Saw 2 Redwing Blackbirds today. They're hanging around, waiting for the pond to thaw. Three Sandhill Cranes flew over, on their way to Canada (or at least further north than here). They're amazing to hear.
Trying an experiment, with my finch-feeder. I mixed cracked sunflower nuts into the Nyjer. I hope the nuts are small enough to fit through the feeder ports. Nicole says, if I clearly, distinctly, obviously, and unmistakably label the container, I can keep live meal worms in the refrigerator. I might be able to attract Bluebirds. I've seen them around, but they don't come to the feeders. Not interested in seeds. I have some freeze-dried larva in one of the window feeders. But it's not very enticing. As the nice person at Wild Birds Unlimited put it, "Would you eat jerky if you could get a hamburger?"
We should have named the dog Houdini. She escaped again, last evening. I guess the good news is she didn't go through the new fence on the north side. The 6x6s staked to the ground along the fence seem to be holding. And she didn't dig out, so that's better than last year. The bad news is that the lumber buried under the fence, to which the fence is stapled, is finally rotten. She broke a 2-foot length off, at the staple line, and then pushed the fence up. The tension wire is obviously wired to the fence material too infrequently. Hopefully, if I add more connections, it'll hold against push-ups. If not, I'll have to replace the buried wood. I really, really, really don't want to dig all that up.
Trying an experiment, with my finch-feeder. I mixed cracked sunflower nuts into the Nyjer. I hope the nuts are small enough to fit through the feeder ports. Nicole says, if I clearly, distinctly, obviously, and unmistakably label the container, I can keep live meal worms in the refrigerator. I might be able to attract Bluebirds. I've seen them around, but they don't come to the feeders. Not interested in seeds. I have some freeze-dried larva in one of the window feeders. But it's not very enticing. As the nice person at Wild Birds Unlimited put it, "Would you eat jerky if you could get a hamburger?"
We should have named the dog Houdini. She escaped again, last evening. I guess the good news is she didn't go through the new fence on the north side. The 6x6s staked to the ground along the fence seem to be holding. And she didn't dig out, so that's better than last year. The bad news is that the lumber buried under the fence, to which the fence is stapled, is finally rotten. She broke a 2-foot length off, at the staple line, and then pushed the fence up. The tension wire is obviously wired to the fence material too infrequently. Hopefully, if I add more connections, it'll hold against push-ups. If not, I'll have to replace the buried wood. I really, really, really don't want to dig all that up.
Yay for birds.
We've got to start putting food out in the feeder again soon (we didn't keep it filled in the fall so that we wouldn't have to keep filling it over the winter).
My friend who lives in Texas noted that in Texas you know it's spring when all the birds leave.
According to the Birdchick, University of Minnesota researchers determined that birds don't rely on feeders. Even in the worst weather of the study, birds obtained only about 20% of their food from feeders. That's not to say they don't appreciate the feeders. But I don't worry about keeping them filled over the winter, anymore.
" . . . it's spring when all the birds leave." LOL.