Posted on 02/18/2018 10:07:42 PM PST by nickcarraway
But, the doves often show up like ferals invading a shopping mall, and mob the feeder. Luckily, I am often outside having morning coffee. I have a pumper squirt gun that the doves hate. For a short time, the finches and sparrows eat in peace.
I’ve seen plenty of Blue Jays backdown
from cardinals....as far as fights.. seems the Jays fight more amongst themselves....chickadees don’t stick around long enough,although they usually arrive in a group....
Btt
The Starling Army raid feeders and I am always chasing them off. They act like many kinds of people.
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Starlings will kill every last songbird or woodpecker in the neighborhood given a foothold, but there are ways of dealing with them if you have the patience. Our pair of neighborhood sharp-shinned hawks kill a lot of our favorite birds and nothing whatsoever can be done about them. Blue jays are frequently cowardly when confronted by other birds. Eastern goldfinches will beat the hell out of other eastern goldfinches. At least in our neighborhood, cats are overrated as bird/egg predators, while thirteen-lined ground squirrels ("picket-pin gophers") are underrated. Grackles are annoying but tolerable. A white-breasted nuthatch will move aside for a downy woodpecker, and a downy woodpecker will move aside for a red-bellied woodpecker... who doesn't move for anyone but a blue jay or a group of starlings.
My woodpeckers, all of them, dont seem to mind other birds including the occasional blue jay. Even the Downeys dont flinch when the jays are present.
My cardinals tend to give the blue jays space, as do the smaller birds like chickadees and titmice. But the blue jays tend to stop in, eat quickly, and be on their way.
We strew seed on the ground between a couple “bird baths” (easy water sources) and many birds/squirrels, and even the occasional deer come to dine - often little squabbles but the most impressive is when the occasional hawk swoops in and picks off a Blue Jay....for real battles, the Hummingbird feeders have the most action during their season....
I’d have a bird feeder but it would just draw rats.
If you’ve never had a veggie garden rats will eat most *anything* you grow.
I have a Daystate .177 PCP air rifle that I’ve been using to rid my feeder of those damn house sparrows. I’ve noticed a remarkable increase in the numbers of goldfinches, purple finches, house finches and juncos now that the sparrows are almost all gone......
Those rifles look sweet. I could use one for my chipmunk problem. But alas ... they are out of my price range.
You are my kind of guy! I keep a .22 PCP on standby when those darn furry varieties raid our feeder. I think I mostly have them trained :)
I have witnessed Bruce Lee Hummingbird go for the eyelids of a beefy mockingbird. No more mockingbirds. These HBs have good PR for being little birches.
One morning, my bird feeder got commandeered by a blue jay who drove off everything. Then this chickadee showed up and just would not be driven off, no matter how aggressive the blue jay got. Finally, probably in frustration, the blue jay flew off and the chickadee could eat in peace.
What impresses me about the PCP's is their incredible accuracy. I got hooked on a couple of Youtubers who demo and critique all the various PCPs currently on the market and the new ones coming out......TedsHoldover is one of them
I have a Benjamin Discovery. I wish the gun would hold its air. I have found that over a period of a couple of days, it will gradually lose its charge.
It takes @ 75 pumps to get it into the upper green “safe” range. I guess I get some good CV exercise every time I need to pump it up.
It shouldn't be losing air. You obviously have a bad "O Ring" seal leak which can easily be replaced once you find the leak.
Benjamin Discovery losing pressure
Or try this one......
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