bird feeders

[Günter VögelBerg]

I have two bird feeders in my front yard that I have to re-fill a few times a week. They attract all kinds of finches and grosbeaks and various other "LBBs", but I am never looking out those windows and the only one who gets to watch them is the cat. My wife got me a nice bird feeder styled after some frank lloyd wright stained glass windows and I hung it out my kitchen window. The area is between the house and the sidewalk (about ten feet away) and sheltered by a pine tree that houses a family of very active squirrels. I think I hung the bird feeder in such a way that the squirrels cannot get to it because it has been up for a week and the bird seed has not diminished at all. But where are the birds? Do they not want to come over because the squirrels are there? How do I tell them I have a snack for them?

[Mel Fulks]

My guess is glare. I would look at a bird site. Then...please tell us !

[Günter VögelBerg]

I don't think it is glare because the screens cover the entire outside of the windows and there is only sunlight on those windows for about an hour in the evening during winter.

[Lee Schierer]

If you still have the feeders in the other location, it may take a while before they bother to look around for a different food source. Do take any bets on the squirrels not getting into it. Once the birds drop a few seeds on the ground the squirrels will definitely find it.

[Steve Jenkins]

423151My solution to squirrels. It needs to be far enough from the trees that they can’t jump to the feeder itself. I solved them climbing down the hanger

[Kev Williams]

I've found birds to be particularly stupid. At our boat harbor Swallows continually build messy mud nests in/on my boat in places somewhat protected from the weather. They lay eggs, hatch baby birds... but if I move the boat 20' away from where it was, the parents fly around frantically in the dead air space where the boat WAS, trying to figure out where they're babies are, and they never do seem to find them.

Might them awhile to figure out there's food somewhere else nearby... maybe quit putting seed in the old feeders until they find the new ones?

[Jim Koepke]

but if I move the boat 20' away from where it was, the parents fly around frantically in the dead air space where the boat WAS, trying to figure out where they're babies are, and they never do seem to find them.

20' away is out of the context in which they are accustomed.

It would be kind of like if someone moved your house to another street and left an empty lot.

For the birds, their home may as well been moved a few miles away.

jtk

[Bill Dufour]

You can always throw out some dead animals on the lawn and wait for the vultures to come.
A wife of my Dad's coworker fell asleep on the beach in Brazil. . She woke up surrounded by hungry vultures who thought she had washed up on the beach from the nearby slaughter house.
Bill D.

[Mel Fulks]

We looked out on front yard a few days ago and saw about a dozen vultures all trying to get their share of "dead squirrel ".
A tall geeky crane showed up and seemed to intimidate the buzzards,so they all flew out. Crane found the piece of
gristle not to his taste and took next flight out.

[Stan Calow]

Günter, I feed birds all year and notice that there are some periods of transition where there is almost no activity.

[Doug Dawson]

If you still have the feeders in the other location, it may take a while before they bother to look around for a different food source. Do take any bets on the squirrels not getting into it. Once the birds drop a few seeds on the ground the squirrels will definitely find it.

To quote Stanley Baldwin, "The bomber will always get through." Learn to live with the squirrels.

[Günter VögelBerg]

I'm ok with the squirrels. They're busybodies. Last year I left some pots on my porch and neglected to empty the potting soil and in the spring when i went to plant in them they were full of walnuts. I thought it was pretty funny. My little dog is continually plotting to get them, but he is not the smartest little dog and none of his plans have worked.

[Doug Dawson]

I'm ok with the squirrels. They're busybodies. Last year I left some pots on my porch and neglected to empty the potting soil and in the spring when i went to plant in them they were full of walnuts. I thought it was pretty funny. My little dog is continually plotting to get them, but he is not the smartest little dog and none of his plans have worked.

What the squirrel lacks in memory, he makes up for with persistence. :^) The squirrel is the father of the forest. Oh nuts.

[Günter VögelBerg]

Sometimes it amazes me how much habitat we actually have in the city. Just the other night we heard a great horned owl. We played some sounds from a bird app my wife has and it began calling back to us. Not far from us there is a family or redtailed hawks that has taken up residence.