I love the Doves too ... they are abundant around here but I've never found them to be a nuisance. The Common Grackles and Boat-tailed Grackles are another story; they raid the feeders and when there are eight or ten or more at the feeders at one time they keep the smaller songbirds away.
~ I'm an old gal who still loves playing in the dirt!
~ Playing in the dirt is my therapy ... and I'm in therapy a lot!
Only a few grackles have made it this far north, so far. The rest probably saw the snow and turned back! Snow is still 2ft deep in the woods, and so I'm continuing to scatter corn in my yard for the wild turkeys. This morning, the flock's Glorious Leader was puffed up in full courtship display. The ladies totally ignored him and concentrated on eating corn.
That sure is a handsome fella! It's funny that the ladies ignored him, I guess they are more interested in food than his showing off.
We don't have any of that white stuff down here! We had a high of 85ºF (29.44ºC) here today ... it was very warm! Hubby just now went to take the dog for a walk and before he left he looked over at the weather station and said "Well, I don't guess I need my jacket, it's still 77 degrees outside!
I think it must be getting a bit warmer to the north too because some of our winter visitors seem to have disappeared. The little Myrtle Warblers that I saw many of all winter are now gone along with Brown-headed Cowbirds and Cedar Waxwings.
These are pictures I took in the back yard today;
~ I'm an old gal who still loves playing in the dirt!
~ Playing in the dirt is my therapy ... and I'm in therapy a lot!
Pics aren't great, but the Goldfinch are still hanging out here! Seems that they are resisting heading north! With our temps being in the 80's for seems like a week now, I'm thinking this should be about our last sighting of them for the year. Chipping sparrows still hanging around too!
Tara: That's a Pond Cypress (Taxodium distichum var. imbricarium) the birds hang out in ... I have a suet feeder and a seed feeder hanging in that tree which is why a lot of birds gather there. Love your photo's of the Goldfinches and Chipping Sparrows. I haven't seen a Goldfinch in quite a few years and we used to get hundreds of the cute little Chipping Sparrows at our other house where they'd hang out for a couple of months in the winter but I only saw one in Dec. 2013 and one this past February ... I love and miss those tiny little birds!
Tee: I love the look on that birds face, seems like it stopped and posed for a picture! Is it a European Starling?
~ I'm an old gal who still loves playing in the dirt!
~ Playing in the dirt is my therapy ... and I'm in therapy a lot!
Name: Glen Ingram Macleay Is, Qld, Australia (Zone 12a) (Lee Reinke X Rose F Kennedy) X Unk
I have made up my suet cakes to the tune of the recipes Ann linked. Eight bars that look so good I want to eat them. Are there special suet holders you put the slabs in so they aren't just run off with?
The problem is that when you are young your life it is ruined by your parents. When you are older it is ruined by your children.
Gleni, LOL ... I have bought so many suet holders but the raccoons still find a way to make off with them. I've bent the wire hangers so much that I thought for sure no critter could steal them but they still come up missing. I found an old metal suet feeder beneath our deck when I was working outside a few days ago ... it's one that went missing almost two years ago. Another wooden/metal one was missing from a tree last week but there's still no sign of that one. I've been known to make up a batch of suet and just smear it on a few branches ... birds love it no matter which way it's served. I put peanut butter in my suet and with the heat it melts rather quickly and makes a mess but I don't know how to make cakes like the peanut butter suet cakes I buy that keep their form. I've probably had hundreds of some of these https://www.google.com/search?... metal types over the years. Next time my husband trims some tree branches I might have him cut some to short lengths, ream/drill out some holes for stuffing suet!
~ I'm an old gal who still loves playing in the dirt!
~ Playing in the dirt is my therapy ... and I'm in therapy a lot!
Same here with the suet cake holders. But that's what I attempt to use. They often don't stick around for very long before being hauled off behind the back fence. It's rather comical when one gets stuck in the hold under the fence.
The only reason I still have my 2 suet feeders is that DH screwed one into a post so it won't move and I bring the other one in at night. I use the plastic container that the bought suet comes in to form my cakes. I have six and the recipe I use fills 6. How long can you keep feeding suet? I usually stop using it around mid-May when the days get hot. I may keep using it this year to keep the bluebirds around.
The first 2 pics show the suet feeder on the post AND a Yellow-throated warbler which is a first for me.
These 2 Yellow-rumped warblers have such different feather patterns. They were waiting their turn on the suet.
Becky: The only suet I feed year round is the No Melt Suet Cakes that I buy at Home Depot or Wal-Mart, No-Melt. The other suet cakes melt or get rancid quickly in the Florida heat. When I make suet I use a mixture of peanut butter, quick oats, nuts, berries and birdseed but the peanut butter melts very quickly too so I mainly make it only during the winter if it's cold.
~ I'm an old gal who still loves playing in the dirt!
~ Playing in the dirt is my therapy ... and I'm in therapy a lot!
When I have bagels, most of the time I will only toast and eat half so I take the other half, smear it with peanut butter and birdseed and hang it in the tree for the birds.
~ I'm an old gal who still loves playing in the dirt!
~ Playing in the dirt is my therapy ... and I'm in therapy a lot!