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Bird Feeding/Watching (1 Viewer)

pollardsvision

pollardsvision

Footballguy
My mom finally got me into it, and I think I'm officially getting old. Only a couple or so in and a couple hundred bucks, but I think I'm hooked. 

For now just rolling with a  multi-feeder hanger thing  with a couple cakes, a squirrel buster, a tray, and of course, seeds on the ground. Rolling with all black oil sunflower, and a little safflower mixed in. Parked underneath my cherry tree with a nice view from my office and the front door. Once I get a good handle on their behavior and what works, I'll probably go with an Absolute.

It took a couple of days for word to get out and this my first morning really being able to watch. I've got a bunch of cardinals that seem to coexist with the squirrels fairly well, a red-headed woodpecker, and a pair of, I think, nuthatches. This is fascinating.

I don't mind feeding the squirrels too much, but they are developing a small gang now, I see, so I might try mixing in some cayenne with the seed and see what that does.

Anybody else into spending too much money feeding birds and varmint?

 
pollardsvision said:
My mom finally got me into it, and I think I'm officially getting old. Only a couple or so in and a couple hundred bucks, but I think I'm hooked. 

For now just rolling with a  multi-feeder hanger thing  with a couple cakes, a squirrel buster, a tray, and of course, seeds on the ground. Rolling with all black oil sunflower, and a little safflower mixed in. Parked underneath my cherry tree with a nice view from my office and the front door. Once I get a good handle on their behavior and what works, I'll probably go with an Absolute.

It took a couple of days for word to get out and this my first morning really being able to watch. I've got a bunch of cardinals that seem to coexist with the squirrels fairly well, a red-headed woodpecker, and a pair of, I think, nuthatches. This is fascinating.

I don't mind feeding the squirrels too much, but they are developing a small gang now, I see, so I might try mixing in some cayenne with the seed and see what that does.

Anybody else into spending too much money feeding birds and varmint?
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Yes my wife.    She started a couple of years ago.  We have our yard and then it is wooded behind us and she have 4-5 feeders.  Winter storm yesterday and it looked like a highway a birds buzzing around our yard. Woodpeckers Cardinals, a bunch of little birds.  Then the Blue Jays come in and scare them all away.  Squirrels all over the feeders with rabbits cleaning up what is left on the ground. 

 
I refuse to put them out because of the vermin they attract.  I have enough trouble keeping the rat population under control and out of my garden already.

 
My daughter took an ornithology class about a year ago. (we now own a nice pair of bird watching binoculars)  She had a sheppards hook mounted to the deck rail, with a couple of feeders.. Her brother is getting his degree in welding. For Christmas, he made her a giant 8' stand that has about 10 adjustable hooks and attachments that hold a bowl and tray. She bought a solar lighted feeder a couple of weeks ago? I didn't think birds ate at night. 

We get all kinds of visitors. The yard backs up to a golf course. We've had possum and raccoons raid the feeders in the evening. We used to have a hawk that would hang out on the gable of the house. But haven't seen him in a couple of years.

 
Got one right in front of our living room window it's great.  We get mostly Cardinals and Jays and an assortment of small birds.  We used to have a problem with squirrels but since a hawk has taken up residence near by the squirrels have been scarce.  My favorites are the family of Sandhill Cranes that hit my front yard for seed.

 
Yep, have loved birds and have been doing this nearly my entire life. Da guru nails it on the Jays lol. Fake out a hawk screech, do their little nosedive on the feeder and come crashing in throwing the seed everywhere...###holes.

I rotate about 5 feeders: 2 main feeders, 2 thistle bags, and a hummingbird feeder. I get most typical northeastern birds. Coolest thing I've had on my feeder one time a few years ago was a few orioles.

Underrated hobby. You get to cultivate an entire community of animals right in your yard as you see fit. And you get to choose species based on your seed and feeder types. They kinda become your children.

 
Ron Swanson said:
I refuse to put them out because of the vermin they attract.  I have enough trouble keeping the rat population under control and out of my garden already.
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My wife is an avid bird watcher and we’ve had feeders in our yards for decades. We always had this same problem though, particularly where we are now. Rats, mice, squirrels (which seem to inevitably get into the house) and raccoons are a regular PITA. Squirrels have chewed right through several feeders. Attracting rats is the biggest issue though. I have to keep poison out and I’ve live trapped 3 big bastages too. One got in my garage and was nesting in a wall for months before I realized it and caught it.

Wife still puts out seed and suet though, just restricts it to winter now (don’t even know if that makes a difference).

 
I've got 6 of the hanging squirrel-proof feeders and 2 suet cake cages out. I've got mostly kinglets, a couple different woodpeckers, cardinals, and some songbirds who feed on the dropped seed. I also get squirrels, but they can't do much more than the songbird scavengers. Sometimes, some damned starlings will come up for the suet cakes, but I run them off when I see them.

 
Have had a bird feeding going on the deck for a bunch of years now.   Switched over to the shell-less sunflower seeds this year and its a lot less of a mess; shells were getting everywhere.   They're more expensive, but worth it.   I haven't had a problem with the squirrels using this feeder.   Its pretty neat to seed the birds feasting on the deck in the middle of the summer while I'm having my coffee out there.    Its also nice to see some life outside in the dead of winter.  

 
:tumbleweed:

I do enjoy the birds out here. I will put out Quail blocks, seed on the ground, and some hummingbird feeders. Bird bath is a big deal in my yard. Here in the desert once the birds find a consistent supply of water they will come around.

I kept chickens for about 5 years and once word got out in the bird community I had tons of wild birds. They would eat the chicken feed like there was no tomorrow. Its the reason I have not gotten more chickens. It became to expensive due to the wild birds eating the chicken feed. 

 
My wife is into it big time.  We've got probably 7-8 feeders in the back with different types of seed plus several suet cylinders and/or blocks.  In the summer we have a hummingbird feeder and a birdhouse right off our patio that tree swallows lay eggs in every year.  We really enjoy watching the babies hatch and start poking their heads out waiting for mom and dad to bring back insects for them to much on.

I have to admit I really enjoy the bird watching.  We bought a book called Indiana birds that we keep by our back door and mark off new birds as we see them.  I just looked and we've checked off 46 different birds over the past 7-8 years.  The coolest one so far is the pileated woodpecker.  Hard to tell from the pics, but this bird is HUGE at about 17-18" tall.

The only birds we chase off are geese (can't stand the mess they make) and hawks since they will try to prey on the other birds.

We do go through a ton of seed though.  I'm guessing about 100 pounds per month across the various types - no joke.  And it is kind of a PITA in terms of cleanup and mess.  But my wife handles all of the filling and restocking the feeders so I'm OK with it.

 
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One of my favorite bird watching activities is watching vultures on a carcass. I don't put food out for them but I admit to getting a little giddy when I see a rabbit has been hit out front. Just sit and wait for the vultures to arrive. It's crazy how they tear up rabbits.

 
We are on 2.5 acres and wife has always been into bird watching. She has a book and binoculars she is always consulting. We have 4-5 feeders, 2 thistle bags, oriole feeders, 3 bird baths, and seems a zillion hummingbird feeders. Also have about 6 bluebird houses on fence posts at back of property. Get tons of birds, all the usual ones plus bluebirds and-more rarely, Orioles. The Hummingbirds in the summer are amazing. Have had 5 pairs in a summer fighting over feeders, sometimes hovering 12” from our face.

We also have unwanted birds. Most annoying is the Grey Heron that poaches fish from our ornamental fish pond every summer/fall. Big PITA, have to put up bird statues and ultimately net the pond. Pond is right off our bedroom window at back of house. One morning wife got up and looked out window, Heron was right there. Big ugly vulture looking thing. Apparently they are protected birds or something.

 
Ranethe said:
The Hummingbirds in the summer are amazing. Have had 5 pairs in a summer fighting over feeders, sometimes hovering 12” from our face.
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This.  The birds that are curious about you and let you get super close to are the best.  Hummingbirds and our tree swallows plus a few others are like that.  I've seen videos where if you sit still for awhile you can actually get the hummingbirds to eat right out of your hands.  I'd love to try that some time.

 
The set-up seems to be working fairly well now, and while I can't say for sure how much, mixing the sunflower and safflower with cayenne seems have cut down on the squirrel traffic.

Every evening is just feast for a bunch of cardinals, chickadees, titmouses, and finches. This set-up seems to work great. The open, platform feeder gets the most traffic, attracting basically all types of birds. The little guys seem to prefer the squirrel buster the most (and for some reason, I've yet to see a male cardinal use it though the females like it). Parking it under the cherry tree seems to help. Under the tree, they just all hang out in the tree while waiting their turn to eat. Gives them nice cover, I think/hope from some of the larger birds we have hanging around.

 
Hummingbirds are the best and cheapest entertainment there is.  They could be in the WWE.  We put in bottlebrushes, and the hummingbirds just love them.  The little guys showed up about two days after we put them in.

 
Love this.

We were losing the squirrel battle badly and I got this a few years ago. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000F5UOEC/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B000F5UOEC&linkCode=as2&tag=birdwatchin06-20

Works perfectly. And gives a nice easy way to hang 8 feeders if you want. 

The squirrels are no joke. I thought they were cool at first. Then we attracted enough that they moved over to our house and were in our attic. Not as cool. 

 
Mrs. Rannous said:
Hummingbirds are the best and cheapest entertainment there is.  They could be in the WWE.  We put in bottlebrushes, and the hummingbirds just love them.  The little guys showed up about two days after we put them in.
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Cool. Can you tell me more about these? Do you plant them as shrubs? Or potted plants? What kind of temperature and sunlight do they need? Do they bloom continually and attract hummingbirds?

 
pollardsvision said:
The set-up seems to be working fairly well now, and while I can't say for sure how much, mixing the sunflower and safflower with cayenne seems have cut down on the squirrel traffic.

Every evening is just feast for a bunch of cardinals, chickadees, titmouses, and finches. This set-up seems to work great. The open, platform feeder gets the most traffic, attracting basically all types of birds. The little guys seem to prefer the squirrel buster the most (and for some reason, I've yet to see a male cardinal use it though the females like it). Parking it under the cherry tree seems to help. Under the tree, they just all hang out in the tree while waiting their turn to eat. Gives them nice cover, I think/hope from some of the larger birds we have hanging around.
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Finding what works best for your area is part of the fun. We have a ton of woods around and water so we have a big crowd. 

At some point, you start thinking about cost of seed. I was feeding straight sunflower seeds and going through a 30 pound bag every couple of weeks. The do love that. I'm not sure if it's accurate but I had folks tell me straight sunflower seed wasn't great for the birds as it's too much fat from the seed. Like feeding fast food. They love it but not best for them. I've since switched to a mixed seed that has the little round seeds with not nearly as much sunflower. They don't like it as much but it lasts longer.

Another factor for me was feeders that don't allow the bigger birds to crash the party. We had a flock of some type of blackbirds come through and clear out everything. Since then, I have feeders that have the smaller perches so Cardinals and the occasional Blue Jay are about the biggest birds that can get a perch. 

We have a couple of owls that I hear at night. We put up an Owl House but haven't got a resident yet. 

 
Joe Bryant said:
Cool. Can you tell me more about these? Do you plant them as shrubs? Or potted plants? What kind of temperature and sunlight do they need? Do they bloom continually and attract hummingbirds?
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Down here they're grown as small trees similar to smaller crepe myrtle. Looks like they can also be grown as shrubs. We don't get many hummingbirds in our bottlebrush trees but they're perfect for smaller birds, i.e. titmouse or wren to nest.

 
Joe Bryant said:
Cool. Can you tell me more about these? Do you plant them as shrubs? Or potted plants? What kind of temperature and sunlight do they need? Do they bloom continually and attract hummingbirds?
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Sorry.  Bottlebrushes need growth zones 8b and higher to thrive.  We have several dwarf plants in pots, plus one tree-like shrub.  Ours in blooming now and has been almost continuously since last summer.  I live in Houston.  We have hummingbirds here all the time, not just the migratory ones.

 
i got four birdfeeders that hang off of a tree outside of my kitchen and one is a wire mesh for nyger seed and the other three are for black oil sunflower seeds and i have squirrel shields on all of them just the domes because the squirrels get what falls on the ground and the birdos get to eat out of the feeder in the summer i just go with the wire mesh feeder for finches and then in the winter i have all of them running and i get chickardees nuthatches cardinals downey woodpeckers redhead woodpeckers sapsuckers purple finches and once i even had a pileated it was pretty cool take that to the bank bromigos 

 
Mrs. Rannous said:
Sorry.  Bottlebrushes need growth zones 8b and higher to thrive.  We have several dwarf plants in pots, plus one tree-like shrub.  Ours in blooming now and has been almost continuously since last summer.  I live in Houston.  We have hummingbirds here all the time, not just the migratory ones.
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:kicksrock:   Looks like TN is 6. I'll stick to the regular hummingbird feeders I guess. I went to school at A&M. We don't have Houston weather here. 

 
I dig watching birds.  Cool creatures.  A friend kind of caught me transfixed on some bird of prey, forget which kind it was.  Anyway, he said whenever he sees gnarly birds of prey, he thanks god they didn't get opposable thumbs.   :lmao:    Now I think about that "what if" every time I see one.

 
have a small inexpensive lake house with some poplar trees & numerous shrubs.   put out some Finch birdhouses- 3 of them.  no finches but got purple Martins which are fast, fast & pretty.  At dusk I have about 20-30 Martins chasing & eating moskitos in the air.  man, what an interesting show to watch.  did I say they are FAST FAST.  no need to feed them either.  This is in ND.

 
I've been searching for an image of a bird that I can't remember the name of.  So I though I'd ask here for help.  

I think it's an eagle but can't remember what kind.  It has huge head feathers that drop down to its side, making it look like a "bob" haircut of sorts.

It's not a Harpy Eagle, something else, with massive head plumage that cuts off in a straight edge.

 
Franknbeans said:
was it a monkey eater?
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Nope, that's a Harpy Eagle.  CLOSE.  I used that exact same pic, btw.  That one does look like him.  There's another bird though, pretty sure it's an eagle, one that's even better, just can't remember the name of it.  

Philippines Eagle also looks like him.  But the one I'm searching for has even more plumage up top, with a huge beak/nose just like his.  Big brown feathers drop down like a bob cut.

 
Just filled my feeder up for the first time in a while.  Like many in here, the squirrels are a problem.  I didn't mind then at first with but they unload the feeder in a day or less.  I may have to look into that spring loaded pole or one of the other squirrel proof options.

 
Uruk-Hai said:
I've got 6 of the hanging squirrel-proof feeders and 2 suet cake cages out. I've got mostly kinglets, a couple different woodpeckers, cardinals, and some songbirds who feed on the dropped seed. I also get squirrels, but they can't do much more than the songbird scavengers. Sometimes, some damned starlings will come up for the suet cakes, but I run them off when I see them.
Click to expand...
What squirrel proof feeders do you have?

 
I built a bird house with my daughter a couple weeks ago, put it out with some birdfood and the squirrels knocked it to the ground and ate all the food.

I then threw it in the trash, oh well. It was mostly a project to spend time with the daughter, teach her to use a speed square, drill, etc. The goal was not to feed birds, although I was looking forward to having a bird live in it.

 
I enjoy feeding and watching birds. We get lots of goldfinches, house finches, nuthatches, and the occasional cardinal and woodpecker. In a few weeks, we'll start getting some Baltimore Orioles and some Orchard Orioles that will stop and eat oranges and apples that we put out. We add jelly too, but I don't know if that makes any difference. Beautiful birds.

My favorites though are the hummingbirds. Such a hoot to watch; pretty too.

 
huminbirds are the best and i just wish that the feeders were not sticky ant attracting messes better to just plant a lot of flowers also awesome are bluebirds but we dont get those in the city area take that to the bank brohan

 
Rodrigo Duterte said:
Nope, that's a Harpy Eagle.  CLOSE.  I used that exact same pic, btw.  That one does look like him.  There's another bird though, pretty sure it's an eagle, one that's even better, just can't remember the name of it.  

Philippines Eagle also looks like him.  But the one I'm searching for has even more plumage up top, with a huge beak/nose just like his.  Big brown feathers drop down like a bob cut.
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Actually, that is a picture of a Philippine Eagle that I googled.  They look a little different than a Harpy. As for original query, how about a crowned eagle?

 
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A few years back my wife and I moved to the country when we bought a place that borders a state park in the mid-west. I loved it from the start, but the wife was a little skittish about the rural life. She did tell me that her favorite thing about the place was the birds, so for our anniversary I got her a bird watcher starter kit. I think it was a Nyjer seed feeder, a suet feeder, a regular sunflower seed feeder, some really nice binoculars, and a bird ID book.

It was a great gift, and I never would have thought, but I am really into it.

The Goldfinch are abundant, as are Cardinals and Bluebirds, and several other species. Now we can kind of recognize migration patterns of some birds.

We have a small pond with a power line crossing it, and a regular Belted Kingfisher that dives in and catches little bluegills. It's pretty cool to follow them with the binoculars and watch them smash the fish against a branch and devour them! Nature you scary!!

We had a couple of Wood Ducks stop in for a day or so recently. I was all, Tony Soprano when they left…

I’ve had a Pileated Woodpecker show up to the suet feeder, but that is rare. Crazy looking birds!

And each year in early summer we’ve had a Great Horned Owl that uses our property as his hunting ground. It is an amazing sight to watch. He has come within about 30 feet of us on the back patio to catch his prey. I named him Horny….

Edit to add, the next anniversary I got her a really nice camera with a good zoom feature. You know, so I can take pictures of the birds...

 
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