Backyard Bird Watching

Bird Feeder Baffles Squirrel Proof Guards. Anyone who enjoys the hobby of backyard bird watching and feeding birds can tell you that eventually you are going to run into problems with squirrels. Most of us begin our hobby with squirrel trouble. While wildlife is welcomed in my garden at any time, those pesky squirrels can climb about anything and jump distances to reach a bird feeder. And they are persistent! They will keep trying over and over again until they reach their target.

Stopping squirrels is an important issue for backyard bird watchers. If you don’t, the tree rats will chew up expensive, costly bird feeders along with eat the entire contents of a feeder in no time flat. They will also keep the desirable birds off feeders by hogging all of the perching space and simply being larger than birds.

To stop them you need to protect your bird feeders with squirrel proof baffles and guards. These are made for all types of feeders but I am going to address pole mounted only at first.

A classic design is the chimney or stove pipe squirrel proof bird feeder baffle. These can be in squirrel sizes or if you have raccoon, a larger size is needed. They fit onto a pole or 4x4 post by slipping over the post, so the bird feeder must be off the pole when installing, They are easy to install and very effective in stopping squirrels or raccoon from climbing poles. A bird feeder must be places at least 10′ away from the nearest object a squirrel can jump from though! While a stove pipe baffle protects a feeder from below it does not protect the feeder from the top or sides.

A second style of bird feeder pole baffle is a flat tray squirrel guard. These tend to be my favorites simply because I turn them up side down and it doubles as a seed tray over my larger feeders. They are very effective in stopping squirrels from accessing bird seed ans well as act as a second bird feeding area when seed falls on it and birds can land and eat.

The last type of pole mounted bird feeder squirrel proof baffle is a cone shape. These can be very handy if a bird feeder is already yp and in use where removing the feeder may be a difficult task. They make installing simple by wrapping around and existing pole or 4x4 post. Any of these designs can also be used to pole mount bird houses to protect babies and rgss during nesting season!

Bluebirds are a favorite species of backyard bird watchers. Different than other bird species in which providing food and bird seed is the primary draw to a garden habitat, for eastern, western and mountain bluebirds alike, it’s a bird house which will attract them initially. As a result of of the decline in bluebird potential homes in natural settings, such as dead trees and wooden fence posts, along with competition from European species of sparrows, there has been a grievous decline in bluebird populations. Therefore, place a bluebird box or bird house for these spectacular avian friends and you will have a much better chance of them being attracted to your yard than without a box.

Bluebirds also are attracted to meal worms and insect foods, which are the larvae of a beetle. They can be purchase live, freeze dried or moist in cans. Live meal worms need to be stored in the fridge and served in a tray feeder or special blue bird feeders, with sides that are at least 2" deep. Meal worms can crawl and will crawl out of a shallow tray. Meal worms are particularly prized during the cold winter months while the insect and bugs which bluebirds consume are meager. They will also enjoy peanut butter dough. Mix one part peanut butter together with six parts of cornmeal, and set the dough in a suet bird feeder or on a platform type tray bird feeder.

And finally, bluebirds are very big on bathing, so be sure to place a bird bath in the backyard, or a pretty shallow dish for them to drink and bathe in. Make sure the bath has a textured bottom so they won’t slip, or else they will not get in it. A depth of about 2" is perfect!

Recently the woodpeckers around my house have been giving me fits. A lot of this is my own fault due to my personal gardening habits, but I can still complain, can’t I? I have woodpeckers. They fly about the woods on my property happily, eat bugs, batter away at logs and generally partake in woodpecker activities. My frequent fliers are the pileated, red bellied and a little hairy. Well none of them come to my feeders. Of course they don’t! I have left them with too much natural food. I leave dead trees that are no danger to the house standing just for them. They are wonderfully full of bugs and the woodpeckers love them. They have built homes in them, it’s beautiful. I have also taken down a couple of smaller trees and just dropped them where they are, left to rot. These are high bird activity spots, in particular the pileated brought her babies to these where they foraged daily. I have also planted a lot of native berry shrubs for bird food. I even left a big ant pile that’s out of my way for the flickers. Yuck.

So as a result, the woodpeckers are quite happy with all of this natural food and ignore the canned stuff supplied by me at the feeding stations. It’s no big deal if they don’t land on a feeder so long as they are about, right? For some reason I want them on my feeders, go figure. So what I did was to take a dead bit of log and drill some shallow holes in it, stick a hook on the top and call it a bird feeder.

Method: Take a log about 3"-4" in diameter and 12" long, and drill some randomly placed 1"-1 1/4" holes in it. Make the hole about 1/2 to 1" deep. Stick a hanging hook in the top, and there you go, a suet plug feeder.

I placed this next to my "official" suet feeder in hopes of luring woodpeckers to the suet, but no go. They are landing and feeding from the log, but still ignoring the suet feeder. Those rascals. I even have a recycled plastic plug feeder with the same food in it but again, no go, they land on the log. The food I am using is Peanut Butter Spread Bird Food, available through Wild Birds Unlimited, and they seem to love it. So do several of the smaller woodland birds.You can also make your own with this easy recipie:

1 cup peanut butter
1 cup crisco shortening or other shortening
4 cups yellow cornmeal
1 cup white flour

Just mix it well and store in the fridge. I have also cut up store bought suet cakes and smashed those into the holes, they work well. Some people smear peanut butter on tress - not me, to many bugs here and squirrels!

The log feeder is a bear to clean, they do get gunked up so I am hoping my woodpeckers adapt to the much easier to clean suet stations and I can take the log down. But if woodpeckers will not come to your feeders, yet you know they are out there, try the log. It’s a natural for them.

Bluebirds are a favorite of many backyard bird watchers. They are beautiful and very adapted to human populated areas and urban gardens. There are several ways to attract these beautiful birds to a yard or garden habitat.

The first piece of advice that I can give is to provide them with water. They are big on bathing! Bluebirds love water and are a species most likely to use a bird bath not only for drinking reasons but to bathe in. My area is not perfect for them but I have water all about the garden and they visit me daily for a bath. When there are fledglings the babies come as well. Any puddle of water will do, from a flower pot bottom placed on the ground to a garden stake bird bath feeder. Bluebirds will also come close to human dwellings, so if you have a the right area, try a deck, porch or patio hanging bird bath. Both the garden stake style and the hanging baths may also be used as a bird feeder which is a nice touch! They as well can be quite beautiful and enhance outdoor decor.

Garden Stake Bird Bath or feeder:

Another option on bird baths if the desire is to have something which is both pretty and functional are decorative garden metal pedestal bird baths feeders. These can be just stunning and are garden art. They also can be used as bird feeders if wanted.

Something to remember is to keep the bird bath in a safe location out of reach of predators like domestic house cats. Make sure it is in a sunny location as they prefer to bathe in the sun, and there should be a tree, shrub or railing nearby that they can fly to after a bath to preen and fluff their feathers. And don’t forget to provide the birds with water in winter! During winter bluebirds flock in groups, so you can get many of them to visit at one time if a backyard is appealing to them!

Attracting Bluebirds with Bird Houses and Boxes

Bluebirds are cavity nest dwellers and may be easily attracted to a man made bluebird house or box if given the right environment. Bluebirds want large, open spaces with lower cut grass or vegetation and a a couple of spread out trees where they hunt insects, forage and perch from. Insects are their primary food source and they perch on tree limbs, fences to dive down and catch bugs. Rural areas, farms, meadows, groves, open parks, cemeteries, and the edges of urban lawns and gardens are good locations.

Bluebirds can easily use assistance for homes. Bluebirds can’t hollow their own nesting cavities since they have soft beaks not make for chipping wood. Instead they use abandoned woodpecker holes or decomposing trees for their houses. A man made box is a wanted sight to many bluebirds, all the same, they can be a bit more choosy than other birds about how their home is fashioned and the place it is situated.

An effective bluebird house needs to have a floor size of 5" x 5" to 6x6", the height needs to be from 8 to 12", the entry hole needs to be approximately 6 to 10" over the floor and the diameter of the entry hole needs to be 1 1/2". Be certain boxes are built of long-lasting wood such as cedar, have ventilation holes at the top as well as drain holes at the bottom. Other beneficial feature is an simple open front or side panel to monitor on the progression of the nesting birds and their babies without upsetting them.

Feeding Bluebirds  

Throughout the hotter months during the year bluebirds can typically discover adequate food to live with no difficulty.Nonetheless, with heavy weather like extended time of cool, wet weather, snow or once ice covers the majority of wild berries, bluebirds can profit from finding feeder meals. Meal worms, suet, sunflower hearts, soft fruits, as well as cornmeal muffins could be given to bluebirds. Many of these can be consumed throughout the frigid weather months if bluebirds have stayed over. Meal worms are the better food to give bluebirds and they can easily consume them all year long.  In the breeding time of year, it’s good to feed meal worms since the harassed parents will appreciatively take them to assistance feeding their hungry babies. Essentially, it works as a add-on to the natural insect diet bluebirds give their nestlings.

Meal worms may be dished out in whatever sort of shallow dish or container that has smooth and tall enough sides so the meal worms can not crawl out and escape. The feeding dish has to be built of either glass, smooth plastic, metal or ceramic since meal worms will crawl from of bowls with rough sides. There are many styles of bluebird bird feeders available made from different materials, but all cater to these beautiful birds. Designed especially for offering insects and meal worm bird food in a backyard, they go a long way to help attract them! These feeders are made so that insect food can not crawl out and often so that there is no access to the feeder from larger birds.

I bought myself a window bird feeder and I am not really sure why, after all, I have a slew of feeders in my backyard already so another one was not what I needed. I’ve also never been into window feeders because of bird window strikes. Now thank goodness I have not had this happen except on very rare occasions and the birds have always survived, but I didn’t want to invite trouble by attracting them towards the glass. Then I read that if you have window strike problems a window feeder can help since it gives dimension to the otherwise smooth reflection in the glass. Okay so this maybe was my rationalization. It was a whim. So, thinking that I was really smart, I purchased a two-in-one style feeder. I bought the one pictured below. (you can buy them at : Window Bird Feeders) It’s pretty nifty because the top comes off and in the winter you can put bird seeds in it, then in the summer use it for a hummingbird feeder. I put it out and used peanuts in it. This gave me the chance to feed peanuts to the smaller birds without having them at my main bird feeding stations, therefore the larger caching birds don’t wipe out the peanut supply rapidly. So far it has nuthatches (white breasted, brown headed) and titmice in it all day long. Oddly my Carolina chickadees don’t visit it. Go figure!

I was quite surprised with how much I enjoyed having a window feeder from day one. I love it! But I wasn’t thrilled with the black metal holder - this is entirely a personal preference. There is not a darn thing wrong with it. But being me, I bought a different one. See below, Now this model I like better. The little tray sits inside the holder and lifts out without having to take the feeder off the glass, it is a nice thick plastic and I put the removeable tray part in the dishwasher. Same as the black metal bracket model but still, I prefer the one below. There are no drain holes in the tray of course as it is supposed to be used as a hummingbird feeder and hold nectar but I haven’t found this to be a problem. It sits under eaves and the rain does not come from that direction so all is well. Of course we are in drought so rain is a memory which help keeps it dry.

 
 What I have had a problem with is the dang suction cups sticking to the glass. I think it’s my glass though, no fault of the feeder at all. I have weird windows and I’m not even completely convinced that they are glass. Anyhow, after it fell down several times on me, I bought a second suction cup, drilled a second hole in the back of the feeder and had two suction cups holding it up. It fell down. By this time I was loving the feeder right at my window, and the birds were having fits when it fell down, attempting to hover where their feeder should be. I was determined to keep it up, after all, the squirrels could not get it, I could feed peanuts and the birds were fussing at me. I ended up using a small piece of double adhesive velcro on the back of the feeder. I didn’t want to do this thinking that this would be tacky, but the strip of velcro is small as the feeder itself is very light and it does not show. It hasn’t fallen down since. My titmice have stopped screaming at me to get their dang peanuts back every time I walk outside.

 There are several styles of window bird feeders on the market but I do recommended when you by one, make sure that it lifts off easily without removing the suction cups. I haven’t found a need for a larger capacity than the one above, it is located right outside my door and a quick fill, but perhaps you would like to fill less often. I love the two-in-one models and recommend them! They also have similar in oriole instead of hummingbird feeders.