Lots of Colour!

[jaycee]

At our bird feeders that is .
Birds here today,
4 each of male and female cardinals,well over 20 blue jays, 1 each of male and female towhees, mourning doves, lost count at 52, juncos, tree sparrows a few chickadees, two red bellied wood peckers, a couple of days ago,some common red polls flew in along with gold finches in winter plumage .
Both a male and female coopers hawk, that so far have not been successful at catching their lunch/dinner at our feeders have been around pretty well a couple of times every day, and they are not very skittish even when we are out clearing snow, one landed about 12 feet above my wife's head as she was clearing snow from her vehicle and sat there for a few minutes.

I am on my 14th bag of black oil sunflower seed - 18 kilogram bags, Costco is the cheapest price @ $16.99 + tax per bag.

Our neighbor across the road , tells me they are on their 19th bag, we feed our feathered friends well as they keep us entertained.

[Hunter John]

That's a great Variety Jaycee . I also get our black oil seed from costco and I am on the 11th bag so far. This year I saved most of the fat from the deer and have been putting it out in a suit feeder and have had good results attracting wood peckers with it. Other birds seem to enjoy it as well including starlings,never seen so many as I have this winter and I wonder if the deer fat has something to do with it.

[jaycee]

That's a great Variety Jaycee . I also get our black oil seed from costco and I am on the 11th bag so far. This year I saved most of the fat from the deer and have been putting it out in a suit feeder and have had good results attracting wood peckers with it. Other birds seem to enjoy it as well including starlings,never seen so many as I have this winter and I wonder if the deer fat has something to do with it.

I hate "starlings ".

[fishermccann]

I too feed the birds , I do not just use the black oil sunflower seeds alone, but mix up a batch of the sunflower seeds with the cheapest feed I can find, in a garbage can, so far 2 cans full this winter. My problem is squirrels, they chase the birds on the ground, at any one time I can have half a dozen hanging around the yard. Yes I have squirrel proof feeders, but birds are messy eaters. I also have a couple of rabbits that come out at night and sit under the feeders and get, whatever.

[Hunter John]

My dog keeps the squirrels away but I keep him in or take him out on a leash at night so he doesn't catch a rabbit. I do mix in quite a bit of millet and some cracked corn but the bulk of the feed is black oil sunflower seeds. There is something therapeutic about watching birds at the feeder.

[johny]

At our bird feeders that is .
Birds here today,
4 each of male and female cardinals,well over 20 blue jays, 1 each of male and female towhees, mourning doves, lost count at 52, juncos, tree sparrows a few chickadees, two red bellied wood peckers, a couple of days ago,some common red polls flew in along with gold finches in winter plumage .
Both a male and female coopers hawk, that so far have not been successful at catching their lunch/dinner at our feeders have been around pretty well a couple of times every day, and they are not very skittish even when we are out clearing snow, one landed about 12 feet above my wife's head as she was clearing snow from her vehicle and sat there for a few minutes.

I am on my 14th bag of black oil sunflower seed - 18 kilogram bags, Costco is the cheapest price @ $16.99 + tax per bag.

Our neighbor across the road , tells me they are on their 19th bag, we feed our feathered friends well as they keep us entertained.

If the cost is a problem, you are lucky only a few Red Polls showed up.
Several years ago, My feeders steadily attracted Red Polls increasing numbers daily until, I swear, there were probably 1000 each day. Two high volume Nyger feeders, two high volume sunflower chip (no shells- just the meat)feeders, two standard sunflower seed feeders... all were drained by mid day. If I was home midday, I refilled and they partly ate through the afternoon.
It was fun but an insanely expensive year.

Back to normal, we have only 50-60 Red Polls daily this year

[jaycee]

My dog keeps the squirrels away but I keep him in or take him out on a leash at night so he doesn't catch a rabbit. I do mix in quite a bit of millet and some cracked corn but the bulk of the feed is black oil sunflower seeds. There is something therapeutic about watching birds at the feeder.

We only feed "black oil sunflower seeds " we find there is too much waste with the other seeds. The blue jays do scatter the smaller seeds about looking for the larger stuff and when they sit there and peck at the hulls to get at the actual seed, they do leave a lot of little pieces scattered for the smaller birds to find and eat.
Mourning doves have no problem with sun flower seeds as they have a crop and fill up then go and find some fine gravel on the driveway or along the roadside, to help them digest.
The chickadees also have no problem as they pick up a sunflower seed, fly to a nearby favorite perch and peck away the hull to get at the seed.
We have been feeding only black oil sunflower seed for years and find that all species/varieties of birds come to our feeders and enjoy what is there, to our enjoyment also.

[JoePa]

Yes it is nice to help our feathers friends during the winter - my feeder is just outside of my kitchen window and it is nice to see all the different kind of birds coming around all day - my indoor cat sits by my front room window all day and also watches them - wild animals have a hard time during the winter - right now we have about 5 inches of snow on the ground but it is mostly ice - we had snow then it rained and filled the snow with water and then froze - you can walk on top of the snow without sinking in - there are deer tracks all over my year from the deer looking for food - I cut down a large maple tree a couple weeks ago that had been damaged and the deer ate every bud that was on the tree -

I'm tempted to put out some corn for the deer but keep reading that would not be the thing to do - I wonder if deer had been eating some corn steadily from the fall would it still be bad to give them any - it is bad only when they stop eating it for sometime and then someone starts feeding them with it

[jaycee]

If the cost is a problem ,

That is why we feed only the "Black Oil Sun Flower Seed " @ $ 16.99 + tax for 18 kilo bag , it is reasonable .
What drives up bird seed costs, is the specialty feeds with fancy names like "song bird special", or "serenade ", or "cardinals delight "and others, these often times are listed at over $25.00 for a 12 kilogram bag, that is absurd yet people are fished in thinking they are feeding some special wonder seed to the birds.
The birds do very well in the wild feeding on normal grass and weed seeds and as far as I can tell, no one has a degree in the feeding of wild birds to be able to claim that the specialty/expensive feeds are better.

[fishermccann]

Jaycee, I have found I get more Doves with the cracked corn. In the fall I collect pine cones and throw a handful out around the feeder every couple of days ,the Rose Breasted Grosbeaks love them.