I leaned back in the patio chair and opened a John Sanford book and took in the glorious morning.
I’ve read them all. He needs to pick up his pen again. Wind was already smoking here at 5 this morning and hasn’t let up.
The book I read was his second Prey book. It’s interesting to see how his style changed through the years. Davenport became much more refined as time went on.
Lucas has been down some roads for sure. Virgil Flowers is a great compliment series to read since every one of the Prey series books mentions him.
No mention of Virgil in this book “Shadow Prey”. This is the book where Lily got shot.
That’s a good book and sets Lucas’ character up real nice for the future. I wait until new prey books to drop to paperback. Cheaper. You sure Virgil wasn’t mentioned in this one? Most of the time its a cameo-like mention but he’s there as a rule.
This is a old paperback i picked up somewhere. No Flowers but Dell is in the story.
You 2 should start a book club 
We have a cute tail less squirrel that visits our yard.
Saw this thing this morning that was a little freaky. Not a bird, but nature. It’s a carnivorous worm.
20170611_100546837353887.jpeg
Where are robins when you want one, eh? That would fit right under my foot up here.
Back to the birds.. How do you keep the deer out of your feeders? I just bought a new house in April. I got feeders and started feeding the birds and so far, so good. It was taking the birds about 4-5 days to empty the feeders. Sometime in the last week and half, I’d come home from work and they’d be empty, bone dry, clean! Finally, I caught a yearling doe out there yesterday morning licking the feeder clean. It was plump full before dark the night before. Not sure how to deter it from eating a whole feeder of seed overnight.. The only thing I can think of is to get a taller hook (this one is eye level to the yearling). Also, maybe leaving it empty for a few days? But how many days should a guy leave it empty? Maybe she’ll move on as I’m out of food..
Put a sign that says “Birds only.”
Just kidding….yes hang it higher. You will draw lots of wild life with a feeder. Squirrels will also visit.
Ice….
Deer smell the seed and will come whenever seed is present. You can change the seed to something deer don’t care for or you can change the height, type of feeder and/or the way your feeders are hung. Here at home in Rochester I stopped feeding anything with sunflower seed and those generic feeds with a lot of millet and have gotten the deer and sparrows to pretty much give up. I have thistle seed [niger] feeders all over the yard. I have a whole shelled peanut feeder on a simple hook away from any easy access from a tree nearby.
I think in your location I’d put a couple 12 foot pipes in the ground [12 feet showing above ground] and put tray feeders on them. 2 1/2″ steel pipe will fend off bear should they want in on some of your goodies and deer of course cannot reach them. These feeders are a pain but when out of reach of bear and deer you’ll start to see some economy with your feeders and birds could care less how high a feeder is. There are ways to use pipe and still use hanging feeders using sunflower seed that use cable or cord threaded inside the pipe to raise/lower the feeders, but just one big bear can do a lot to sour your attitude.
Suet feeders can be an issue with starlings, sparrows and raccoon but the woodpeckers and many other friendly birds visit the suet feeders all day long. I wired the hook to a stout limb after putting the block feeder under a clear dome. No more coon, no more sparrows, no more black birds. Opossums can raise heck with feeders too. I have the pipe up to my primary oriole feeder station shielded with a squirrel baffle so possums can’t climb that skinny little pipe.
Feeders and wildlife sort of go hand in hand and to get along a guy has to use his thinking apparatus to stay ahead of critters.
I also garden and have found that most of what people use to try to keep critters at bay just don’t get the job done. I also have come to realize that lots of cb caps and pellets should be kept on hand during the growing season.
I used to like our herd of deer that would visit the feeder in Golden Valley just south of the Cub on 100.
It was also low enough for the neighborhood raccoons to reach up and feed while standing on their 2 back legs. Kind of cute.
Put a sign that says “Birds only.”
Just kidding….yes hang it higher. You will draw lots of wild life with a feeder. Squirrels will also visit.
If only it was that easy! I have all kinds of critters to watch, squirrels, rabbits, birds/woodpeckers, Etc. No coons yet, that I know of..
Tom, thanks for the advice. I figured I would want the feeder higher but that was all the local hardware store had for shepherd hooks. I’ll figure something out and let my FW use the hooks for her hanging plants. 
Having a cabin in Two Harbors has pretty much taught us how to deal with the critters as well as the birds. I’ll note that we’ve had to replace a pipe feeder this year that was made of 2 1/2″ steel pipe. It was 11 1/2 feet tall and a bear stood up and pushed it over….bent the pipe over! Second time this has happened. We watched the first time a bear bent the pipe over and it was done by a bear we nicknamed Samson that was about 600 pounds. That was a 2″ pipe. The 2 1/2″ upgrade had held up for about 12 years….hard telling how big this one was.
Pipe has a huge assortment of standard elbows and T’s that and lengths to create about anything you want and because its hollow you can run cable thru it for easy raising and lower the feeders for filling and cleaning.
By the way, our pole feeder at the cabin is set in an 18″ hole, 3 feet deep, filled with concrete. The cement does not move.
The hen turkey that has been frequenting our yard
brought the 9 chicks by for the first sightings yesterday.
DSC_0165.jpg
Feed them well…..and think of Thanksgiving. lol
They sure have a lot of chicks per hatch. The survival rate must not be too great.
They sure have a lot of chicks per hatch. The survival rate must not be too great.
Oh, their survival rate is just fine.. Those buggers are EVERYWHERE!! Getting to be overrun with them in MN. More Turkeys now than I have ever seen.. Tough on the upland birds too.
I know. I can remember seeing one turkey up until 1990. After that the sightings just kept going way up. I remember seeing maybe half dozen adults one time with about 2-3 dozen young turkey following behind.
I guess I was referring to animals that have large litters usually is because of low survival rates.
I just saw something interesting. A flock of gulls circling overhead and they appeared to be eating insects. There were dozens of gulls riding a thermal and snapping up bugs. They were probably ring-billed gulls but couldn’t tell even with binoculars. Looked like the local barn swallows or nighthawks at first. They slowly drifted away to the southeast. I imagine migration has begun.
We have an old oak in our yard that is slowly showing its age but still fills out nice in the summer. Its looking pretty gnarly though. This morning I looked out the kitchen window that faces to the east and has that tree about fifty feet away and there sat a pair of Bald Eagles. Normally they like to sit in some big Cottonwood trees across the creek in the park land. Ma actually got to see them for a couple minutes before they flew off. I’d just come into the computer room for the camera when they flew.
There’s something great about having these huge birds visit right in the yard. They sure are beautiful.
We have an old oak in our yard that is slowly showing its age but still fills out nice in the summer. Its looking pretty gnarly though. This morning I looked out the kitchen window that faces to the east and has that tree about fifty feet away and there sat a pair of Bald Eagles. Normally they like to sit in some big Cottonwood trees across the creek in the park land. Ma actually got to see them for a couple minutes before they flew off. I’d just come into the computer room for the camera when they flew.
There’s something great about having these huge birds visit right in the yard. They sure are beautiful.
yea Tom there something to see. to bad ya didnt get a pic!!!!!!!!!! just yesterday i seen a pair of eagles sitting in a tree along 94. and they do like to pick the oldest ugliest trees!!!!!!!!!!!!
We have several nesting pairs in and around Rochester and I think this couple is from up the road a piece. These guys are welcome anytime….sorta like you Glenn. We saw a golden in the tree in the park last weekend….must have come up from Whitewater area.
the family has a cabin up in itasca county, not far from lakes like jessie, bowstring and winnie. there has been a pair of eagles that have nested out on a point not far from our property for many years. its been real fun watching them raise there young all these years. they even hang around during the winter months, may take a day or 2 to see them but they seem to know when we are around. they sure like your goodies we leave them after cleaning fish.
Cool thread. I grew up with bird feeders everywhere as my Dad was big into it. When I bought my house it I bought a couple feeders right away. I have a larger metal “house” style with suet feeders on both sides, a thistle feeder, and a single suet feeder (squirrels cant get to this one) and a smaller wooden house style feeder. I typically get cardinals, blue jays, chickadees, nuthatches, and finches. Also have a pretty good crew of downy and red bellied woodpeckers. Last spring had a couple indigo buntings which were super cool to see.
I can’t seem to get anything to eat out of the thistle feeder. It doesn’t have posts for the birds to stand on so I’m wondering if that’s why they don’t like it.
I can’t seem to get anything to eat out of the thistle feeder. It doesn’t have posts for the birds to stand on so I’m wondering if that’s why they don’t like it.
That’s kind of weird. I have what I assume to be the same style feeder (no perching posts, just a screened tube), and it did go about 3 weeks this early winter without any activity. But this summer it was full of Gold Finches and Purple Finches. Now, about 50 Redpolls are on it daily. You might be just a little too far south for the Redpolls but I’d think some of the other finches would still use it. Maybe try a different brand of seed?
No perches? Is it a sock?
Gold Finches like perch sticks if its a tube feeder yet will hang on those screen tube feeders as they do a sock type, but I suspect that the thistle seed got wet and birds won’t use thistle seed that’s gotten wet. The screen tube feeders are bad at letting rain and snow get to the seed. I use the clear plastic tube style feeders with perch sticks and have all of them hung under pine boughs to help keep rain or wet snow from getting driven into them by wind. Its amazing how much rain can blow thru those little slots. Anyway, try dumping the seed out where other birds can find it and putting new seed in the feeder and re-hang it, maybe using a clear plastic cover?.
Yep! Even those tube and sock feeders you have to watch. Once you see mold or it clumping up on the bottom it is time to clean it out and put fresh seed in it.
I saw a snowy owl.
You must be logged in to reply to this topic.
