A few weeks ago I posted a poll asking how many bird feeders people had. We’ve had 8 responses (7 in addition to our own) so far and once again Pam and I have some work to do!
Bird Feedin’ Maniacs
I thought we were doing pretty good with having four feeders in our yard. It turns out that we had the fewest! Here’s how things break down so far:
Four Feeders 1 (that’s us)
Seven or More 3 (These were before I added more options so some of these might have much more than 7 feeders!)
Seven to Ten 3
Sixteen or More 1 (I think I know who you are but I won’t tell )
Frankly, I’m impressed. There are some serious bird feeding people out there. I’m sure the birds appreciate it!
I’ll keep the survey open so new readers who find the post can add to it.
Keep Participating
Thanks to all of you who read the blog and participate in the polls. I enjoy seeing the results and I hope you do as well. If you haven’t responded to the latest poll “Where do you buy your birdseed” please do. We’re getting a little more participation with this one so weigh in if you haven’t yet.
Just in time for the weekend, here’s another exciting survey to complete.
Bird Seed Ain’t Cheap
Since we started feeding the birds with more regularity we have seen our “seed budget” increase quite a bit. One thing is for sure, bird seed is expensive! To keep from going broke we’ve been scouring the different places to buy seed to see if we can get quality seed at a little lower price. That got me thinking (always a dangerous thing), where do all the other big time backyard bird feeder types get their seed from?
After the last poll, How Many Bird Feeders Do You Have (final results soon), I know some of you must be buying a lot of seed since you have over 7 feeders in your yard! So, go ahead and complete this little survey and then, if you don’t mind, tell us in the comments where you have found the best bird seed deals. Maybe we can help each other save a little $$$ by sharing our favorite bird seed buying places.
Here are some pictures of the birds from our backyard bird feeder, our gift to all of you. Thanks for reading and here’s to a great 2009!
This past weekend we “upgraded” our feeder setup. So far, the birds seem to really like it. One of the benefits to this setup is that it is a little easier to take photos of the birds as they sit and eat. I’m still figuring out how to take the best quality pictures from the 2nd floor bedroom but I got quite a few and thought I’d share some of them:
Here’s a Cardinal and Carolina Wren sharing the platform feeder. We have a ton of Cardinals in our yard and they really seem to like the platform.
This Tufted Titmouse was just about to fly off as I took this picture.
We have a couple of Red Bellied Woodpeckers that frequent the suet feeder. They are a very pretty bird and fun to watch.
We have a lot of House Finches and the platform feeder has become their new favorite place.
The Eastern Towhee stays on the ground and picks up whatever he can that falls from the feeders.
We have a lot of Bluebirds in our yard this Winter. They really like the suet feeder but for some reason this one was on the ground with his buddy the Cardinal.
Here’s an OK picture of a Bluebird on the suet feeder. My camera has a hard time focusing on the small area of the feeder so the picture is a little blurry.
I’m enjoying the challenge of photographing the birds that visit our feeders. Hopefully I can get better quality photos by tweaking the settings on the camera.
What kind of pictures are you able to get of the birds at your feeders?
This past weekend Pam and I added to our feeder assortment by replacing a feeder that was falling apart and adding a couple of new ones to the mix. Hopefully this will give us a wider variety of birds.
Out With The Old
Here is a picture of our old feeder setup. You will see that we had a “tri-tube” feeder along with a finch feeder and a suet cage. We were getting a fair amount of birds. In fact, the feeders were always pretty busy. But the triple tubed feeder was on its last legs. Most of the feeding holes were chewed away, the result of squirrels getting on the feeder before we raised the feeder. The seed would just fall out of the holes and the feeder was almost impossible to clean. The finch feeder didn’t get much action. We think maybe it was because it was so close to the other feeder and the goldfinches supposedly don’t like that.
In With The New
We set out to get a new tube feeder to replace the one we had. We went to a couple of stores that sell bird feeders and found one we liked, the BirdQuest Spiral Feeder. Instead of perches it has a “spiral” that runs from top to bottom. It is easy to clean and holds a lot of seed. In addition we got a Going Green Platform Feeder which is made from recycled plastic and should last a long time. It has a perforated grate at the bottom to help keep the seed dry. We also pulled a feeder “off the bench” which my parents gave to us a couple of years ago. It is a tube feeder with a cage around it to keep big birds out and allow the smaller birds in to get the food. The suet feeder stayed at the same spot. We took the finch feeder off the feeder pole and put it on a hook attached to our deck, away from the main feeder by about 20 feet. Hopefully that will help the goldfinches come back.
The Results
We set the new feeders up late Saturday afternoon and by Sunday morning the birds were swarming the feeders. They seemed to like the feeders, especially the platform feeder, which had a bunch of nuthatches and cardinals all over it. So far, so good. Another benefit that I didn’t consider is that the new feeder setup makes it easier to get photos of the birds. I took a bunch on Sunday and will post some when I can get through them.
So far we are very happy with the new feeder arrangement. The birds have a wider variety of options which will hopefully attract some new species and the feeders are better positioned for viewing from the house. We are looking forward to seeing all of the birds that will come to visit. Now, I just need a second job to afford all of the seed we are buying!
I thought I’d post a picture or two of our backyard so you can see what we have as far as an environment for birdwatching. Here is a view of our backyard from the driveway. As you can see we have a lot of trees in the yard. It is mainly a mix of Pine and Sweet gum. There are a couple of Oak and Hickory (I think) trees as well. The big tree to the right of the feeders is a Sweet gum. As far as bushes go, the primary one is Azaleas (right behind the feeders). The birds hide in there and dart out to grab some food. As you can see the ground below the feeders is covered with leaves. The brown thrashers, towhees, and fox sparrows love to kick around in the leaves looking for whatever it is they look for, mostly grubs and insects I think. The yard is fully surrounded with a fence which I think helps keep predators (cats, etc.) away.
View From Office
We use one of our bedrooms upstairs as the computer room/office. Here’s a couple of shots from there. We have a great view of the yard and we are able to view from here without disturbing the birds. Its great when it’s cold. We can see the whole backyard and are able to view the birds as they fly around the yard and scoot in and out of the bushes. You can see that we have another fairly large Azalea on the right side of the yard. Oh, and if you look on the sidebar and see “the Current Weather In Our Backyard” graphic, the weather station that collects all of that is mounted to the top of our deck. So literally, it is the weather in our backyard (I told you I was a bit of a geek ). The bedroom/office also makes a pretty good spot for taking pictures of the birds. Here is a sample shot. I have a 2 year old Canon PowerShot S3 IS which is a 6 megapixel camera that has a 12x optical zoom.
This picture was taken using the full 12x zoom. At some point I may get a spotting scope and try to “digiscope” by taking pictures through the scope but for now I’m happy with the results.
Our Feeders
Right now we have 4 active feeders:
A three tube feeder that we put a mix of black oil sunflower seed and mixed seed.
A suet feeder that we just put various suet blocks in.
A niger feeder that gets used a lot more in the Summer.
A hummingbird feeder that we have attached to the deck right below the weather station. It’s very busy in the summer.
Pam and I are talking about adding another feeder but we’re not sure what to add. We want to add something that will complement our current feeder setup, not duplicate it. If any of you have suggestions we’re all ears.
What About Your Backyard
There you go, a summary of our backyard. We’d love to see some of the other backyards out there. So, post a link to a picture of your backyard or feeders in the comments and share your backyard with the world!
Also, If there is anything else you have done to improve your backyard viewing pleasure please tell us about it in the comments.
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. Instead of perches it has a “spiral” that runs from top to bottom. It is easy to clean and holds a lot of seed. In addition we got a 
which is made from recycled plastic and should last a long time. It has a perforated grate at the bottom to help keep the seed dry. We also pulled a feeder “off the bench” which my parents gave to us a couple of years ago. It is a tube feeder with a cage around it to keep big birds out and allow the smaller birds in to get the food. The suet feeder stayed at the same spot. We took the finch feeder off the feeder pole and put it on a hook attached to our deck, away from the main feeder by about 20 feet. Hopefully that will help the goldfinches come back.
