Types of Bird Feeders

Although it's been so warm outside that I actually have some flowers blooming still - yes, petunias (!), heather, scabiosa and even one gaillardia are still blooming, in December - we're expecting some colder weather towards the end of the week, and I know that many of my readers live in other states in the United States where winter has actually arrived.  I know the feeling of cabin fever quite well; gardener's cabin fever, a truly unique type of cabin fever in which you gaze longingly at your garden and wish a weed or two would rear its ugly seed head just so you've have an excuse to go outside and work the soil a bit.  I really do think that gardeners have the toughest time in the winter. Even though most of us, myself included, are grateful for the rest, we also get restless. If I don't have something growing or flowering around me, I feel like something is missing. That's why I keep house plants. But I also need the brisk fresh air, the blue skies above, and the warmth of the sun on my face to feel really and truly happy.

Feeding the birds is my wintertime gardening activity. Now with six cats, five of which go outside daily, I have to be very, very careful.  Whitey, one of our outdoor cats, loves birds so much he decided to wait for their return this spring. Sorry to disappoint you, Whitey, but you've got a long wait - and he didn't seem to mind the bit of help we had to give him to get off the bluebird box.

I use tube feeders in the garden and keep them suspended from chains, which discourages the kitties most of the time. They don't like the swinging sensation of the bird feeders. They will sit and gaze at the birds for the longest time, but the birds are pretty smart, and wait until the cats are distracted by something else before they stop to feed.

The tube feeders I use are made by a company called Droll Yankee. They are easy to clean and supposedly, the metal used on the little perches doesn't freeze; it is easier on the bird's feet. I'm not sure how much of a difference that actually makes, but they are incredibly durable. The smaller feeder was a gift I purchased for my dad back in 1995 when I worked at a garden center and it has withstood almost 15 winters to date  without showing a scratch or a bit of rust. The larger feeder is also a Droll Yankee brand feeder; that one and the no-name brand with the turquoise roof, shown here, were picked out of the garbage when I lived on Long Island. The blue roof one had perches missing and the large Droll Yankee feeder was missing the plug in the bottom. I replaced the missing plastic plug with a wine cork, and it worked.

As you can see, there are many types of seed feeders. Look at the labels when you purchase seed feeders; each accommodates either a generic mix or a specific type of feed, such as sunflower seeds, which attract specific types of birds. Most people like to use a generic wild bird mix and I'm no exception, but I do add more sunflower seeds when I can to attract more gold finches and other colorful birds.

Another type of feeder is a suet feeder. These are small, square boxes with wire mesh on either side. Suet cakes contain fat mixed with seeds, nuts and berries. The entire cake slides into the feeder, which is then hung from a tree. The picture here was taken at my Long Island home many years ago and shows either a flicker or a woodpecker on the suet feeder; hard to identify, because the picture is a bit blurry.  Suit feeders attract both kinds of birds, and it is fun to watch them on the feeder. They also tend to attract squirrels. I don't use them here in Virginia because of bears, squirrels and other wildlife, but I had quite a squirrel problem with my suet feeder back on Long Island. I went through one commercial one that a squirrel chewed through before my husband built a sturdier one of leftover pine and wire.

I do not recommend feeding squirrels. For many, they are cute, furry critters whose antics are amusing, but they are smart pests and will do a lot of damage to your feeders.

Water is often scarce during the winter months. Although you should take in bird baths since the freezing and thawing of the water can crack concrete and resin plastic, a bird bath heater is helpful and provides birds with drinking and bathing water during the cold months.  Look for bird bath heaters at your favorite garden center or use the link here, to Amazon.

Around my new home here in Virginia, I see a lot of wonderful birds: gold finches, sparrows, blue birds, cardinals, blue jays, indigo buntings, meadow larks, barn swallows, wild turkeys, turkey vultures, hawks. I hear whippoorwills during the spring and summer; these night birds are loud, but hard to spot, and of course there are the wonderful owls hooting away in the forest at night.  My friends have seen bald eagles, America's national bird, on their riverfront farm, but I have not been so lucky to see them here.  The most interesting bird I have seen on our property is quail; a flock of quail visited our driveway, darting from the brush pile on one side of the driveway into the woods on the other side at precisely 3 p.m. for almost a whole week two years ago. I have since seen these shy, difficult to spot brown birds several times in the past few years; I always see them in late December, and they scatter so quickly it is nearly impossible to take a photograph of them. But seeing them always cheers me up; it is like a wonderful winter guest has arrived, and allowed me a glimpse into his life before departing.

I hope you take a moment to feed the birds this winter. You don't need the most expensive feeder or seed to get started, but at least buy a good bird identification book. I can almost guarantee you that you'll spot a bird on the feeder one morning and wonder, "What is that?"  Having that book handy can forestall plenty of arguments when you insist it's a phoebe and someone else thinks it's a sparrow...

You can get a free Adobe Acrobat PDF copy of my eBook Attracting Birds to the Garden right here on my blog.

Spring Chores: Cleaning the Bird Houses

This unseasonably warm winter means that many of the migrating birds didn't migrate - or if they did, they sped back here in a hurry. We enjoyed watching huge flocks of robins whirl about the farmer's field across the street each evening as we walked Shadow along the road.  I've never seen so many robins in one flock. Back on Long Island, you'd see robins in the spring, hopping sedately along a verdant suburban lawn pecking at worms. They were a sign of spring like forsythia blooming among the foundation plantings, tulips, crocus and daffodils.  Here in the countryside, it's astonishing to see hundreds and hundreds of robins in one gigantic flock.  They literally blot out bits of sky as they wing their way to a roosting spot in the evening.  We saw them a lot in January and early February, and many would land in a big oak tree along the neighbor's pasture.  Now I'm starting to see just a few in the yard, but still many more than I would see in one location on Long Island.

We've noticed that the bluebirds are back, and we love those beautiful, friendly little birds.  We have one cedar bluebird house hanging on the fence post by the vegetable garden, and it's had a tenant ever since we first nailed it up.  John made a whole bunch of bluebird houses last year and my friend Joan gave me one last year for my birthday.  The homemade bluebird houses hanging on a pine tree and facing south had a tenant; the other two, which face east-southeast, were never occupied.

I can hear the liquid trill of their beautiful songs in the morning, which tells me they are here and spring isn't far away.  On Sunday, we decided to clean out the bird houses. John took the cordless drill and we unscrewed the side flaps.  We removed the old nests and used a cloth to dust out the inside of the houses.

One thing you can often spot inside bird houses when you clean them is evidence of mice - but thankfully, no mice found our little birdhouses. Spiders and wasps, on the other hand, were plentiful (shudder.) I'm just glad we were cleaning the birdhouses in February and we could easily remove the wasp nest from one.  The spiders, on the other hand, had already hatched out from their silken cocoon.  There were tiny spiderlings sluggishly moving about inside the house. Trust me, I made John clean out THAT one!

If you haven't done so, do clean out the birdhouses you can reach.  We also painted the bird bath so that it is ready to go when April tell us the frost is a thing of the past!

Today's photo is courtesy of Morguefile, a photo sharing website.

Crows and Other Pests on the Birdfeeder

After I posted the bird feeding and bird gardening ideas, a few readers sent me emails. How do you keep hawks off the bird feeder? (I imagined a cartoon-like hawk salivating over the tiny birds eating at the feeder).  How do you keep squirrels away?

I knew that squirrels were pests at feeders. For a while last year I had to take down the bird feeder and the hummingbird feeder because our little group of gray squirrels realized they could climb the trellis at the entrance to the garden, hang by their toes, and shake the feeders to get food. I had no idea what was happening to the hummingbird feeder until I actually saw the squirrel leap on it and put his little mouth to the port where the nectar releases for the hummers.  He'd get some momentum going and swing the hummingbird feeder like a bell, and drink the nectar sloshing out!  I'd found the local squirrel with a sweet tooth, all right.  My dad used to shoot BB guns at the squirrels but I can't do that; I just can't hurt a living creature, and while I could shoot to scare it, I'd probably hit something else instead.  So I just removed the feeder for a few weeks until the squirrels went elsewhere.

But today my feeder was plagued by crows....lots of them. They found the one crust of moldy bread I'd thrown under the feeder. I filled the feeders last night in anticipation of the storms heading towards us. The birds tend to eat more seed in the 24 hour period before bad weather. I really believe they can sense the barometric pressure and know instinctively they have to hide under bushes for a day until it passes, so they stock up on food.  I stocked their food supply, but the canny crows were watching.

I sent Pierre out to chase them away but they returned quickly.  I can see their beady black eyes from up in my office, so I watch and tap the window glass to frighten them away whenever I notice them.

If anyone's got tips on how to keep crows off the bird feeder, share!