Birding has become a wonderful pastime for me. BD does not seem to enjoy the slow slow walks through parks and all the standing around that comes with that type of birding but he has been enjoying our little backyard smorgasboard of Flickers, Blue Jays, Squirrelly-birds, Magpies, House Finches and Sparrows. Below are some portraits of one of our lovely Flicker visitors.
There are plenty of suet feeders (5 now) in the yard but the birds tend to go to this flat feeder alot for the seeds and nuts. Sadly, the squirrely-birds tend to dominate in the entire yard – seriously, they are getting so fat from all the bird feed.
I did get a Squirrel Buster feeder for Christmas though (still to be hung). We will see how that works out for us and the squirrels. Personally, I think it will only take a few days for them to figure out how to override the flip-down cover.
Actually, I don’t hate the squirrels, I just wish they would learn to share better. I had thought that the larger birds at some point would bully the squirrels out but they don’t. All the birds are so polite – they sit around and wait for the squirrels to finish eating and then come in. Sparrows are the best as they go clean up the mess that the squirrels leave on the ground.
Do you have bird feeders in your yard? Do you have trouble with squirrels eating everything up?