Bird feeders!

[BigAl]

WE have always had a bird feeder outside the front kitchen / dining room window so we could enjoy the little critters and the cat could dream of catching one someday . Never had a lot of luck enticing the little guys to come get a free meal . I think a drooling cat might have unnerved them .

Anyway about 2 months ago I was in lost in Home Depot and while looking for my Mommy ... ur I mean wife , I came into the bird seed area . I started looking at all the different types of bird food avalible . I guess I never realized or considered all the types that were avalible before . Anyway I bought a bag that featured some really cool looking birds on the front , took it home and filled up the feeder . WOW!!! The FAA now has banned all airplane flights over our house because of birds , Lots of birds .
They actually ring the door bell when the feeder is empty and squawk names at me . I have seen bird fights that would make Pro Wrestling look like a daycare sport .Man it is getting ugly out there .Yesterday I watched a Sparrow pull a knife out from under its wing and try to make a "nut cracker" into Buffalo wings for trying to get some bird seed . The little Frinches just stood around and egged them on ! Some of them wiegh about 9 pounds !
Now the cat is in theropy because he is afraid to go outside


Oh yes .... Life is good

 

[Melensdad]

I used to have a bird feeder in the yard off the back patio, actually had a couple. And hung suet blocks for the birds too.

Stopped all that because I was having all sorts of raccoon problems. The dogs were getting into fights with raccoons a couple times a year. I'm a pretty slow learner, rode the short bus to school, so I never put 2+2 together to figure out that the raccoons were attracted to the variety of seeds and suet that we had dispersed in the various feeders.

Finally someone pointed out the error of my ways and I've only had to deal with 2 raccoons since I removed the feeders 4 or 5 years ago. The most recent was one just a couple weeks ago that I had to dispatch with a .223 after the dog broke the little critter's back.

For me it was worth it to allow the birds to find their own food. But honestly, I did like having them around in large numbers and enjoyed the variety we would see.

 

[BigAl]

Once the Raccoons cleaned all the Koi out of the fish pond ,I think they moved down the rode . They do stop by to steal dry type dog food once in a while . My dog is also in theropy.

 

[Junkman]

At a pet industry trade show last week, they introduced a machine that was refrigerated and held 3000 pounds of bird seed. It was computer operated and would mix the different seeds into a customers "prefer" blend. You too could have one of these wonderful machines in your store for only $6000. All this to sell someone a bag of bird seed that cost about 75 cents a pound. I wonder who is going to be servicing these machines when the computer or some mechanical failure occurred. We have a refrigerated fish tank for keeping gold fish, and when that tanks refrigeration unit breaks down, they send a complete new refrigeration unit to the store for replacement. Even the local refrigeration guys won't work on it. No one wants to deal with anything that is outside of what they normally work on.

 

[BigAl]

At a pet industry trade show last week, they introduced a machine that was refrigerated and held 3000 pounds of bird seed.

Last would last about two days with these flying hoodlums !!!

 

[thcri]

For me it was worth it to allow the birds to find their own food. But honestly, I did like having them around in large numbers and enjoyed the variety we would see.

Kind of got into monitoring Bluebirds and helping protect them. I have a family of Blues with three nestlings and hope the next brood I will have more families since I have put up more houses. I also have a family of Tree Swallows nesting and maybe today will start laying eggs. So much for the ramblings, but I have learned that feeding birds is not good. I love seeing them come to the feeders as much as the next person but we really are not helping them at all. I have also found that having feed out is only enlarging the House Sparrow population which is not good. House sparrows are bad, they almost have destroyed the Blue bird population on their own. They destroy eggs, they kill the mothers and the babies only to steal the nesting cavity away. They will go after just about any bird to get what they want. Kind of like a serial killer. So anyway I keep water out, I do feed my blue's mealworms twice a day and put out thistle seed for the finches as the sparrows can't feed off that to easy. I now see less and less of the House Sparrows around anymore.

murph

 

[BigAl]

Ok ! It just got worst !! The wife went out and bought another feeder . We are now having bird seed brought in by the railroad car . Bird fights are breaking out everywhere . A bunch of welfare birds just moved in and demanded ,free cheese , free medical , a free nest , and a spending allowance . They don't even chirp in english for cryin out loud ! They now say if they can make it to the feeder without being caught we cannot return them back to there country ! This is bad !