1-2 “scouts” in my trees at all times and they start in with their noises and bring others in whenever they see me doing anything outside. They are extremely loud, leave very bad “messes” everywhere, scare off/fight with my other birds and pull up my plants in my garden! My neighbors have nesting blue birds and I’m very scared they will attack them and the young!
Like I said, I’ve changed the way I feed, and have tried Mylar/shiny items, noise deterrent, scaring them away myself constantly..I live in a suburb so I’m limited in what all I can do..does anyone have any suggestions? I don’t want to harm any birds, but would really like the majority of them to move elsewhere! I understand they should be forming a flock and (hopefully) moving out towards the fields around harvest time, but I still have a few months to go.. IF they leave and don’t decide to set up shop here 😖
Over the past week or so now every morning there are about 20-30 all over the neighborhood! As soon as one of them sees me in the morning, a few minutes later I have at least 10 in my yard/trees. I have switched to only safflower in all feeders and my peanut feeder, which they cannot access. There is nothing on the ground other than safflower. (They were eating everything in my feeders in a day and would constantly bully/get aggressive with the smaller birds so I had to switch!)I really want to keep feeding my Blue Jays, but I have to only throw a few in shell peanuts out when I hear them close by.
These grackles always have at least 1-2 “scouts” in my trees at all times and they start in with their noises and bring others in whenever they see me doing anything outside. They are extremely loud, leave very bad “messes” everywhere, scare off/fight with my other birds and pull up my plants in my garden! My neighbors have nesting blue birds and I’m very scared they will attack them and the young!
Like I said, I’ve changed the way I feed, and have tried Mylar/shiny items, noise deterrent, scaring them away myself constantly..I live in a suburb so I’m limited in what all I can do..does anyone have any suggestions? I don’t want to harm any birds, but would really like the majority of them to move elsewhere! I understand they should be forming a flock and (hopefully) moving out towards the fields around harvest time, but I still have a few months to go.. IF they leave and don’t decide to set up shop here 😖
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