out at the camper i have 4 taoolw/suet feeders hangin. and i have to fill at least 2 every weekend. got one hangin at home and i dont need to look at it for 6 months... not sure why. i see all kinds of woodpeckers and others. gotta go gettin new puter!

anyone adding to there arsenal to attract more birds being springs just around the corner??? i am going to invest in some mealworms to see if i can get a few residents in my bluebird house!

Get some coil stock aluminum or some scrap aluminum siding,I around the holes that the feed comes out to keep the tray supplied,fix it to the feeders mine are all wood so I staple it on,For some reason squirrels dont chew through aluminum.

seen some doves and robins around, and my mom always aid the robins gotta get stromed on at least once............... so now spring can come. seenin a few more birds at the feeders latelt.

One of the funniest thing's I've seen happen in the outdoor's occured when I still lived in Maple Grove. It was nearly impossible to keep a bird feeder filled down there because of those pesky squirrel's! You can't fire a gun in the environ's of Maple Grove so that was out. So I sez to myself,"Self you dummkopf! Why don't you get one of those new, fancy-schmancy squirrel proof bird feeder's? The one I got was made completely of metal. There was a frammistan on the front of it where the bird's could land and eat out of the feeder which was spring loaded so that when anything heavier than a bird landed on it, the bar would drop down and close access to the feeder. I kept an eagle eye on the feeder, hoping I would catch the guilty party in the act! It wasn't very long and here come's this street smart, tough looking, cocky old gray squirrel! And just like Clellan Card used to say,"He hopped up on my vindowsill and cocked a shining eye!" I could yust tell what was going through his evil, little brain!"Kick the tire's and light the fire's! I'm really going to score tonight!" Of course as soon as he yumped on the frammistan it closed down so he couldn't get at the food! All the while I am giggling and tee heeing to myself. He kind of hopped all around the feeder with a puzzled look in his beady, little eye's. Then he tryed to chew on one corner of it. I knew that he had finally given up when he hopped on top of the feeder and PEE'ed on it! S'true! No :laughing4:DIRTBALL2

Squirrel repellent.....Buy a clay pigeon thrower that sits on the ground and is anchored down, then gets cocked. Wire some aluminum gutter the length of the throwing arm to the arm itself and wire a cob of corn inside the gutter. Tie a long string to the release, Censored and wait for the gray to show up. When he hops up on that ear of corn pull the string. Seeing the squirrels fly along at about 80 mph for a couple hunderd feet is something else. A friend has one of these rigged up and brought it by one day a couple years ago to test out. The first squirrel left our back yard at high velocity, crossed the street out front and hit the house's porch clear across the street. We weren't certain of the squiggles condition after impact but it took it a few minutes to gather its ability to move. 

Found this article..

Spring is on the doorstep. Now is the time to get your yard and bird feeders ready for the rush of breeding and migratory bird activity.

If you have been feeding birds all winter you most likely have a carpet of seed shells under your feeders. 

The first thing we recommend is to clean up under the feeders. Wet, rotting shells mixed with excessive amounts of bird waste is unhealthy for songbirds. Try raking up the seed hulls.



Start out clean!

Clean your feeders, baffles, poles, and weather guards with a 10 percent bleach solution (one part bleach to nine parts water). Do it on a sunny day if you can and let the feeders air-dry in the warm sun.  Take time now to repair any weather damage to your feeders and replace those beyond repair. 

Clean up the bird houses in the yard. Remove any old nesting material or twigs from the birdhouses. They may have gathered some pesticides from being in the cramped confines all winter. Plus birds like remaking their nests each year if they migrate.



Set up new feeder

Adding new feeders can help attract more birds to your yard. More feeders, spread farther apart, can reduce overcrowding and help lessen birds' stress.

Also, by offering new or different foods in your new feeders, you'll attract a greater variety of birds to your yard. And keep the bird feeders full. Early spring can still be chilly and it may take a while for the bushes and trees to start growing berries and seeds again.



Add a bird bath

Provide fresh water. Birds love cleaning themselves in freshwater birdbaths, especially when other sources may still be frozen. If it's too deep, add pieces of slate or a rock in the middle to allow smaller birds to perch.

Clean your existing bird baths with a stiff-bristled brush and a 10 percent bleach solution (like the one used to clean your feeders in #1). Refill your bird baths with fresh water at least once a week.



Bugs and fruits

In spring, a bird's need for protein increases dramatically. And many insect and fruit-eating birds like northern orioles and wrens and others are returning from their winter homes. Yet fruits and insects are not naturally abundant yet. You can help by serving birdfood that will help birds until they can transition to eating natural sources of fruits and insects.

Loaded with protein, mealworms can help you attract insect-eating birds like bluebirds or wrens. Offering live mealworms will create a flurry of activity of birds, and some of our resident birds like chickadees and titmice will also feast on them. Fresh and dried fruits are popular with a number of birds and help provide proper color pigments for new feathers and other nutritional needs.



Add some peanuts

Loaded with protein and fat, peanuts provide birds with the necessary energy to defend territories and raise healthy families. Peanuts out of the shell are an absolute favorite of the nuthatches. Peanuts in the shell will be taken by jays and woodpeckers.  It's especially interesting to watch jays take a whole peanut, tip back his head to send it to his crop, then take ANOTHER whole peanut before flying away to cache them.

That is a great article Tom, thanks. This will be my first year putting out a nectar feeder to see if I can get some hummingbirds. When is a good time to start putting those out?

i usually put the hummer and oriole food out within a week of fishin opener.

See a pair passing through about a week ago.  Have not seen one since.

Oh yeah every year we have a few in the feeders.  Some times they destroy them and others just knock them over.  I found it is just easier to build them on stands so they can tip them over.

Here's something you could try glenn. It worked very well to keep pesky squirrel's away from the bird feeder's. Beside's it was funny as hell to watch them jump. Do you know what hardware cloth is? It's really made out of metal. It's the wire stuff made in the shape of small square's. You can cut it into whatever size you want with a pair of tin snip's. Cut the hardware cloth into the size that will cover whatever it is that the bird's land on. Then affix the hardware cloth to the area where they land in such a way that it won't come loose. You could use wire or cable tie's. Whatever will work. Then get some ordinary 2-conductor wire, like what is used to make household extension cord's. Get it long enough to run from your bird feeder all the way into your house. First strip one end of the wire and wire it to the HC you just installed on your bird feeder. If you are anal like me, you can even solder the end's of that wire to the HC. After you have run the wire into your house, install a toggle switch inline. Then run whatever amount of wire you will need to reach an outlet. Lastly, install an ordinary electrical plug in to that end of the wire. Be sure to do this in an area where you can easily see outside to the area where your bird feeder is located. Now you are finally ready to show those grackle's and blackbird's where the bear **** in the buckwheat! Anytime you happen to walk by the window and spot anything you don't want messing with your bird feeder, flip the toggle switch to ON! That will immediately send 110 volt's coursing through the HC you installed there. I would think that might discourage the rotten little bugger's, eh? It used to make those dam pesky squirrel's jump 2' up in the air!LOLOLOL! :icon_thumright:DIRTBALL2

Nail an owl decoy up somewhere overlooking the feeders.

Here is a bear, raccoon, squirrel proof feeder system...

http://www.monsteroutdoors.com/servlet/the-453/birds-only-feeding-system/Detail

First Orioles today. Feeder went out on Monday and just a short while ago I saw two fly off the oranges when I was in the driveway dinging around. Love the Orioles.