Creating A Bird Sanctuary In Your Yard

March 5, 2005 | sweetliberty

[sweetliberty]

Well, I guess I had an advantage with the owls. We had a pet Barred Owl when I was a kid. It had been rescued by a hunter and somehow my great-grandma, who took care of everything, ended up with it. His name was Pete. He had a large cage in the back yard and I used to go out and visit him first thing every morning. I guess I was about 7 or 8 when he died.

[PayNoAttentionManBehindCurtain]

First, Happy New Year everyone:)!

Second, I brought home a thistle feeder about 20 minutes ago....LOL....what an uproar it is causing among the finches:) I've always had to laugh, altho they are one of the smallest birds to come to my feeders they seem to reign supreme:). Now with the thistle feeder it has caused a war among themselves:). I've been watching the battle to see who gets to eat, and once one manages to get a spot he/she is there forever!!! How can such a small bird eat so much. And I swear you can hear/see them smacking thier lips over the thistle. I guess it is as the bag says, a finches favorite seed:)

Becky

[wallcrawlr]

Cool, a bird thread.

Cant wait till spring when my 4-5 hummingbirds come back.

[PayNoAttentionManBehindCurtain]

Me either:)

My thistle feeder

Becky

[sweetliberty]

I have 4 finch feeders....2 of them that are 6 holers, the 18 holer and a finch sock, and the finches are loaded up on all of them constantly. It's worse in the spring. It is truly amazing how much they can eat. They are fun to watch though. My next finch feeder is going to be one of the upside down ones.

.

[PayNoAttentionManBehindCurtain]

LOL, why do they want to hang upside down??

Becky

[sweetliberty]

The holes are below the perches instead of above them. Apparently it doesn't bother the Goldfinches and Pine Siskins, but it baffles squirrels and House Finches.

[Overtaxed]

We had an upside-down finch feeder at work. It was hilarious watching the sparrows trying to get the seeds out. One sparrow finally learned how to swing around the perch, grab a seed, and come back up.

[19th LA Inf]

I have an old country house in northern Louisiana with a big front porch. A few hummingbirds arrive in mid-March but not many spend the summer. Around late August the southbound ones come through and soon I have my six feeders busy. This past summer was the busiest I have ever seen. There were easily more than 100 birds on peak days. I finally changed from my original 1:4 sugar mix to a 1:2 mix just to be able to keep up with the demand. Found a paper by a couple of Syracuse U. researchers who had determined that even a 1:1 mix could be used with no harm to the birds.

The last stragglers leave around the first week of October. I worried this year about what they would be able to find down on the coast after the hurricane before they made the big hop across the Gulf to Yucatan. Did the best I could to fatten them up though.

[wallcrawlr]

Thanks for the pics and the story of whats happening down south.
Here are a few pics of my front porch area. Recognize anyone?? :)

FYI: We had a real dry summer and because I dont water the lawn it turns brown.

[PayNoAttentionManBehindCurtain]

Point of interest. I've had a juvenile yellowbelly sapsucker hanging out around my feeders. Funny thing tho. The book says they like mixed seed, sunflower seeds, peanuts, you know the regular stuff. But he never eats that stuff. He eats the peanut butter I have spread on several trees. I read that some birds like it, so I put some on several tree trunks. The birds that the book say like it don't show alot of interest in it, but this sapsucker just seems to love it. Other then getting a drink out of the birdbath the peanut butter is the only thing he seems interested in.

Becky

[sweetliberty]

It's funny. I don't think my birds read the books. I have read several places, including here, how much various birds like both peanut butter AND jelly, but I have yet to be able to coax ANY of my birds to eat either.

[bert]

I wrote earlier about the Humming bird from Hell that guarded the feeder and the virbunum bush.

It has happened again!!

This time it is a Myrtle Warbler that has claimed the leather Leaf Virbunum as it 's own. The bush is base for all the birds coming to the feeders. The chickadees and the titmice fly back and forth and back and forth.

Before the warbler came there might be 8 ot 10 birds sharing the bush and the feeders. Now however, the warbler works diligently to chase them away. They always come back to a different branch.

Even the cardinals give the warbler respect. I'm going to keep a close eye on the sapsucker that actually feeds on the bush. A sapsucker has lived in this bush forever and I wonder if the warbler will respect the permanent resident.

[japaneseghost]

bump

[sweetliberty]

This was in our local paper this morning, taken just a couple of miles from me. I have simply got to get something that bears berries that attracts these birds. I think they are one of the prettiest and most unique of southern birds. Anyway, it was such a great shot, I thought I'd share it. Have a great day!

.

[MEG33]

Lovely!Thanks.

[B-Chan]

Ah, a Cedar Waxwing, Bombycilla cedrorum. What a beauty.

[GodBlessUSA]

Hi Sweetliberty

I heard Cedar-Waxwings, were in my area last March. I went looking for them. Didn't get to see one, yet.... They are so incredibly beautiful. I since planted berry plants, shrubs and tree, for them. The plants need to mature. I would love to attract them to the yard also. I'd love to see them anywhere. :)

[leadpenny]

Thank you. About a hundred Cedar Waxwings come by once a year for one day to take what is left of any holly berries - no matter what the local Mockingbirds have to say about it.

[MamaTexan]

What a beautiful thing to see first thing in the morning!

Thanks, Lady!

:)