Backyard Bird Watching 2016-17 edition

[rphud]

Goldfinches seem to be turning yellow, maybe the groundhog got it wrong again. No skunks yet though.

[beamie]

So the other day I reloaded my feeders. Have 4 feeders out and 2 suit cages.

I used the last of some high priced food. It was $10 for a little bag at Ocean State. The other 3 got filled with stuff I bought at Lowes, allot cheaper.

I tell ya, what ever is in the more expensive bag must be like crack to the birds. They are turning their nose up at the other 3 feeders. My god. I must have snobby high class birds in the neighborhood.........

[FishermanTim]

I picked up a bunch of suet cakes back in Dec when Ocean State had their "crazy card" deals (buy a product and get a gift card)

So I had a couple dozen cakes, a 50 lb. bag of sunflower seed and a 25 lb. bag of niger seed.

The niger seed is most expensive. 25 lb. bag for $29
Sunflower seed is $22 for a 50 lb. bag
Suet cakes, cheap ones were 8 for $5 or $6, the better ones are $1.00 each.

If you go with any of the mixed seed bags you are essentially wasting money (in the long term).
Mixed seed bags (or seed blends as they like to call them) contain ingredients that are on the bottom of every birds food list.

The two main "junk" additives are cracked corn and millet seeds.
Although both will be eaten by birds, they are not a preferred food choice. Corn, if not eaten, can sour and also affect other seed's germination. Millet is a weed seed, so you WILL find it growing in spots around your yard because birds are notorious for dropping food in flight.

I'm not saying don't use these blended seed bags, but just be aware that you can cover all the backyard bird food needs with just the basics (sunflower, niger and suet).

Do a price comparison and see what you spend and then go with whatever you decide.

Above all else enjoy your backyard feathered friends!

[Got Stripers]

The birds are active today for sure, they seem to know what's coming Thursday, had to top off all 3 tube feeders. The sunflower feeder is nice as the song birds have to work to get that one down to a point I need to top it off and it brings in my favorite birds. The cardinals, nut hatches, chickadees, juncos and finches seem to favor the sunflower. The hundreds of sparrows are pigs and empty my tube feeders in short order, even though I have a cooper picking them off regularly.

I have a downy woodpecker who literally is camped out on my suit feeder and sleeps there hanging on when not feeding. I've thinned out the squirrels and I've seen some large prints in the snow (when around), that indicates some coyotes are taking the dead ones home likely that I've chucked in the brush.

[basswipe]

Originally Posted by Got Stripers

I've thinned out the squirrels and I've seen some large prints in the snow (when around), that indicates some coyotes are taking the dead ones home likely that I've chucked in the brush.

Why would you do such a thing?

You're killing squirrels,throwing them in the brush,attracting and feeding coyotes.This is no good for anyone or anything,including the coyote and any neighbors(and pets) within many miles.

If you're going to kill the squirrels at least keep and consume them yourself,if you don't like that kind of game then I suggest buying a real squirrel-proof feeder if bird watching is really that important to you.

[FishermanTim]

Started watching the eagles nest webcam again.

A nest in PA got destroyed by the winds this weekend.
The tree the nest was in got blown over with a parent bird sitting an egg.

I'm watching the ones in Washington, DC.