What's at your birdfeeder?

“Crows in the bird nest next door, and the parent Jays are not happy. It's noisy and makes me feel bad for the blue jays. I guess the crows are getting a good meal though.”

“I've been having the best time with the critters in my yard. I had hoped to have pictures to post but not yet :-( I had a mom and dad Carolina Wrens teaching the young ones to fly (can you imagine teaching 5 teenagers to drive at once!) I think all made it out into the world fine...even baby Spencer, the runt that I effectionatly named and kept an eye on.

One morning I was blessed with the watchful eye of a pair of Broad Shouldered Hawks perched in the oak tree in the woods...I beleive they are nesting in the woods next to the ous but I've yet to spot it. The jays and mocking birds are driving them crazy...it is a sight to behold.

I've also attracted a pair of cold finches and even a couple of cow birds! It is such a pleasure to wake to their joyful chorus! What if we sang priases like that all day???”

“Crazygurl has cold finches? Then warm them up!! j/k ;)


Last night as we ate dinner on the deck we got a show from a red breasted woodpecker. The black walnut tree that grows in the neighbor's yard was literally teaming with some type of winged insect (termites?). The woodpecker was absolutely gorging himself with no pecking required. Soon other birds in the area took note and they all descended on the tree to take part in the feast. It was pretty cool to watch for about 45 mintues.”

“Ruby, we had that happen with either termites or ants in our front yard one year, but the birds were mockingbirds and bluejays. They started early in the morning, and by noon there were no bugs left.”

“We had a couple of mallard ducks land on the roof of the building across the courtyard. Not exactly sure why they chose the roof (as opposed to the nice grassy courtyard), but they were hanging out there for quite a while...”

“http://www.amazon.com/Attracting-Birds-Your-Backyard-Gardening/dp/0875968929/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/002-5540942-9879262?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1179156745&sr=1-1

This is what I got for Mother's Day. It is the coooolest book!”

“In the last week I've had goldfinches, titmice, ravens, a pure white dove, chimney swifts, rufous hummingbirds, pewees, flycatchers, vireos, barn swallows, bluebirds, house wrens, robins, veerys, mockingbirds, a parula, magnolia warblers, a summer tanager, cardinals, dark eyed juncos, a bunch of Brewer's blackbirds, and house finch family building a nest on the upstairs porch in a hanging basket. The male sis on top and stares through the window at me.

Yes, I finally found my Sibley's bird guide. There's a helluva lot of birds around here.”

“Tanager”

“I've got a house finch family building a nest in a hanging pot at one end of the bedroom porch, while a gorgeous bluebird is singing his heart out about 6 feet away from them. Obviously they're on good terms right now.

My cats, however, look like they're about to implode from having 2 songbirds mere feet away from their noses and there's nothing they can do about it.”

“Don't have a bird feeder anymore. Seems it doubled as a cat feeder.”

“eating from my Gold Finch feeder”

“I had a thrash trying to eat at the suet feeder...bless his heart he couldn't stay up there long enough...I tried to remind him he was a ground feeder!”

“I read an article the other day that said West nile virus is killing many eastern songbirds along with crows and other birds. I used to see lots of crows around, but this year they just aren't around like they were.”

“They are all at my house!”

“A huge black bear. He was at my feeder a week ago, 20 feet up in the tree, attempting to slash a cable that suspends a bird feeder about 20 feet off the ground, 20 feet from the elevated back deck, and 20 feet from the tree.”

“RichB, we had about two years with few birds. The Crows and Jays were among the last to bounce back from West Nile. The sparrows were the first, of course.”

“Funny, the bluejays in Florida were the most plentiful bird in our area. They live in a large colony in out old neighborhood.

I haven't seen or heard a single bluejay up here.”

“i feel so bad for my daughter. she works at the animal shelter and this guy came in with a baby bird. he said he found it in his wall and feed it for two days but can not take care of it anymore. the shelter is so FULL they are turning people away. my daughter felt the bird was old enoguh to go out on his own. so she took the bird out back of the shleter and released it. it flew right up the tree and sat..





BLAM!!!!!





cat jumped up the tree and took the bird.
OMG the poor girl was crying so hard and felt so bad.

so i cried with her and laughed

got to love karma and nature”

“Craopola...left the alka selzter package out there.....”

“??”

““Don't have a bird feeder anymore. Seems it doubled as a cat feeder.”
NoProb
12:43:54 PM
5/21/07


mine is a squirrel feeder”

“a mallard”

“What's at may bird feeder? A very fat cat.”

“my next bird feeder




”

“I tell ya...I feel like I'm running a zoo!!! Last night I looked out under the feeder and the neighbors chickens were enjoying my birdseed!!! As beautiful as they are they need to stay in THEIR yard..they get in my garden and we are going to have words (anyone speak Russian)???”

“There was a big crow grooming itself in the oak tree on our property line Saturday afternoon, and it left me a flight feather. How nice of him/ her.

There's 3 hummingbirds in the honeysuckle this morning, and I still haven't been able to identify a tiny brown bird barely larger than a hummingbird that I saw Saturday morning.”

“Wren?”

“I couldn't find a match in my Sibley's bird guide.”

“&*@$%$@% squirrels....
last edited: 5/30/07 7:54:49 AM”

“I tried "greasing" my hook.....they started just jumping up on it....

do you think if I put up a squirrel feeder they will leave my bird feeder alone????”

“LMAO, Div, you just reminded me of a story a former boss told me. He had some problem squirrels who would jump to the cable that his bird feeder hung from, so he greased the cable and the top of the feeder. The squirrels would take a flying leap and then go sliding all over the place until they fell to the ground.”

“Get a squirrel proof feeder. They close up when something too heavy gets on them. Target sells 'em for about $25. They're metal and they work well.

Treebait maybe it's some type of warbler. There are so many of them that they're never in the books. Some are pretty tiny.”

“A friend of my dad's owned a hardware store and there was a lady that came in and wanted to know how to get rid of the squirrels in her yard and not hurt them. So he loaned her a trap and told him that she could relocate them. To this she asked how will I know if they come back and he said paint a red spot on them and if they appear you will know that you didn't move them far enough away.

So she did as he suggested and took them to the other side of the French Broad River, which is about 5 miles away from her house.

Several days later she spotted squirrels in her hard with red spots on them. She hastily went to the hardware store to let him know what had happened....it was amazing that the squirrels had crossed the river and come 5 miles back to her house!!!

As she left the store everyone burst out laughing...wonder how those squirrels got there ;-)”

“LOL..omg.....animals are so amazing!!!”

“Divinity, the guy at the hardware store took other squirrels and put them in her hard...they didn't cross the river. LOL”

“divinity.....borrow, rent or buy a squirrel cage. Capture the pests and then relocate them far far away.....like take'm for a nice little ride......and then let'em loose.”

“But don't let the DNR or your neighbors see you. Stiff fines for trapping animals w/o a permit in Mich. And then borrow the trap again in two weeks when more squirrels move in, lol. ;)”

“In PA. I read it's illegal to trap woodchucks and relocate them. I trapped one in a box years ago that was raiding my garden, but it didn't make any difference. There were several doing the damage.”

“Laurel just went berserk because there's two crows by our back door, drinking water from the low bin I keep water irises in. I went down and looked, and my Redcat looks like he's going to go through the glass door.

There's also honeybees swarming all over the koi bin too, landing on the floating flower pots and drinking the water. They are totally docile.”

“Some dang bird pooped on my front window screen and it got all over the drapes, which were drawn to keep the heat out. I'm irritated now. Those dang things are dry clean only. Little feathery bastards.”

“LOL...omg.....ok......I would have fallen for it too....
..we went fishing last Sat...and as we were leaving the lake, Lee pulled over and said "oh no.....the police...I didn't make a complete stop at that stop sign....baby, where's the proof of insurance and registration?"...so I reached into the glovebox and handed it to him...when I looked at his face, I realised there was no police...a$$....
I am way too trusting....”

“But were there any diamonds in the glovebox or anything?!”

“Someone told me this morning if you put Vicks Vapor Rub on bird feeders it will keep the gray tailed thieves away...anyone tried that? I don't mind feeding them but they are tearing up my suet feeder and I would really like the woodpeckers and such to enjoy it...not the squirrels.
_____________________________________________
I'm just as bad Div. My dad ruined me...and my grandfather. I believed everything they ever told me..if you can't believe them who can ya believe!”

“I've used Vaseline on the shepherds crook poles. It works well. They get about half-way up and they slide right back down. Reapply bi-weekly in winter. I imagine that keeping any petroleum based product on in summer might be difficult.”

“Well...using the Vicks, say just a dab around the edges is suppose to keep them off of it. I guess it burns their eyes etc but not the birds.”

“I tried the vaseline...My squirrels are jumping from the ground onto the feeders...I'll try the squirrel proof ones next!!!”

“My squirrels are too fat to jump that high, lol.”

“What Saas said at the top of the page.

Also, I have a pair of nesting geese that make quite a racket in the morning. Luckily, geese are not really early risers.

The peepers in the swampy area beside my place have finished breeding - and peeping - in the evening.

The ducks still babble and the song birds start a little befor first light, but I love it.”

“OLYMPIA, Wash. -- After reports of sick or dead birds at back-yard feeders in Washington, the state Department of Fish and Wildlife has recommended that people temporarily discontinue bird feeding or take extra steps to keep their feeders clean.

Veterinarian Dr. Kristin Mansfield advised for people to stop back-yard bird feeding for at least a few weeks, if not for the remainder of the summer, to encourage birds to disperse and forage naturally.

She said laboratory analysis of bird carcasses has confirmed salmonellosis, a common and usually fatal bird disease caused by the salmonella bacteria.

Mansfield said salmonellosis is probably the most common avian disease at feeders in the state, with the disease afflicting species such as finches, grosbeaks and pine siskins that flock together in large numbers at feeders.

She said the birds transmit the disease through droppings.

About four dozen reports of dead birds have been received during the past several weeks involving pine siskins, goldfinches and purple finches in both eastern and western Washington.

Carcasses of purple finches and pine siskins were sent to a Washington State University laboratory for testing that confirmed the disease.

http://www.kirotv.com/news/13463578/detail.html”

“I just found a dead mole lying on the back porch under the feeder. Fresh, too. It wasn't there when I was outside 3 hours ago.

My 3 baby house finches are funny little puffballs, with their eyes still shut. I'd acquired some bluebird crumbles recently, and left a little at the opposite end of the second story porch where the nest is. THe mother bird ate it right up and didn't share.”