Backyard Birds

I started feeding birds in the spring and to start, didn’t have much luck.  The birds had not been accustomed to food in our yard; for a while not much was taking advantage of the offerings other than squirrels and some crafty raccoons.

Initially I had out a number of different kinds of feeders with different types of seed.  The squirrels can run through a feeder in less than a day so I ended up getting a Brome mini “Squirrel Buster” feeder which had continued to be squirrel proof. I like it so much I ended up getting the larger version as well. 

Offering a variety of seed ended up being a bit more work that it was worth so I have a thistle feeder (which is only used on rare occasion) and the rest is black oil sunflower seed, plus a couple of mesh feeders packed with crunchy peanut butter that most of the birds love.

Among my visitors since this spring have been Black-capped Chickadees, Chipping Sparrows, Dark-eyed Juncos, Rose-breasted Grosbeak, Downy and Hairy Woodpecker, Red-breasted and White-breasted Nuthatch, Tufted Titmouse, Blue Jays and Northern Cardinals.  I think the timing was good and that the seed provided food for a variety of bird families to make it through nesting.