New Strategy For Feeding

[Axeman]

The best mixed seed I've ever been able to find are the President's Choice wild bird seed and AllSeason wild bird seed -- and while both have the highest count of sunflower seeds and peanuts I've found, they still have a fair bit of "filler" seed -- millet.

my local co-op has begun a bulk seed bar which lets you pick between a variety of seed -- black striped sunflower, black oil sunflower, safflower, millet, hulled sunflower and both shelled and in shell peanut. I switched to that for a bit but the problem is you have to bag each separately b/c they're priced differently -- so you're using many plastic bags -- and then you have to mix at home. Typically I would buy the black oil and striped sunflower with shelled peanuts.

I've noticed that black oil sunflower seed are relatively cheap in a huge bag so today I went with it. No striped sunflower....no shelled peanuts...no safflower (which frankly I didn't find particularly popular except with cardinals but they also like the sunflower seeds so....)....I have a big bag of in shell peanuts for the red squirrels and jays that I"ll scatter on the ground...we'll see how this turns out. Anyone else go with one type of seed?

Oh....and I'll be testing out a new feeder I "won" on silent auction at a recent Ducks Unlimited fundraising dinner. It's a platform feeder made to look like a drake mallard -- it's Amish made out of old barn board -- a Pine Bush Home and Garden product. It came with a mark's choice bag of premium wild bird seed...which is mostly millet....    

[Shortsighted]

I purchase a large bag of black sunflower seeds and scoop some into a container and
add some crushed peanuts, millet. and dried currants. The juncos eat the millet, as
do chickadees but the cardinals prefer the sunflower seeds. Squirrels will eat anything
and they do so usually before any bird shows up. I've added some dried hot chili flakes
to discourage them but I'm not sure it works. They seem to be able to avoid them.

[Axeman]

hmmm...the juncos and chickadees seem to eschew the millet up here...it just sticks around...until eventually someone eats it out of desperation or it grows.

I really only get the red squirrels and they aren't really disruptive -- aside from chewing on the cages of my suet feeders...grrr....I'll get one possibly 2 intermittent black phased easter greys but the reds surprisingly bully the larger easter greys....so I don't really mind squirrels at the feeders..in fact I enjoy it...but as I said, it's not the problem of hordes of easter greys of the urban centres.

Currants? There's an idea! Thanks!

[Shortsighted]

I'm glad I gave you an idea. If anything I generally give people the wrong idea.
It's true, I like to keep current, but it's an effort.
I once had success with Gogi berries and a hungry Red-bellied woodpecker.
So I figured why not currents. There are cheap, small, and give my entree
a bit of class. I have a toy red squirrel hanging from a noose and that
keeps the real ones away. The larger black and grey squirrels just sit
around the gallows and laugh. Who would have thought that squirrels
appreciate gallows humour. I may eventually start to like them.

[Ally]

They laugh??

I'm glad I gave you an idea. If anything I generally give people the wrong idea.
It's true, I like to keep current, but it's an effort.
I once had success with Gogi berries and a hungry Red-bellied woodpecker.
So I figured why not currents. There are cheap, small, and give my entree
a bit of class. I have a toy red squirrel hanging from a noose and that
keeps the real ones away. The larger black and grey squirrels just sit
around the gallows and laugh. Who would have thought that squirrels
appreciate gallows humour. I may eventually start to like them.

[Shortsighted]

I don't know how squirrels laugh but I'm convinced that they play games and find
certain things amusing in their own rodent way. When they sit side by side and
stare I figure that they are amused by something, or perhaps they sense something
is about to happen.

[Howieh]

My male cardinal must have shorted the market because he, along with a few robins, showed up this morning and he's singing up a storm!

[Axeman]

The black oil sunflowers are not working out as well as I had hoped....