-Shovel snow under your feeders for the Juncos, White-throats, Tree Sparrows, etc....

 

-When hanging suet in the 'classic' green cage, take off the wrapping but keep the cake in the plastic.  Put the whole thing in the cage, and angle it so the plastic is facing up, and the suet down.  This prevents (well helps) Starlings from downing 3 blocks in an hour.  It also gives the woodpeckers some fun when they hang upside-down!

 

 

-Several species will eat crushed egg shells, too.  It is a source of calcium for them.  One of my favorite homemade suet mixtures is peanut butter, B.O. sunflower seeds, white millet, and crushed shells.  Creepers LOVE it.

 

 

-Find/buy a small and shallow dish that can connect/fasten to a shepards hook.  Connect it about halfway between the top of the hook/feeders and the ground... fill it with mealworms.

 

 

-Stick/impale and apple that has been sitting in room temp for a day or two on a branch near your feeder area, or wood edges.  Apples seem to bring in Sapsuckers more so than suet.

 

 

-This one is a bit icky.... but find/scoop up a deer/racoon/rabbit carcass and leave it in your yard.  It will attract Ravens, Vultures, and Red-tails and Shoulders.  Maybe even a Coop.... or even a Baldie.  This also (not as much as some would like) slightly diminishes the predation on the backyard birds.

 

 

-Strat a brush pile in your yard.  You can sprinkle seed in/under/around the pile and the birds love it.  Maybe more important, it gives songbirds a closer place to hide when that Coop or Sharpie comes in for a meal.  I put my live Christmas tree outside after Christmas (still there) and sprinkle seed on and around it.  I also put a small, grass weaved nest inside and Carolina Wrens have been checking it out.  Last winter, Chickadees used it as a winter roost.

 

-One last one....  we've all seen Pileated Woopeckers, and how big they are. We see them in our yards, but never at suet.  What my uncle did was cut a piece of 2x6" wood about 1' long.  He fastened the cage to the top of the board, and used a Dremmel to make horizontal grooves below the cage for a place to grip.  This set-up actually got his Pileated to the suet within a week.  Most suet feeders are too small for Pileateds.  This way, just like the $40+ ones in the Wild Bird ctalogs, the bird has a large place to land and eat.  Only difference is that the once in the catalogs/stores are money.... this way it costs practically nothing.

 

 

Isn't backyard biring great!?!?!?!?!

 

 

 

-Brian Webster-

Stratford, CT

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http://thebirdmojo.blogspot.com/
 
> Date: Sat, 27 Feb 2010 09:01:30 -0500
> From: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: [VTBIRD] Good Bird feeder tip
> To: [log in to unmask]
> 
> I found this on the NH birds list and tried it out this morning after breakfast, 
> It worked. a very nice feeder tip. Here is what the woman had to say:
> 
> "Blue jays love to eat egg shells in the winter.I just crumble them and throw
> them on the ground and the war begins.Apparently it's a source of calcium for
> them. B Judy Flanders,Henniker "
> 
> Anyone have other feeder tip/experence to share?
> 
> Good birding
> Peter Manship
 		 	   		  
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