Bird feeders - I have a row of them outside my window,

[hedgehog]

hung on an old swing set frame. I have this


this


this



and this



but the absolute favorite for all the birds, big birds



little birds



and furry birds



is this

[In_The_Wind]

1. Ok. Time for me to download this weeks photography. Be back in a few.

Love your feeders! Cute photos.

[hedgehog]

2. I should specify - I just grabbed photos of similar style feeders!

I just got a tray feeder Friday - I'm amazed at how many birds just love it! Although - right now a tiny chipping sparrow is sitting in the first one, nicely sheltered from the chilly wind!

[In_The_Wind]

11. These are my newest moochers.

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Two feeders plus my birdbath ...it's heated in the winter months.
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A few little guys.
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This bird feeder is filled with squirrel food

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Last year. I expect the new ones next month.

[csziggy]

3. Put a woodpecker blend in that tray and you'll get nuthatches and woodpeckers!

We get white breasted nuthatches coming to our tray feeder for the fruits and nuts in the woodpecker blend. My husband was cleaning all the other feeders and I was sitting under the tray. All the other birds were too shy to come land but the nuthatches and chickadees didn't care. Almost had a chickadee land on me, I was sitting still and it was headed for the planter next to me!

We mostly have tube feeders and hummer feeders.

How do you like that big mesh feeder? I've looked at those, but they look complicated to fill since they collapse when you set them down. Our current hanging places are too high for me to reach without having handles on the tops of the feeders that stand up - like our old Droll Yankee feeder. http://store.drollyankees.com/p/b-7f-classic-sunflower-mixed-seed-feeder?pp=12

[hunter]

4. We have birdfeeders.

I love to have birds around, they are fun to watch and natural insect control for our organic gardens.

We have hawks too. I'm not sure how I feel about them. They see our bird feeders as fast food places. Sometimes a hawk will stand on top of a bird feeder, which keeps all the birds away, but rodents are not as careful.

The larger hawks seem to prefer the non-native ring-neck doves, the smaller hawks prefer non-native sparrows and small rodents, so this predation is probably a circle-of-life positive thing.

I usually put out food in the morning. If I sleep late I swear I feel all these eyes watching me from the trees outside my bedroom window. For unknown reasons that's more disturbing to me than one of our dogs who has a very cat-like way of jumping up on the bed, holding its nose against mine and sniffing.

[csziggy]

5. I bring in the feeders at night. In the morning the birds carry on outside

To wake me up and bring the feeders back out. They get really loud. What is creepy is how the volume ramps up while I am carrying the feeders out. Sometimes, they land on the feeder I just put out while I am hanging the next one!

If I leave the feeders out at night, the deer and raccoons empty them and the gray foxes and opossums clean up what they drop. Since I've been bringing the feeders in, I only have to fill them up once a week instead of every single day. I'm saving a fortune on bird seed by only feeding the birds and the squirrels.

[hedgehog]

6. Could be worse....

[csziggy]

7. Wow! That is an atheletic bear!

Yeah, even though there is supposed to be a black bear in the neighborhood, he doesn't come up to the top of our ridge. He mostly lives in our bottom 30 acres, the lowland 50 acres of our neighbor and along the conservation easement that protects the creek that runs out of that swamp. There is probably too much open pasture between that wooded swamp and our house for him to be comfortable.

[hunter]

8. I put just enough food in the feeders that they are empy in the late afternoon.

Later arriving birds clean up what is spilled on the ground.

Our problem animal is rats.

[csziggy]

9. Refilling the feeders is less hard on my back than bringing them in

I need a better container to store the seed in, but what I have will have to do for now. The last several feeders we got are small Droll Yankee tube feeders. I'm going to have to get something different - larger birds, such as cardinals, can't sit on the perches and turn their heads enough to get to the seed! They are impossible for the squirrels to get into - the squirrels sort of slide off.

[marzipanni]

10. I grew sunflowers a couple of years

One evening I went out in the twilight and heard rustling in one of the dried sunflowers and found a little roof rat having a feast.
Due to English walnut, black walnut, and fig trees, and grapes in our and our neighbors' yards, the roof rats have had many sources of food.

I've also seen one in the male (non-fruiting) mulberry tree eating catkins in the early spring.

Thanks to one neighbor getting a new feisty young cat last year, now the rat population currently seems almost non-existent. I hope she continues to hunt for a long while!