Bird feeder thread

Those rotten Bounders!

 

A little off the bird feeder of sorts, but while at the tree farm this weekend we were happy to be visited by a kingfisher diving into the water. Sunday, we were lounging on rafts, and several times, three of them were swooping around and lighting on a cable that crosses the water.

I have always enjoyed them, and recall as a kid, when my grandfather pointed one out at the same lake.

 

Since the cicadas started on Oak Hill, our bird feeders get almost no activity. Even in the morning the squirrels don't even show up.

 

I had the same thing with an owl when driving down the highway. I couldn't tell what happened to it so I pulled over. The next thing I knew a head poked up over the hood. I got out to find it a little dazed and confused on the bumper. It flew away after a few minutes.

 

We have a birdhouse close to our feeder. Wren family takes up residence there every year. They are really noisy this year. But like PA Mountain Man mentioned, activity slowed at the feeder with the cicadas in town.

 

We are starting to get tree limb tops dropped from the egg laying.

 

For a little bird they sure can make a racket. We have them at the feeder and suet when they are filled. Birds have had a voracious appetite the last month or so. I fill the feeder in the morning...8-9 cups of sunflower seeds and the next evening its empty. During the Winter its filled twice a week on average.
Just ran out of seed and may keep it empty for a while, although we do like the assortment of birds we get here.

 

We have a small flock hanging around our feeder. They can empty a feeder in no time at all.

 

We used to feed them using a special feeder with tiny black seeds, which I can’t remember the name of. They are pretty birds.

 

Thistle seeds.

Around here they prefer black oil sunflower seeds.

 

I used to buy thistle seed and used a thistle seed feeder for the finches. Then I think I got a bad bag of seed. Thistle seed apparently can get moldy, dry up and/or get rancid. It wasn't moldy, so dried up or rancid, I guess. I put some on the sidewalk to see if the mice/chipmunks would eat them. No takers. So I threw the bag and feeder out.
Yeah, they like sunflower seeds. They also like coreopsis flower seeds and they bloom all Summer. I had coreopsis flowers coming up/growing everywhere but where I planted them for a couple of years.
Not seeing too many yellow or red finches this year.

 

We had them regularly earlier in the Spring and theyve gone. Hopefully they come back which they usually do. Pic from two months ago. Its not easy to get them and a cardinal together. Let alone a pic . The finches were molting to their full yellow plumage at the time.

 

I believe its called nyger seed which is thistle seed as Mike stated above. We put a finch feed with it and they went nuts for a few days then wouldnt touch it. Single feeder gets sunflower seed or mixed see with 75% sunflower. Theyve been very voracious and emptying it in a day and a half. Suet cakes gone in 24 hours. I may put feeding them on hold for a bit. Hummingbirds here daily and even woodpeckers eating the "nectar" sugar water.

 

Yep, Nyger seed. I never could figure out how the finches got enough seed to make it a meal out of that little feeder slot. The woodpeckers would eat the suet cakes super quick. I had it in a feeder that they had to hang upside down to get to it.