The Bird Feeder / Bird-Watching Bribe

It’s always so nice to see our feathered friends feeding.Great idea.

-- Bon,Hastings,Ont.....zone 5a....Always room for one more

Isnt that perfect. You must find that the “habit” of checking out the birds, politely impeeds your desire to do other things?

-- Central northish Ontario

oooh right … that “other” stuff I have to do!! :)

-- - Debbie, SW Ontario Canada (USDA Hardiness Zone: 5a) http://www.execulink.com/~yohan

very nice. Thanks for sharing.

-- jroot

That is a great platform feeder, MsDeb. Good pics of the bluejay. You and I will have to start a ‘club’——for bird-watchers. So we don’t feel guilty about the ‘dishes not done, and the bed not made’. I waste, oops, I mean, spend much of my time watching the birds and trying to capture them in pictures.
I bought myself a new camera last week, just for this purpose…....well, birds, and flowers and butterflies. 8^)

-- 'To plant a Garden is to believe in Tomorrow'

I like to watch cedar waxwings. They are so playful when they come to eat the berries off our trees in the winter. Sometimes I think they would rather play than eat. Great photos, Iris and Debbie.

-- Robin, Massachusetts - "Live simply so others can simply live." M. Gandhi

connecting with Mother Nature … it’s for my health and well-being.. it’s a Spiritual thing.. it’s meditating.. it’s refocusing on what’s important in life.. it’s… definitely not wasting time :D

Cedar Waxwings.. they are hilarious. We watched them one spring trying to steal the string that tying up branches of a tree. They pulled and pulled and pulled and pulled.. they stopped, came back and pulled some more. Oh they wanted that treasure!! We went out cut pieces of string and laid them on the tree branches. The birds never came back and the strings remained on the branches. lol.

-- - Debbie, SW Ontario Canada (USDA Hardiness Zone: 5a) http://www.execulink.com/~yohan

We get Bohemian waxwings here but up at the cottage we get huge flocks of cedar waxwings that sytematically clean every single berry off the choke cherry trees. friendly little fellas and they dont fly away when I get close..

I’ve been several times to Point Pelee National Park, when in the fall and spring it is supposed to be THE WORLDS BEST BIRD WATCHING but I gotta say, the birds on manitouland Island …....way better.

-- Central northish Ontario

Debbie, nice pictures of feeder and birds. The pictures are reasonably good in spite of hindering conditions. What do you feed in the feeder, grains, insects or berries or anything else? How often you have to clean the feeder?
Sharad

-- Bagwan-- “If someone feels that they had never made a mistake in their life, then it means they have never tried a new thing in their life”.-Albert Einstein

Bird trivia…........they sell two kinds of sunflower seeds, black oil (which is totally black) and striped (has stripes)

did you know that the little birds cannot crack open the striped seeds?....like the chickadees, finches etc. the bigger birds like the jays and cardinals can.

-- Central northish Ontario

it’s seeds that we put in the feeder. Some general concoction that we pick up at the local feed store.

I’ll clean the tray if it gets waterlogged and then in the spring when we take it down.

-- - Debbie, SW Ontario Canada (USDA Hardiness Zone: 5a) http://www.execulink.com/~yohan

Actually Greenthumb, I didn’t know that until the last time I went to buy some seed. The storekeeper told me that little trivia. I have always used the black oil seed, (BOSS). But I bought some of the striped to put in a different feeder just for the cardinals and jays. Of course the squirrels like either seed.

-- 'To plant a Garden is to believe in Tomorrow'

Wow I didn’t know that about the striped seed.I always get the black seed too but it’s good to know in case I ever get tempted to get the striped.(lol) I just love all the little birds that come.

-- Bon,Hastings,Ont.....zone 5a....Always room for one more

For me. There isnt anything out there thats much better then watching song birds playing in perfect harmony all while sitting in a garden, amongst pleasing earthy smells, flowers and a babbling brooke near by or the crisp clean air of a winters breath. When its quiet enough to hear a breeze only interupted by a song, sung from a feathered friend….........heavenly for sure!!

In a world that at times seems so greedy, so self absorbed in pity and self entitlement, bird watching is a small blessing, a free gift. It grounds me, reminds me of how much our feathered friends and flowers, our fruit can give back. At some point it provides the energy I need get through a day. If even I have a small break, a moment in time to watch, smell and listen, it seems to give me the strength, kinda a like a boost of kindness so that I can better deal with a determined energy sucking evil minded moron I too frequently bump into and I mean that in the kindest way?

Bird feeders are a “must have” for me.

It is a source of personal therapy, a break from a world that at times, seems to have gone mad.

-- Central northish Ontario

I put a suet feeder and a seedfeeder on the greenhouse. I can stand right next to it and the birds dont seem to care!!!!

-- Central northish Ontario

heres some usefull trivia on sunflower seed I learned the hard way. A lot of bird seed has “moth eggs”in it. Most stores that sell it have an untraviolet light that gives of a scent that attracts “moths” and kills them and its hidden from view. These eggs hatch, turn into larvae that turn into moths that get into everything, flour, sugar, oatmeal, and they eat wool clothing.

I keep my seed outside.

-- Central northish Ontario

Because I’m in a small village, I have squirrels. So with that in mind, I try to minimize the amount of feed that the squirrels get and maximize the amount left for the birds. I also like to discourage starlings and crows, etc.
So I feed niger seed in silo feeders, and I like to use the ones that requires the birds to hang upside down to feed…..this is for goldfinches. I put niger in another silo feeder for the purple and house finches. I have BOSS (black oil sunflower seed) in two silo feeders that close when something as heavy as a squirrel gets on it. I put safflower seed in a hopper type feeder for cardinals, squirrels are not particular about safflower seeds but cardinals love them. I also have suet boxes for the woodpeckers, nuthatches and whatever else may visit them. Many ground feeding birds, doves, etc. feed under all my feeders. I still get afew sparrows, squirrels and starlings but they don’t seem to care for my set up much. I almost forgot to mention the feeder with peanuts. Woodpecker and bluejays come to it. So far the squirrels have left it alone. All my feeders hang low on sky hooks from high branches. The squirrels don’t like trying to climb down the thin wire sky hooks to get to the feeders, and then to find the feeder closes when they get there. Very funny to watch, but they usually learn quickly and give up. They usually just feed on the ground from the fallen seed.
In the summer, I clean the feeders quite regularly, probably twice a month. In the winter, not so often. If I see a problem with clogging or a build-up of gunk, I wipe the feeder off with alcohol.
This winter I have added a heated birdbath, which has been a hit with the birds. It is on the railing of the deck, right outside my kitchen garden doors, so I get to watch when the birds come to drink——I haven’t seen any taking a bath but lots come to drink. Even the bright red cardinals.

-- 'To plant a Garden is to believe in Tomorrow'