I have been "raking" them to make sure they all get exposed to the air. Maybe I should put less seeds in them. I will check out that thread. Thanks,Critter.
...tuppence a bag
Jill, that is what I thought, red shoulder, they are not rare but uncommon. Ric
Our "platform feeder" is just the area right outside the patio door on the deck. It's easy to toss a handful of seeds out there, and Eliot loves watching the squirrels and the brave birds who come to eat it. When ice/snow keeps me from easily reaching the other feeders, I just toss a lot of seeds out onto the deck, and that works fine (well enough to make me wonder why I have feeders LOL).
Jill--
I have never seen a feeder like that before!!!! NEAT!
Do you know who makes it? How much did it cost? My most determining factor whether I will want to buy it or not!
You can buy platform feeders--I think I saw one at Tractor Supply. A bit $$--as it includes the pole--and than you may need to buy a squirrel baffler to boot. May be easy to make if you are handy.
My neighbor used to have one---the one who went to assisted living and whose daughter threw almost everything away in the trash or the dumpster. Wish i had just gone over and taken it. It too got tossed! Too conscientious about this....feel like i am stealing something--from an empty house yet....
Funny! i have 2 different feeders out and the birds do visit them and chow down--but not as many as before. Might be the VERY cold weather....all are "hibernating"?
I also hung out a suet container with 4 "cakes" in it. Does not seem that anyone has eaten from it...What gives?
My finch feeder is hanging around with finch seed in it--NADA! NOT Niger seeds....The Finch seed mix.
Spending $$$ for nothing!
I know they like everything FRESH--maybe mine has been hanging around too long already???
For regular bird seed in my feeders--I buy a good mix--my fave is the Wagners Eastern Wild Bird Mix. A bit pricey--$15.49 for a 20lb. bag. It is a good mix. No fillers to speak of.
I do not like seed mixes with too much Milo or cracked corn in it to speak of--(it just ads to the wight and birds do not really eat those). Then I buy extra Oilers and Safflower seed and mix all that in.
Haven't seen shelled peanuts anywhere to keep the squirrels happy (all 4 of them...HAA!!!....:o) ). NOWHERE!
I am also happy that only TWICE the Blackbirds converged on my patio feeders. They devour everything in a matter of a couple of hours. I get tired standing there banging on LR window! Then they scatter to the branches of my trees and after a few minutes are back at it. I bang again--they flee--then they come back--I bang--they flee--then come back.....on and on......
SILLY game! Usually they win--as I get tired of banging on my window......might dislodge it! Haaa...Haaaa...
I have not seen any Chipmunks to speak of in the past year either--and NONE this Winter. WHERE did they all go? Not as many squirrels either....Used to have about 6 or 7 roaming about. This Winter I think there may be 3 or 4. Maybe some hawks got them--or maybe they got run over by cars....Who knows?
NOT feeling sorry for any of that!
I think I will go check out the Bird watchers Forum.....a new place ....:o)
Gita
Walmart carries the shelled peanuts. I mix them in with BOS (black oil sunflower) in my hourglass-shaped "No-no" feeder.
Can the birds get at the finch mix? Most finch feeders seem to be made strictly for nyger seed. Yes, fresh can make a difference, especially if the seed sat around in warmer weather.
I paid about $30 for that "No-no" (brand name) finch feeder, but since I've been going through the $10 ones at a rate of 1 per year I figured it was a good investment. Lemme see if I can find you a link: http://www.amazon.com/No-GB5F00340-Green-Black-Feeder/dp/B001BPU2MY/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=home-garden&qid=1264115957&sr=8-2
Jill,
Cute name! "No-No".....Where did that come from?
The finch feeder is a $3.99 cheapie from HD. It had duplicate feeding stations you can install. One set for Finches--and the other, more open and available, for all other birds. Quite a nice little feeder for $4.
I bought an 8lb. bag of Finch food at Wallmart and that is what I have in there. That bag has spent the Summer inside my shed in a closed up bag. Heat? YES! Rain or weather influences--NO!
My Wallmart does not sell shelled peanuts. Been there for 2 years looking for them. Neither does HD or Lowes.
I know that "Meyer Seeds International" does--(15 min. from my house) but their stuff moves so slowly that their bags of bird seed, and many other things, are years and years old.
Once I bought a big bag of their Black Oilers and the moths must have lived and mated and reproduced in that bag for many generations. It was disgussting in there! Same for a bag of Peanuts I once bought there.
You may remember that I took Sally there last Spring--and neither she or I were impressed with anything they had any more. I fear they may soon be a "memory".....
The only thing I go to buy there is all the Espoma products. All the "Tones".....Can't get them anywhere else.
Gita
Boy I like that feeder, too. I had several thistle feeders and wasn't happy with any of them even the $$$ ones. I ended up just using a thistle sock, they are just net bags that you fill and they work really good but aren't the most attractive.
SOOOO?????
What is a "Thistle Sock????? What is a "Net bag"?? Can you use something "every day" as one?
Where does it come from? It can't, really, be a sock!
Does some kind of produce come in it so it can be recycled?
Where do you get one? Please tel me it DOES NOT sell for some stupid price--like $9.99!
AGGGHHH! Gita
Gita you probably have some at HD. It is a nylon net bag, sometimes they sell them already filled with thistle feed, but they are refillable and sometimes you can find replacements that aren't already filled. You can pick them up for a couple of $$ think I paid 4or5$ for my last one. I got my first one when my last thistle feed bit the dust and I liked it. You can see by this pic that I was due for a new one.
Gita, The Thistle Sock can be found at Walmart, it is already filled with seed. I refill mine, I take an empty disposible water bottle cut to bottom off it and strech the sock over the bottle starting at the cap end, poor the seeds in through the bottom of the bottle and pull the Thistle sock of slowly. If the sock gets messy you can always toss it into the wash machine, I do that when I wash my cleaning rags.
I never did this but I was thinking you could make a "roof" over the Thistle sock by making a hole in a plastic dinner or desert plate by melting a hole in the center using a hot nail and slipping the cord of the sock through the hole.
Holly, we crossed posted LOL
Walmart was where I had gotten mine but then I found some at our Agway store they are sold empty and were a little nicer. Lady that sounds like a good way to fill one. I use a canning jar funnel. That works really well for me.
That hawk could also be a Coopers Hawk, maybe it is 1st year.
While driving home tonight around 6:00 p.m. A very large bird flew over the road from a wooded area to an open snow covered field, the wing span was awsome! Couldn't tell what it was. Didn't want to cause an accident, "Officer, I was just doing some bird watching, you should have seen the size of that bird flying over my car."
LOL! Gita, I was in HD the other nite. They had the Thistle socks both empty and also filled. A filled one was about $5. They were selling the empties in a pack, 3 for $5
LOL When I lived in GA I used to say I couldn't drive a car with a sun roof... as it was, I drove off onto the shoulder and nearly into the high marsh pretty regularly when crossing the causeway and bird watching. (no traffic and far visibility, so momentary inattention wasn't really a problem) There was a wood stork rookery right across from the highway patrol station... I used to wonder if somebody would see me driving erratically and pull me over...
I'm not sure, but I think Cooper's is a smaller hawk than that.. whatever his/her ID, that's a stunning bird!
I think the "No-no" feeder is supposed to be anti-squirrel, but my gray squirrel certainly considers the larger one to be more of a "Yes-YES" feeder. However, it does look pretty chew proof, so maybe that was the point. Lady in the bird forum recently posted a photo of a plastic finch feeder that a squirrel had totally destroyed.
I like the open weave of the no no feeder that is what I like about my sock feeder. The other feeders were always getting mouldy feed in them and they were hard to clean and quite often broke. Even the good ones. The sock feeder gets wet but it dries out and I don't have the same problem that I did with the other plastic tube type of feeders. Critter do you have problems with that feeder getting mouldy and is it hard to clean?
Jill, I'll have to check out that squirrel bitten feeder. I had a squirrel that was climbing up the feeder pole, I took a clear plastic juice bottle, cut off the bottom, removed the feeder, attached a hose clamp to the pole and slipped the juice bottle over the pole bottom side down, so the kneck of the bottle was supported by the hose clamp. The squirrel would climb the pole get inside the juice bottle but could not get past the kneck of the bottle, he finally gave up trying.
Looked up the dementions of the 2 hawks, Red Shoulder 17" Long weight 1.4lbs Coopers 16.5 inches long weight 1 lb. Maybe Fox will be lucky enough to get a front view.
HMMMM.....
I have used mesh Onion bags in the past for suet.
Similar bags, with a lot smaller mesh, can also be found holding various produce items. Can't think of any at the moment--but I know they are there.....maybe holding lemons or Avocados?
They would work. No need to pay $5 for one......
G.
You guys have really gotten the dynamics of this bird feeding under control. Ornithologic Caterers!!
Gita, The holes in these are smaller and they are tube shaped.
I'm eating some Kashi Oatmeal Raisin Flax Walnut cookies and it hits me, bird food!!
kneck, LOL at myself. I had a long but good day! I was saying neck but thinking I was spelling knee, must be past my bed time.
LadyG, Ric was thinking maybe the Red Shoulder but it said that they were not common. So he started looking at the Broadwing. Holly
LOL
I'd use a thistle sock made for the purpose... given the $$ of nyger seed, I don't want it spilling out and going to waste.
The new finch feeder does lose seed out its sides, but I think most of it is caught on the lower tray and eaten. I'm going through seed faster, but I think we're also seeing twice as many goldfinches on it. :-)
I'll keep you posted on the new feeder. Haven't had it long enough to know about wet/moldy issues, but I did have that problem with my other finch feeder -- when the birds ignored it for weeks at a time, I knew the seed had gone bad.
LOL Stormy, Your bird food sounds better than rabbit food. A thistle sock for thistle does make sense, but an onion or citrus bag for suet or fruits would be a good reuse. Ric
Will the mystery hawk please identify your self. LOL
(Remember the old "What's my line" TV show)
Def not a Red Shouldered Hawk the coloring is not right. It's either a Cooper's or Sharp Shinned, If the tail is more squared off then it Sharp Shinned and smaller than Cooper's up to 14", Cooper's tail is rounded.
fun conversation!
Gita--I think my new feeder is the same as your 4$ one--plastic tube with the interchangeable red-brown plastic openings. I put the thistle ones in, filled with fresh thistle (nyjer, niger) and added a plastic margarine lid to the bottom for a tray. It seemed to be dropping more than I wanted. ( it is really hard to tell if the dropped stuff is full seeds or empty shells, or I just don't feel like trying to examine it LOL. )The finches are liking it. The thistle socks are a much finer mesh than onion bags, if you try you'll find out the thistle will leak too fast. I gave up on Socks after one got a hole in the bottom and emptied all the seeds at once.
despite the name finch, I did have several housefinches here today that seem to really prefer the safflower to the thistle. I had some big messy forsythia prunings ready for cutting and bundling but have piled them under my two feeder areas to hopefully serve as hawk refuge.
jen you seem to know your hawks. I believe (from my audobon bird call CD) that the redshoulder's cry is two syllabled (Shoulder! Shoulder!) and the red tailed is one long one (Taaaiillllll!)
Sally--
Last fall--I bought a rather big bag of Finch Food (asst. small seeds--NOT Niger)
I filled the dual-purpose el-cheapo feeder with the Finch Seed. It has been outside most of the Season. No one seems to be visiting it....:o( Perhaps i should dump out all the seed in it on my patio floor where other birds will gobble it up and re-fill the feeder with "fresh" seed. I have the rest of the big bag-full in my shed.
Might as well--in another season ALL of it will be stale!
I also put out 4 suet cakes (fresh ones) and it does not seem that anyone has nibbled on it. WHAT GIVES??????
Where are they all?????????? Would love to see a Woodpecker ot a Flicker now and then.....
Seems like i wasted my money on all this......
Sally--are we OK riding down to Frederick together--or is your Hubby coming too?
I would like to bring a friend, Nary, who just joined DG this past Summer with me. She would not have much to trade...but we don't care--do we.
If you do not have room--I can go on my own. I think I have directions......
Let me know---Gita
I'll repost the directions we used last year on the swap thread. I'm pretty sure nobody got lost this time. :-)
Hey all you bird fans, got to share! It was a beautiful sunny day. I went out about 11:30 to sit in the hot tub, and get some vitamin D. While sitting out there I looked up and spotted 2 large birds circling high above to the south. The one bird started circling to the south out of my sight and the other circled to the north that one I watched for a long time I spotted the white head and tail.....An adult Bald Eagle. It kept gliding in a large circle moving to the north till it was out of my line of sight.
What a grand day!
OK ladygardener1 you made my day. I'm glad you had a perfect day, I'm wish'in it was me :)
Awesome!!!
Jen, Jamie and Deb were here the other day they are pretty good at IDing Hawks and agreed Sharp Shinned.
Gita, Come on up and you can sit in the sun at my windows and watch wood peckers of one kind or another come and go all day long. The only ones that haven't been showing themselves are the Pileated.
LadyG, What a wonderful day, how relaxing that must have been. Boy do I miss our hot tub we never did get it up and running last summer. Well they will next spring.
Flicker for Gita.
Since this is loosely the MA birding thread... I thought you all might be interested in this!
As soon as I learned of it, I made my plans... and we are definitely going to be there!
Blackwater NWR, located near Cambridge, MD, hosts an Eagle Festival every year.
This year it is scheduled for Saturday, March 13th, 2010 and is the 10th anniversay of the event.
They have numerous captive birds of prey featured, including eagles and owls.
Copied from the Blackwater NWR website:
"8:00am - 4:00pm. Live eagle, peregrine falcon and other birds of prey programs, kid's programs, kid's bird box construction, puppet show, eagle prowls, bird walk, wildlife exhibits and live bird exhibits, and food all day."
Another link for more info: http://www.tourdorchester.org/attraction.php?attraction=13
Blackwater also just performed their mid-winter eagle count, and they counted 173 eagles during the morning count, including 7 Golden Eagles. They have both eagle cams and osprey cams. The eagle cam is up and running, and as of Jan. 24th, the pair being watched has two eggs!
Here is the link to the eagle cam: http://www.friendsofblackwater.org/camhtm2.html
We are going to drive over to Cambridge on that Friday evening and stay, so we can get an early start Saturday.
You know I'll have my camera! (or two or three....)
Maybe I'll see you there!
:o)
I have no eagle photos (yet!), but this was one of the osprey photos I took at Chincoteague last year.
Wonderful eagle sighting ladyg, from a hot tub yet, wow, what a feast for the winter weary spirit.
Va WR- thats tempting! I've never been to Blackwater.
My sighting pales in comparison, but...I put half a overripe kiwi fruit on the deck railing, and Mockingbird has been seen twice digging in. I thought he would like it. Its nice when the birdies comply and appreciate our efforts.
I've got a soggy kiwi in the fridge... thanks for the tip!
VWR--interesting about the eagle count. I hope you got some pics.
Here's apic of an injured eagle that was on display at Bsuch Gardens. We went there last July. It was awesome, even just sitting on a perch!!
Sallyg--that is squirrel fat. DH took the picture and another one where the food chain connection neets. I didn't want to post that one. The hawk zeroed in so quickly and he ran to get the camera. Stormy--I didn't see the action as I was upstairs getting read for the trip. The hawk carried off the squirrel. Their take-offs are as lightning speed as their dives.
Foxy, even while injured, he has a "don't mess with me or I'll eat you" look about him!
Ric and I went to Austria several years ago and one of the castle tours included birds of prey. They had several huge birds on posts in the one courtyard. They did a whole presentation on falconry included some flying demonstrations. While they did the flying demo you had to sit down and be still. This wasn't some watch the bird fly from point A to point B so you could get an idea of how big of a wingspan they had. This was a real show, man those bird could swoop and dive, turn on a dime and when they came in over your head to the trainer you could hear the sound and feel the whoosh. I'll see if we can scan a few of the pics. That was before we had a digital camera, although Ric might have had some of them put on a disk, we'll see.