February 2019

Last of the log feeder

End O’ the log feeder, it has just been taken down. Video of pileated woodpecker, the only time I’ve seen him on this feeder. He was “allowed” on, even though he cleans out the feeder in no time, but he only came around once. Notice how his claws span such a wide area for standing there and how long his beak is. The flickers, however, were NOT welcome, they are too numerous and they also shoo away songbirds and clean out the feeder. They became slingshot target practice (don’t worry, my aim is bad, but at least I got close enough with the slingshot to scare away the squirrels and flickers for long periods of time). Too bad the squirrels got used to the capsaicin in the suet feed, they now tolerate it and they wouldn’t leave this log feeder alone. It was only effective for about ten months. Positioning a wire cage cloche on top hasn’t helped, though it does stymie the flickers. Brand new arrival is a “squirrel proof feeder”, which many many reviewers said works well to keep them out:

One reviewer didn’t, but they posted a picture with their feeder fixed right to the downspout, giving him lots of opportunity to wriggle in. I looked it up – the squirrel skull is apparently 1.4 inches in width (3.5cm), smaller than the feeder hole sizes of 1.5 inches. The skull height is almost 3 cm, so there isn’t much wriggle room for a squirrel who’s in mid jump or swinging around to get his head and subsequently his shoulders maneuvered in, but a fixed feeder with easy access would eventually be overcome. Above is the feeder we got, in a temporary spot…..it is also supposed to keep the flickers away from most of the suet, which it should be able to do. I don’t plan on putting in two cakes of suet, but rather 1 or 2 suet logs, placed more centrally so the animals that can’t fit into the “feeding space” can’t get to it. I started with the capsaicin logs I still have, but have better suet with buggies in it as well as peanuts. I’m planning on putting that in later, to drive the squirrels NUTS!

February snows, part deux

Bitter cold weather and lots of snow….it was all I could do to try to keep some of the little songbirds fed a bit so they could tolerate the cold, which was descending fast. How could I bring their numbers up in the garden (for our viewing pleasure) if they didn’t survive the winter? A few crushed up peanuts and residual seeds under the bushes here and there helps, and I top off the suet feeder, though the nasty squirrels are now the most persistent feeders, as anyone with bird feeders will tell you. Even using suet with pepper oils in it has suddenly stopped deterring them after almost a year, and they attack not just the suet but chew the shit out of the pine log used to make the feeder. The flickers just eat several days’ worth of the songbirds’ suet in about ten minutes’ time. Only once had a pileated woodpecker visit, and I got some great video (see next entry). Placing wire cage cloche over the feeder log hasn’t helped with the squirrels, nor the appearance(one of the cloches is in the background of the video below). I’ve resorted to purchasing a squirrel and flicker proof caged feeder, which doesn’t allow the squirrels into the space around the suet, that should help in a few days when it arrives. And then to top it off, I ordered the good stuff to use in it, that the squirrels and flickers really like, so I can drive them nuts for a change.

The good news is that Wiley is back, having not been on camera since late November. He appears to have at least detected the pork roast bone and gristley parts, though he missed them by two hours since the crows got there first- the place he ends up sniffing at the end.

Finally caught a wren on the video, hopping up into one of their favorite roosts. They usually just go there at nights, but are also known to cozy away during inclement weather, which we were experiencing, with sub freezing temps and intermittent heavy snowfalls. In the past they have been more consistent about staying in the same holes, etc. but maybe there are lots of places for them to stay. Also not sure yet if they are going into wren box and just not being detected…….this video capture was likely compliments of the chickadee who wrestled around right next to the camera first.

February snowstorms

Somewhat of a surprise to the area, I think we may have had the most snow in the area, but everyone got wind. Our power was out for a few hours. It will be freezing temps for the next two days, too, so I put out some extra suet lumps stuck on the feeder, sunflower seeds and bread crumbs. Hard to find areas that aren’t inundated with snow, so mostly under bushes where birds like to feed anyway.

Ookow coming up now, the leaves spiky stalks of dark purple green. The deer sometimes eat their purple allium type flowers, once the leaves and then flower stalks reach about three feet high. We’ll just have to see if all the “deer fence”, the 18″ high nearly invisible segmented fencing I recently put up around a few vulnerable areas, will protect them and my other delicate plants from all the trampling the deer do.

Deer rant: Of course deer can “jump” the fence, but there’s not much reason to do any jumping, plus these are arranged in circles. They’re meant to divert the deer around, preferably back to the path. Good thing most plants were dormant when all that rutting was going on! (See previous entry from December).The ground was full of deep hoof holes, that’s one reason for the extra fence circles. I’m also not sure they would have completely respected the fence borders during the rutting, but we’ll see next year. So far after a month, no disturbance of the four fenced circles or new hoof holes within them. One fence has been undisturbed for three months. I also put 5 bronze metal cage cloches on a few new huckleberry and their plants that the deer ate down to the ground, to give them half a chance (the sixth one of the set helps keep the flickers out of the suet feeder, though the songbirds did need to learn how to use it).

We haven’t seen deer in the videos since November. We saw coyote prints all across the lower back yard just today after all the snow….too bad the camera batteries were out then, the coyotes hadn’t been seen on camera since late November. We were just wondering about it the other day, whether their routes into the ‘hood were cut off. Just in case, though, I need to remember to order some insect barrier to put over the young ash trees…..the bird netting holes are too large and it falls down, which won’t help protect the leaves from the deer at all. I need to look online and see what if anything exists between that size and mosquito netting.

Repurposed several photo frames from the last few decades to house new little photo-sized mosaics of birds. We don’t have much room for photo displays around here- they collect dust on countertops and then eventually sit in a drawer. I made four but only finished glueing three, since one needs some serious sanding to make it centered and is not that great. They are small, the wren is 2 1/2″ x 4″, the largest jay is 4 x 6″, the woodpecker in between. Anyway, here are the birds in all their glory: (looks like I need to clean a woodpecker tile)