Carol, did this work, feeding the grackles their favorite stuff away 
from the other feeders?

I haven't had the numbers it sounds like you've had, but just one nest 
full of ravenous fledging grackles, one of starlings and one of bluejays 
emptied multiple feeders daily this summer and left the woodpeckers and 
nuthatches and grosbeaks with nothing to keep them coming.

I only defeated them finally by getting a couple of those upside-down 
suet feeders that only the woodpeckers and nuthatches can comfortably 
deal with and using one decorative sunflower seed feeder I happened to 
have that's so strangely designed that the big guys didn't bother with 
the contortions necessary to get seeds out of it.

Is cracked corn what they like best?

Jane
Shoreham


marcus5495 wrote:

> Folks, "Your" grackles may well have been "my" grackles over the past 
> six or so weeks.
> 
> This year's grackle population around here seems to have broken all 
> records, and they stayed and feasted at my feeders far longer than they 
> did last summer.
> 
> I had to set up a segregated grackle-feeding area featuring several 
> feeders holding cracked corn,  just so the Rose-Breasted Grosbeaks and 
> other smaller birds could fill up on the good stuff -- the black oil 
> seed, the niger, and the suet -- at the other end of the yard.
> 
> (The only alternative was taking down all my feeders, which I was not 
> about to do.)
> 
> One person who is going to miss the grackles is my dog Albert, who 
> quickly learned that it was permissable to bark at them.
> 
> Carol Wagner
> Williston
> 
> 
> 
> 
> ----- Original Message ----- From: "Susan Elliott" <[log in to unmask]>
> To: <[log in to unmask]>
> Sent: Tuesday, August 28, 2007 9:39 AM
> Subject: [VTBIRD] Changing Season - Lots of Grackles
> 
> 
>> A huge flock, about 75, common grackles descended
>> upon our yard this morning, driving everyone
>> else, except one chubby squirrel, away.
>>
>> Sue and Marv Elliott
>> Rutland Town
>>
>>
>>
>> ____________________________________________________________________________________ 
>>
>> Park yourself in front of a world of choices in alternative vehicles. 
>> Visit the Yahoo! Auto Green Center.
>> http://autos.yahoo.com/green_center/ 
> 
> 
> 
>