Any bird feeders?

We’ve got grackles now visiting us. They are an underrated bird. They have very pretty hoods. But they are kind of on out poop list since one morning we saw one pick off a green lizard.

I was listening to the bluejay mimicking a bald eagle today and I’ve heard them mimic hawks in the past. I always wondered why.

I searched online and two possible explanations is to warn other birds one is in the area or to scare other birds from the feeder so they have it to themselves. Not sure I agree with either. I know he doesn’t scare birds from our feeder.

why blue jays mimic

We have also had the owls frequenting the yard lately. I wish i could see one during the day. It’s a bit eerie when they start barking in the tree.

I’ve IDed the owl through my app based on calls. It’s a barred owl(s).

Had a pileated woodpecker in our sunflower feeder yesterday. Guess he wanted to take a break from de-barking half the trees in our neighborhood and have a few seeds. Cool birds. Never thought one would get in a little 12×12 platform feeder that has a roof. Pretty much filled the whole feeder.

Since starting to feed peanuts this winter my woodpecker sightings have skyrocketed. Downy, Hairy, Red Breasted and Pileated are the top 4 but I have also had a few Red Headed. One that is way off track that visited for a couple days was a Ladder-Backed woodpecker….very pretty bird.

I have 4 thistle seed feeders in close proximity to the peanut feeder along with a pair of suet blocks and these feeders get the Nuthatches, Juncos, Gold Finches and Chickadees. Our generic seed goes in feeder on the other side of the house and along the driveway so the sparrows stay away from the more agreeable birds. Starlings and crows get lead supplements added to their rations.

In addition to a variety of birds, we like watching flying squirrels that come in several times every night. We have a “spinning” squirrel proof feeder these little guys are light enough to sit on the feeder without being thrown off. Fun to watch and they let us get within a few feet of them before they take off (literally).

Tom Sawvell wrote:

Since starting to feed peanuts this winter my woodpecker sightings have skyrocketed. Downy, Hairy, Red Breasted and Pileated are the top 4 but I have also had a few Red Headed. One that is way off track that visited for a couple days was a Ladder-Backed woodpecker….very pretty bird.

I have 4 thistle seed feeders in close proximity to the peanut feeder along with a pair of suet blocks and these feeders get the Nuthatches, Juncos, Gold Finches and Chickadees. Our generic seed goes in feeder on the other side of the house and along the driveway so the sparrows stay away from the more agreeable birds. Starlings and crows get lead supplements added to their rations.

In what form are you feeding peanuts? Are these shell on? Ground? I’ve used Peanut Butter type Suet cakes before but never heard of peanuts.

Tom Sawvell wrote:

…so the sparrows stay away from the more agreeable birds. Starlings and crows get lead supplements added to their rations.

It’s weird coming from MN where House Sparrows are so common to where they are rare down here. There is a group of them that hang out in the Bitters Baits parking lot and they seem quite tame. I did see one hanging out under the overhang at the grocery store the other day too. Starlings are just as rare as the sparrows.

I swear the crows down here have their own regional calls.

I miss the feeder. We don’t get the chickadees and titmice coming in anymore, although I see them in the oak tree on the other side of the fence.

Saw a possum on the fence last night.

Dutchboy wrote:

In what form are you feeding peanuts? Are these shell on? Ground? I’ve used Peanut Butter type Suet cakes before but never heard of peanuts.

We used these

The Downy Woodpecker loved it…so did that rats.

Dutchy….I’m feeding shelled peanuts that I buy in 10 pound bags in the bird food area at Menards. They appear to be most Spanish Peanuts, or red-skins as we used to call them. They’re pretty rough…. some whole, some broken. The feeder is a cylinder of wire mesh 5/16″ square and holds the nuts very well. Not often see one on the ground, but then nothing stays on the ground long around here. The peanut feeder is on a hook maybe 5 feet away from the closest limb on the pine tree where 3 of the seed feeders hang. The other seed feeder and suet is on another double hook about midway between the feeders in the tree and the peanut feeder.

What amazes me is that squirrels leave these feeders alone pretty much.

Pug….I looked for some pictures I had of “Possy”, an opossum that showed up every evening at out house as long as the temps were above 20 degrees. I would sit on the steps off the driveway to the yard with our left-overs from dinner and he’s come bouncing along from out in the park land and sit right at my feet for his treats. Like clock-work too. 5:15 sharp.

I can’t be certain but I think we saw him with tire marks up the street a ways. The timing was pretty much when we stopped getting his visits. He was very tame and would allow us to pet him but we never tried to pick him up or coax him up into our laps.

Thanks guys. I’ve moved all my feeders from tree’s to hooks around a metal pole I have in the back yard. I went and bought one of those plastic kids swimming pools this fall and notched it to fit the base of the pole. Trying to catch some of the stuff that falls from the feeders.I’ll give the peanut thing a try. I have a Pileated that shows up, big bird!

trophy19 wrote:

In addition to a variety of birds, we like watching flying squirrels that come in several times every night. We have a “spinning” squirrel proof feeder these little guys are light enough to sit on the feeder without being thrown off. Fun to watch and they let us get within a few feet of them before they take off (literally).

That’s great! We have at least one that comes in every night. Cute little guy.
Kids and I made a mess with peanut butter, lard and bacon grease liberally mixed in with several pounds of nuts and seed last week. Smeared it all over a couple dozen pine cones and redecorated the Christmas tree with it-our Christmas tree spends every winter, stand and all, out by the bird feeders to give them something more to perch in. First one to find the pine cone concoction was none other than a baby bobcat! He’s about 4 months old, and now resides at the local wild animal rehab center until Spring. Cute little guy.
My feeders are full of purple and yellow finches, evening grosbeaks and the usual chickadees and nuthatches; along with several varieties of woodpeckers.
I finally had to zip tie my suet feeders shut, our Pileated(s) manage to pry it open then make off with the whole block.

trophy19 wrote:

In addition to a variety of birds, we like watching flying squirrels that come in several times every night. We have a “spinning” squirrel proof feeder these little guys are light enough to sit on the feeder without being thrown off. Fun to watch and they let us get within a few feet of them before they take off (literally).

AWESOME! Can I ask what they are eating and when they visit? I occasionally see one in our yard when I am out early with the dog, but I have not see one at our feeders.

Tom, that would be cool. I love possums and I don’t understand why people call them ugly. Their behavior cute too.

I can’t feed the possum with the dogs. They both smell and/or hear the nails on the fence before I see the possums. I am pretty sure I told it here, but one morning I was awaken with the wife yelling and calling for help. A baby possum was trapped in the corner and the dogs were charging and barking. Poor little fella.

Anyone made homemade feeders where you take a branch and drill holes to stuff nuts and peanut butter in? That’s something I want to try…when we move away from the rats.

Another cool bird thing I have been seeing is the crows flocking at night to a sod field in Oviedo by the thousands. When I drive by on my way home from work they will be everywhere with more flying in. When I don’t take that route, I’ll still see big flocks heading that way.

Seems like 1st visit every night is usually right after dusk, especially during the winter. 50% chance of seeing them when I make last rounds before bed & I’ve seen them several times throughout the night over the years.

They seem to go after the black sunflower seeds – we use a cardinal mix from Costco…. good quality and reasonable.

Fun to watch as they are quick as a weasel and cute as all get out.

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Nice picture! What cute buggers. Yes, I pretty much think every animal is cute.

I’ve only seen flying squirrels a few times. 2 times I can’t be 100% sure, just caught glimpses of something that appeared to soar from the tree tops. One rainy night though I saw one feeding at the ground feeder under the maple. I knew it was one because I shined a flashlight on him and he had big eyes. He wad hopping back and forth from the tree trunk to eat. This was all back in MN.

We keep our eyes peeled for our first wild encounter with a Sherman Squirrel down here. It’s apparently a subspecies of a fox squirrel, another squirrel I hoped to see one day in MN, but never did.

We have lots of the flying squirrels up at the cabin. Dusk is when I see them. They are fast…and agile as heck. Fun critters to watch.

This is the second night a not quite full grown opossum visited us.

Our male Pomeranian is a possum dog. He smells and hears them before we do.

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Had a fun day at a Lyonia Preserve near us. It’s a scrub oak preserve and its kind of cool seeing parks with habitat you haven’t encountered before.

Anywho, we were tipped off to this place by some locals when we had some beers a few months back. They told us the Scrub Jays will come up and drink from your water bottle. I was half tempted to bring seeds too, but in retrospect, if water is enough, there is no need to encourage them to become dependent on people and/or screw up their diet which could harm them.

We were fortunate one scrub Jay obliged us. We almost walked past him, but I heard some rustling in the scrub which turned out to be a Jay messing with a plastic bottle. As soon as he saw us he came hopping out and flew into Michelle’s hat.

That was is. We had a few follow close to us, but weren’t interested in getting close. We also saw a Towhee, which was pretty cool too.

I am not sure if this is normal scrub Jay behavior or not. They are very social and curious though, so I wouldn’t be surprised if this sort of normal like chickadees being befriended.

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The sideways uploads are so annoying. I’ll replace these later with external links.

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I see the bird is banded so its likely a real smooze locally. Cool to have birds come so close and be so friendly but feeding the birds that seem too friendly only makes them more reliant on people, as you have suggested.

A few years ago some friends and Ma and I took a drive thru Death Valley and we came across a pair of coyotes curled up along the highway. We slowed down for a picture and they never moved other than to sit up. When we stopped the truck I already had the window down and be darned if those two dogs didn’t jump up with their front feet on the door and beg food. We didn’t feed them but its a great example of how animals and birds can get too accustomed to humans. A couple years ago during the summer a pack of wolves parked the pups near a highway near Brimson, MN. while the pack hunted. People started seeing the pups and assumed they were abandoned and began feeding them. Wolves are awfully protective of pups so its a darned good thing there were no incidents as a result of the feeding. The DNR stepped in on the feeding.

Yeah, the thought crossed my mind about food while walking too and I kept thinking there is no need. Water is good enough and I don’t think it hurts them. It’s no different than a bird bath, in my mind anyway.

I think there are some people who aren’t being smart and feeding them. Plenty of birds were curious, but not interested in the water.

Pug, I looked for those possum pics but they’re not on this computer’s drive. I think they were saved to a dvd from the old computer. I’ll look thru the pics on that dvd to see if they are there. If not they probably went out with the gateway umpteen years ago.

That’s a nice looking bird. Jays can be something else. They’re very intelligent birds.

I think I’ve mentioned before that I have a sunflower feeder at my deer stand. I use some 30 pound test 7 strand leader material to hang it from a hook that stays on the limb all the time. I raise and lower the feeder from terra firma to fill it. The feeder is off the limb far enough that critters can’t jump to it and the thin wire prevents them from navigating it to its very critter-free. The Chickadees love the feeder. I also have an old frizbie inverted and filled with water on one corner of the stand too. Lots of birds come to the water was will squirrels even though I am in the stand. The stand has walls around it that are mid-thigh high and are capped with a 2×4. I line sunflower seed up along that cap and the chickadees and nuthatches will feed right into my lap. I can’t count the times I’ve had chickadees land on the bill of my hunting cap and look at me from under the edge of the bill.

That would be a cool way to pass the time in the stand. I have heard of tame chickadees, but never came across one. Too bad, because they are my favorite bird.

A few things I learned about Scrub Jays while glancing at the info in the center. They defend a 22 acre territory and are made up of a family group. There is a breeding male, a breeding female, male helpers and female nurses I believe. The young stick around to help defend the territory for a few years. They can only survive in scrub oak habitats. Like I said I glanced, so you’d have to read up to confirm all this, but that was the gist I got.

A follow up on House Sparrows. We went downtown last weekend and there are a bunch of them down there. They must prefer urban areas here. They also appear quite tame.

The daisy 901 scares the starlings off and the same here doesn’t seem to bother the good birds. Now & then I even hit one.

We just had a Sandhill Crane fly over the house. I was outside getting the grill ready for some ribs and thought, “hey, I know that sound”. Sure enough. A single Sandhill was cruising overhead. With 5 to 8″ of white forecast for tonight I hope that bird catches some jet stream to warmer climes.

Yesterday morning I spotted two Roosters out back. First Pheasants I have had here in a couple of years. I love listening to and watching roosters.

I’ve never seen a solitary Sand Hill in my life. They are pretty crazy down here. You can get pretty close to them and when it comes to traffic, they just don’t care.

Just now I was watching several gold finches and a downy woodpecker at the feeders outside the window. I was admiring how the male finches are taking on more and more color every day. Everyone was happily chowing when every bird on the feeders simply locked up. Then a sharp-shinned hawk settled on the corner of the neighbors roof. I’ve seen several of the hawks lately and evidence in the yard that they’ve been successful. I got up and went out for the paper and took a second to move the hawk away…it headed towards the other neighbor who feeds sparrows.

I have three tower feeders full of thistle seed hanging on limbs in a white pine right outside the window, none more than 10 feet away. A peanut feeder, a suet feeder and another thistle tower hang on hooks between the tree and the window and all of these feeders are busy as long as its daylight. Hawks are moving north again now so all this activity at the feeders gets their attention.