Bird Feeders Anyone?

[Stephanie]

Who here has bird feeders hanging in their yards and what kind of birds do you get?

I have 4 - one hanging and 3 cattail like vertical feeders.

Year round I get blue jays, mourning doves, chickadees, tufted titmouse, white breasted nuthatches, cardinals, starlings and grackles. We also have red bellied woodpeckers, downy and hairy woodpeckers, and an occasional northern flicker. Dark eyed juncos are here from about November through March. I've seen hummingbirds during the summer and the American goldfinch as well.

[breeze]

I love to watch the birds, too - I've got two platform feeders and two hopper feeders. They are
visited by Northern Cardinals, titmice, blue jays, juncos, mourning doves, white-breasted nuthatches,
various finches, and eastern towhees (they scratch under the feeders like chickens!).
I have two suet feeders that are visited by woodpeckers and carolina wrens. Then, there is
the occasional starlings who try to wrestle a bite from the suet, and fight with the squirrels over
the cracked corn I put out when the temps really drop!

I'll put out three hummer feeders in April, and they will stay busy until early October.

[Stephanie]

I've had a carolina wren as well. Can't confuse them with sparrows with that short stubby tail.

I've also had white throat sparrows, white crown sparrows and song sparrows.

Yeah, the squirrels make themselves at home on our hanging feeder, dumping a lot of seed on the ground. However, I do know that many of the birds will feed from the ground so I don't worry about it too much. We also throw out unsalted peanuts to the squirrels. The bluejays dive in for some of those as well.

[breeze]

The wren is my favorite bird - they're so very busy! I left a pair of old sneakers on a windowsill
by the back door ( my "gardening" sneakers), and I sometimes see the sneaker moving, and the
wren's head pops up - or I see it's tail bobbing around - guess it's looking for a bug snack in
there, or maybe a warm spot for a rest...? And, such a lovely and very loud song for such a
small bird!

The sparrows were taking over here, so last fall, I put out safflower seed only, and they left!

[Stephanie]

The wren could've been looking for nesting material too. How cute!

They do have a beautiful song.

[arkess7]

I am a avid bird watcher too!!! We just moved here and I brought my bird bath (which was heavier than sh@t!) And today the birds were swarming the bird bath drinkin' it up and takin baths cause its been warm here the past few days! I was so happy.....weve been here a month and they finally know where the water source is! Im savin money to get a bird feeder my old one bit the dust......but the old bread in the house always goes to the birds!!

Just got to keep my fat kitty from stalking them!!!

[arkess7]

Oh yea I saw alot of oriole's and cardinals...those darn ravens and blue jays that are mean......and some tiny sort of woodpecker.....and of course florida's bird the mockingbird...

[Stephanie]

arkess - have you ever looked into ebird.com? You can count the different birds you see right in your own backyard and submit your observations. I've been doing it for a couple of years now and it's so interesting to see the trends during the seasons. There's also the Great Backyard Bird Count every President's Day weekend held by the Audubon Society. That's how I started with ebird.com. Check it out!

It is fun to watch them at the bird bath - I love how some of them just sit and soak, kind of like when we're relaxing in a bath tub. LOL! I have an old cement birdbath that my mother got for me. It has cracks in the basin and I used a concrete resurfacing kit to resurface it. Well, that came off of the surface after one winter (even with paint on it), but it seems to have plugged up the cracks well enough.

[arkess7]

Thanks Steph! Im gona go check out that site now!!

[arkess7]

Yea that is a very informative site!!! thanks!!

[Stephanie]

Great!