Feeder notes, September 22-27
My husband captured the squirrel at the bird bath, on camera anyway. They are terribly cute, even if a tad expensive to feed. This one has a boisterous compadre missing most of its tail that frequents the feeders as well.
Our feeders are finally a flutter of activity again. We do not yet quite have so many birds as before our lengthy feeding break, but we do have regular visitors. There is the flock of sparrows which visits each morning and afternoon. Then there are the mourning doves, that energetic blue jay and a handful of house finches which normally come and go with the sparrows. Today, a male downy woodpecker made an appearance, as did our white breasted nuthatch. I am sincerely hoping that the goldfinches will soon return.
I need to get some more suet. We used to have so many woodpeckers visiting our yard it was amazing. They still come and work over the trees in our yard, and the down woodpecker still comes for the sunflower seeds, but I miss the Northern Flicker which used to come at regular times, several times per day. Soon it will be cold enough to put out our homemade suet. Right now, I think it would just ooze all over the feeder!
Today, we will be taking a field trip to the Loess Hills of Iowa to catch what we can of the raptor migration. I will post pictures of what we see over the weekend. In the meantime, fellow 451Press blogger Susan Walsh shares some earthly gardening advice. As I plan my bird garden for next year, I will be perusing through her site to find out what I can.
birding, backyard birding, birdwatching
September 28th, 2007 at 8:29 am
I have really enjoyed reading this blog! Keep up the awesome work.
September 30th, 2007 at 3:37 pm
Squirrels are fun to watch.-They are so clever when it comes to figuring out how to get food.-I use shelled peanuts in a peanut feeder-covered by a dome in summer-instead of suet.-It attracts most of the same birds, and works well.