me too Ric!
Way to go Gita, looks as good as new
BIrds of the Mid-Atlantic: Nature's Entertainers
Looks great, Gita!
Ecnalg, it'll be interesting to see where the suet feeder turns up, if you find it that is!
Hmmm...I put a new suet feeder on the ground this morning; I wonder if it'll be there tomorrow.
Muddy, just wondering, why did you put a suet feeder n the ground?
The suet feeder turned up just a bit further away from where I first checked, and was partially pried open, but the suet was still inside. This was suet with added pepper, so I suspect that whatever removed the feeder did not like the taste. Looked again around noontime for the clothes hanger I had reconfigured to hang it with, but that is still missing. Apparently the bear did not go over the highway after all, as I doubt that it would have been so gentle. Feeder is now hanging on a bracket on the deck.
Congratulations, Gita, on getting your feeder back in service!
Sally, I am trying to train my Bluebirds to go into caged suet feeders because the @#$% Starlings hog non-caged suet feeders and scare away almost all of the other birds.
Bluebirds can go inside the caged ones, but they clearly don't want to (can't blame them there). The first one I bought has a slippery metal floor, so I thought that could be the reason.
I bought another one to test my theory: http://www.amazon.com/Songbird-Essentials-Squirrel-Resistant-Palace/dp/B001R21OS2/ref=sr_1_19/184-6048794-5014507?ie=UTF8&qid=1423093920&sr=8-19&keywords=suet+cage
I put it on the ground, and try to entice them by putting dried mealworms inside in the hope they'll be motivated to try the cage. I've been leaving only the caged and upside-down suet feeders out until the afternoon because the Starlings are usually gone by then.
The ground feeder was moved 3 feet last night; I suspect by a raccoon or fox.
Ecnalg, did you mean something took your suet feeder from your garage, rather than "gutter"? I figured it was a spell-check error.
This is an old photo of a raccoon helping itself to peanuts.
This message was edited Feb 4, 2015 7:17 PM
We have a suet feeder hooked to the gutter that overhangs the deck. There is a second, smaller deck on the floor above. What we assume to be a raccoon climbed up the sloped side of the roof to the second floor and removed the hook and feeder from the gutter, leaving them on the second floor deck and making off with the suet. For some reason, that has not been repeated.
Wanting to offer the more timid birds some suet, I fixed up a second suet feeder to hang on a tree maybe 20 feet from the house. That is the one that went missing a couple of days ago.
No good spot by the garage for a feeder. Sorry for any confusion. Keep in mind that this is a geodesic dome and does not have the usual configuration of walls and such. Not much in the way of flat outside walls and lots of roof.
I was thinking of a street gutter, not a roof gutter; now I understand! I thought maybe you also were experimenting with leaving the feeders on the ground.
Raccoons are clever! Eventually they started pulling out the plexiglass "window" on our peanut feeder and throwing it onto the ground.
I figure the Bluebirds might feel more comfortable hopping into a feeder that's on the ground. Other small birds - Titmice, Carolina Wrens, Downy Woodpeckers, etc. enter without hesitation.
Just pondering.....
If you hung your suet feeders from a chain or a rope so they hang free--
would the birds be able to still eat the suet?
I would think none of the critters would be able to eat from it--as there would be no foothold.
Like the upside down woodpecker feeders.. It would be like a squirrel atop a baffle.
Tilt! Slide! kaplunk!
I have one someone sent me--it is 12"x12' plexiglass with the suet feeder affixed underneath it.
I went to a lot of trouble to have a hook installed from one of my high angled maple trunks
and I hung the suet from there. No one ever even visited it. I took it down the following year.
Something like these....
https://www.google.com/search?q=upside+down+suet+feeders&source=univ&tbm=shop&tbo=u&sa=X&ei=u7zSVNjzKoSegwSy4YH4BQ&ved=0CB8Qsxg&biw=1280&bih=895
Just thinking....G.
Street gutters never crossed my mind. We feed on the deck floor, basically under a glass coffee table which gives the seed and birds rain and snow protection, and in clear weather, more seed on top of the table. To try to offer more cover, I put a large plastic storage tub on its side and put seed in it as well. We can watch the birds quite nicely from the kitchen window. We've never tried feeding directly on the ground. Good luck with the bluebirds. We only get them a couple of times a year, and then several at a time. They seem to like the suet feeder.
We cross-posted, Gita. Our suet feeders are the wire cages that are just big enough to slip in a block of suet. One has handle sort of like a purse strap. The other has a single chain with a hook on the top. The birds seem to do fine landing on the cage, and if we have another episode of the cage getting removed, I'll just bring it in each night.
Gita, yes, birds can eat from hanging suet feeders. Woodpeckers have no problem eating from upside-down feeders like yours, but I don't see many other birds on those feeders.
Squirrels have no problem getting suet out of non-caged hanging feeders, but they'll leave hot pepper suet alone.
Pat--
My feeders are all under mu patio roof--always safe from weather or hawks--
not that i have ever seen too many Hawks around here.
For the ground feeders-besides all the seed I throw on the floor, I also have a
16" wide saucer under one of the chairs for birdies that prefer more private pecking...
Of course-squirrels also go picking out all the Sunflower seeds from the saucer and the floor.
Believe me--they are not starving...
I don't have too many squirrels around here. The most i have seen at one time are 5.
I have a 20lb bag of mixed seed I am working on--got it at BJ's (like a Costco).
It is very heavy on S-seeds in the mix. I also bought a 10lb. bag of S-seeds at Wallmart.
Almost forgot I have that....Need to put that out somewhere else for the squirrels.
I have yet to see a Jay. Wonder why????
Here is a decent view of my patio. This is from 2011. Nothing ever changes there....
That looks very inviting. What is in the hanging basket to the far right?
We rarely see any jays feeding. Sometimes we'll see one on the deck rail.
The photo below was from selling a car, but to the left of the tailgate window, I'm on the entry deck and you can see the second-floor deck to the right of that.
Our Flyby Cafe' continues to do a brisk business! I refilled all the feeders over the weekend... there are enough feeders that it's usually a once/week thing now to fill them, except for the squirrel feeder, and of course if that gets empty there are just more squirrels doing acrobatics to get sunflower seeds. The cardinals discovered that I bought more safflower seeds, and the white millet definitely attracts more types of sparrows... without it, we just see the English ones.
Gita, glad you got your big feeder fixed up! A lot of birds will visit the regular rectangular suet cage feeders, but most can't manage the totally upside down ones.
Even juncos (which "should" only be eating off the ground, yeah right) like the suet feeder, although they have to beat their wings to stay in position -- which causes the feeder to start spinning -- which means they have to beat their wings even harder -- until eventually the twirling is too much and they tumble away.
ecnalg, I LOVE your woodland setting
I put a good serving of millet out yesterday morning, on a ground feeder, which looks untouched. Does it seem like it's the bitter cold that drives them to feeders, and they might prefer scavenging au naturel in mild weather?
Just now 4-5 doves were on the picnic table instead, eating safflower. the millet does get eaten other days.
I don't think I've seen juncos trying to eat suet from blocks hung on the tree trunk. Funny!
Thanks, Sally. We like being in the woods.
Juncos are among our regular feeders. They have tried to use the older suet hanger and can't seem to land on it. However, they were lighting on the newer one very regularly. Nuthatches are on it frequently, too, along with the hairy, downy and red bellied.
I find the Junnkos quite often in my suet feeders
.
The one hanging on the trunk of my big Maple has a small peg below it
I drove into the tree for landing on to feed. But--I also see them crawling
around the suet chunk and pecking at it from many directions.
The bark on the trunk is very loose and rough--and they can easily land on it.
Slabs of all sizes of the bark, fall of on a regular basis.
I pick them up and toss them in my back yard neighbor's fire pit for kindling.
I've crumbled suet on the ground several times so that the Bluebirds get some even if the Starlings are hogging the suet feeders. The Juncos are happy when I do.
Sally, I've found that there are fewer birds around when it's really windy; maybe that kept the millet eaters away.
Later on, the doves and a sparrow were on the millet feeder, but mostly preferring the safflower I had poured in a band with it.
if I crumbled suet on the ground, Addy dog would be delighted!
If you crumble hot pepper suet, she'll only eat it once!
Gita and Ecnalg, maybe the Blue Jays around you have enough acorns to eat. According to this, they stash away as many 5000 acorns each season: http://www.startribune.com/lifestyle/homegarden/27131539.html
If they took only a portion of those acorns out of our yard, I'm grateful. We surely do not lack for acorns. How interesting that they can tell which ones will sprout. Like that even better! The ones that sprout are even harder to get rid of.
That probably explains the Blue Jays lack of interest in bird seed.
A saucer of water might bring the Jays to your deck more often. I haven't seen birds bathing recently, but they sure do like drinking out of the bird bath.
Our birdbath water is frozen. I saw something where you put a light inside a cinderblock and a pan of water above it, and it would keep the ice from forming (assuming the light was on). Unfortunately our deck outlets are on a 1-hour timer and I'm not going to wear a path to the door all day. The robins sure love splashing in the birdbath later in the year.
I think I know how blue jays tell which acorns will sprout (all they care about is freshness, of course): they weigh them. I've watched jays pick up one peanut after another until they find the best one, which I assume means the heaviest one because there's more food inside.
alright muddy, now you have to weigh some peanuts, mark some heavy ones and watch and report the findings.
I like that idea! I'll have to ask my daughter to weigh some on her food scale.
yay! can't wait!
that would be a great science fair project -- "optimal foraging strategy" if you want an official name for that behavior.
I'm using a heated dog water bowl to supply water to our birds in the winter. It's a bit deep, so I put something in that the birds can use as an "island." (This year, it's an upside down bowl with a rubber bottom; I've used a brick or shells in the past) After I had an overly-$$ bird bath heater burn out in 1 season, I discovered that the dog dishes are a much more economical alternative.
There's one for $23 on Amazon (free shipping for Prime members), and I'll bet that's something Southern States would carry also. The heated bird baths and "heavy duty" bird bath heaters I've seen run $40 or more. Googled, and noticed one for $17 on sale at Tractor Supply (in stock in Poolsville!). :-)
My theory could be wrong...maybe they pick the one that's easiest to carry. I'll have to control that variable by choosing ones that are the same shape : - )
That's a good idea to use a dog bowl. I like ecnalg's idea of a light bulb under a pan of water, too.
I bought my daughter a "solar sipper" for her patio because there's no outside outlet but it's very sunny. http://www.duncraft.com/Solar-Sipper
This is totally off-topic, but this chat about warm water reminded me of these photos I took today of a thermal spring in the forest. I think the water was at least 70 degrees when it came out of the ground, and it cooled down to about 50 in the pond.
They have the heated bowls at Tractor supply. I have used those for chickens in the past. I used one of those and one unheated, so they would have plenty at feeding time and a constant supply when 1 froze. I have a heated poultry fountain in the barn, I should get it out for the patio.
We fill 2 of our feeders every day. The seed feeder and sunflower, they each get a 2qt. pitcher of seed a day. We also go through a block of suet every 2 days or so.
We probably use 320-400# of seed, about 200# of sunflower, 10#s of Niger, and 35-40 blocks of suet a year. We get A LOT of birds. Just the 2 pileateds we get everyday eat a good bit of suet.
Hm, good suggestions! I never thought about a heated dog bowl- don't quite have the need, but I could plug something in for the deck and the birds would use it if they're thirsty.
Man Ric- I'm on the end of my first 20 lb bag of safflower for the year, and halfway through about ten of millet. Maybe next year you should seek ' sponsors' and send them pictures of the birds thruout winter...
:^)
That is a lot of bird food! I don't keep track of how much I buy....I don't want to know : - )
And---it ain't cheap!
Pat---
Sorry i did not answer your question about the plant hanging to the right
in my picture above.
That is a Ric Rac cactus--one of the Orchid Family plant I have.
In all the years I have had it--it only bloomed once. beats me!
The other two Epis now bloom every year.
That particular Ric Rac cactus got too huge to hang on a ceiling hook
in the house. It weighed, probably, over 30lbs. I always worried that I
would hear this CRASH one day--and it would be on the floor--having taken
a bunch of other plants below it to the grave.
I donated it to Cylburn Arboretum here, as I have also donated my too big
Dr. Seuss Brug and the Maya that grew 8'x8' in full bloom.
The last time the man I dealt with was very rude--and unappreciative and told me
to stop bugging him after the donation and that he will not accept any more
plants. He is the one that deals with the greenhouses and growing the plant.
So arrogant! Never mind that the first time I donated the huge Maya Brug--he took
a slew of cuttings and they sold tham at their "Market Day" for $12.
When I took the Ric Rac to him--(donation #2) he was still friendly enough.
I asked to see the Mama Maya that I had given them in 2009--(donation #1)
and there she was--isolated in a small courtyard near the GH's--COVERED
in Mealy Bugs. Never ever have I seen so many Mealy Bugs bunched up on each stem!
The guy was not too upset--as he said he would treat it with Forbid and all would be well...
My 3rd donation was giving away my Dr. Seuss Brug in the fall of 2o13.
Mind you--each time I had to, literally, beg them to take these plants!
I WAS a bit "demanding" that he would be there when i arrived. If nothing else--
just to say "Thank You"--but he had arranged one of the GH girls to meet me...
B/c there was NO way this brug would fit in my car--I cut it back in a pile of stem cuttings
(as I would for myself), making sure the nodes were OK at both ends--put them all
in moist peat moss--ready to pot up. The Mama plant fit in my car after the cut-back
and I delivered that also. Was HE there? NO! He was downtown somewhere....
I was really pissed--and I followed up a couple weeks later with a call to see if he had
gotten all this...I guess he dod not like me bugging him--and that is when he said
"Man! You don't let a me breathe!!!"...and told me he would not accept any more
plant donations.
About every 4 years--these Brugs reach a size that is just too big and I need to pass
them on to someone. OR---I cut it all back to pieces--and deal with it the following year.
Have NO idea WHO would accept these huge plants from now in.
Sorry about this LONG story! BUT--sometimes you cannot GIVE things away.
These plants just grow so huge I cannot keep them...
Donation #1---this is how huge my Maya Brug grew in 2009. What else could I do???
Donation #2--Gave away my large heavy Ric Rac Cactus--as well as the huge, heavy
Epi that has the fabulous hot pink blooms. HE seemed excited about those--
The BIG HEAVY Epi is on the right...the other one does not grow so crazy.
Pic. #3--This is from Nov. of last year when I brought all the plants inside.
The same Epi (now a new one from cuttings 3 or 4 years ago) is in the white pot.
It is already massive!
Donation #3--This big Dr. Seuss brug you have all seen by now--the one I cut up
in 37 cuttings and gave away--NOT so graciously accepted.
Sometimes growing plants is a challenge and a dilemma....
G.
This is one of the cuttings taken in 2012. The year before the big one was given away.
Rooted inside winter of 2012; Grown out in 2013.
And this is what it looked like in October last year--2o14.
No more than 2 years--and i will, again, have a monster on my hands.
And--NO! I do not do anything special. Re-potting every spring in
fresh soil seems to do wonders--as well as root-pruning while I am at it.
Gita
I apologize for the topic change--but I had to answer Pat--and the
story just followed....:o
Gita
Thank you for the info, Gita. The folks who are coming tomorrow who have the nursery on the other side of Frederick might be able to help you if you have plants that grow too large. Can't promise, but you never know. Must have been very frustrating dealing with that guy, and then to see the brug infested.
It is amazing to me that someone who works around beautiful plants can be glum, let alone mean spirited.
Evidently the pair of Bald Eagles on my paper route have been safe and busy because on Tues I saw both of them. One was circling and calling and then landed on nest just as the other was taking off., a sure sign they have eggs or new eaglets on board!
I'm in to the 50# range now and have only been feeding when snow or super cold since mid-Dec.
I'm going to 'amortize' the expense over the years I fed little or none. Plan to stop soon as I don't want my yard to be considered for nesting because of cats.
You're so lucky to see Bald Eagles every day!
I didn't know they bred so early in the year; it seems kind of chilly for nest-sitting.