How do you attract birds to a new feeder/SunFlower heads

Deb..I have certainly enjoyed this journey of yours and have learned a lot too since I am a new birder. I know that I must get DH to build a brush pile or two for the birds since we have no good cover for them. I am anxious to hear about your shopping expedition trip to WBU. I wish we had one in our area! I have enjoyed your pictures too...good luck birding...Rose.

We are more than happy to enable..er encourage you guys!

Tobasco, here in Clearwater County we pay $3.00 for a permit to cut any size tree we find on USFS land for a Christmas tree. Since there's only my husband and myself, we just put up a tiny fake tabletop tree but what a thought. We could go cut two trees for $6 and have immediate cover for our feeders. Just stand them in our area. Thank you for such a good idea. Right now we have the big feeder which has mixed seeds in it, the Nyger/Thistle feeder, and the tube type feeder with the black sunflower seeds in it. Bob is scattering seed on the mulch and the rocks for the Junco's who are feeding here 3-4 times a day. Thanks again for the suggestion. Deb

Any size tree??? What's to stop someone buying the $3 permit, cut down an ancient forest giant, use the top for a christmas tree, and sell the log for $1000?

Resin

Oh Resin, I wish I could say that would be possible..here in Idaho old growth forests have been stripped by the logging industry long ago. The powers that be are trying to force their way into the very last remaining areas but so far haven't been successful, thank goodness. If you've ever seen a clearcut area you know why I say Thank Goodness. It literally looks like a completely war torn, bomb scarred, awful hillside. When Bob & I are out exploring it makes me cry when we come across it. People do go out and cut out the top of a nice tree but most people here buy their tree down at the grocery store parking lot since they've been raised in this and don't really see the individual trees out there. Us nuts from California that never were able to do this in Suburbia are the ones out there cutting our own....Deb

Sounds like an adventure to cut your Xmas trees in the forests compliments of the USFS...I'm sure your birds would love a nice fresh tree or two to perch in...

I'm glad you liked my idea, but it's not original to me LOL--last year we had a wonderful DG thread going about 'snags' in our yarden--how we would go out and find old felled tree trunks and make our DHs go out with a truck and drag them home and stand them up (or plant them securely in the ground) to lure the woodpeckers... putting out the Xmas tree leftovers was a nice alternative and probably saved my marriage! ...we were getting a little obsessed by competitve birdfeeding, I think!

Pretty good birds today and nice snowfall. I have to get a photo program added to this new computer so I can download. Is there anything better/easier than Picasa that's free? Sorry, off topic, but oh, well...

I learned a real important lesson 2yrs ago when we cut our first tree. It had been snowing up to the day we went out but was a gorgeous bright blue and we tromped all over off the roads looking for the perfect one....well you couldn't see their shape really 'cause they were weighed down with a snow load so the bright one here who grew up in snow country, North Dakota, but it was plains/prairie so no trees to cut, got underneath one and grabbed the trunk and just shook the living life out of it. My husband got a pretty good laugh out of that and I got a neck/head shower of cold snow. After that I grabbed a branch, stood back and gave a good pull/shake....What is "Picasa"? please.....Deb

Depsi, Picasa is a photo editing program.

tabasco have you ever tried Infranview?



http://www.tucows.com/preview/194967

This message was edited Dec 6, 2007 10:47 PM

Hi, we are back from Spokane & the Coeur d'Alene trip and very pleased to see the big feeder completely empty and signs of alot of visitors in the snow beneath it as well as on our deck and rocks while we were away for the past 3 days. Went to the WBU and it was a great experience. The lady who owns it was so informative & just spent all kinds of time with us. We bought a bluebird house, bird bath, a peanut feeder, peanuts, nuts & berries, and a beautiful calendar. + 2 identification books on birds in Idaho and when we got home our Stokes book was in the mail. My husband will be very busy for awhile. He is going to take that Bluebird house apart & use it as a template to make more + we learned the one we have up needs some remodeling since it has no drain holes or ventilation holes. Bob will modify that and I have gourds that we drilled at one of our garden club meetings which I will hang. We are so enjoying this...We will leave Sunday again for Spokane as I am having surgery on my hand on Monday so unfortunately I won't be on the keyboard for quite awhile but will still be reading the posts. I'm having reconstruction done on my wrist as well as carpal tunnel repaired...this will give me all kinds of time to study up, tho, so am looking forward to the down time + the relief from pain. Bob is laying in bed right now reading "How to Attract Birds to Your Garden" and is planning where to plant a hedge for cover. Do any of you have any tips on the seed sprouting? That is one thing we did not take into consideration and all of these feeders are over an area covered by different mints + sage plants + Ajuga....very bad to have to pull sprouted weeds in...we just never thought about that....pic is some of the "Boys" trying to impress the hens in front of the house.....Happy Birding!!!

How cool that you got them with their tail fans! Take care .

Wow they are showing off! Nice pic Depsi!

Depsi
If you have any planting near the house, you might try a tube type feeder and shepards crook next to it with thistle in it. When we wanted to get them closer to the house this is what we did, about 2 weeks later they prefer this one and there is a ton of coverage, feeders, suet feeders and birdbaths all over for them. Love the turkey shot, we have a time with them int he commercial iris beds and then flying all 30 of them to the top of a tree and then the roof of the house.

D

I know the turkeys can be pests but we have enough space here that they just pass thru 2-3 times a day but they use our neighbors apples trees to sit in and when they do the deer come running to get what they knock off on the ground. I took some pics a moment ago I'd like to share with you.

This one

number 3

The last one....they are all over the suet and also eating from the nyger feeder as well as the black oil sunflowers. I know it is all Junco's but this is a big start. You should see the turkeys when they come in the front yard and just circle around & around the deer enclosure where the feeders are trying to figure how to get in there. Little stinkers!!! Deb

Thank you for sharing.

We do not have snow here just the wet stuff...but we keep our feedings and suet filled for the birds as we love to watch them.

Hang in there you will get much more.

D

Very good! It won't be long before you'll see other types of birds but in the meantime those Junco's are really enjoying themselves! Congrats!

Congratulations...you have birds! Word will get out and you will have lots more coming soon.

I enjoyed the pics of the turkeys...I think they are beautiful!

Look at this pic taken about 10 minutes ago!!!!!!!!! HHHOOORRRAAAYYY...

Congratulations Deb!! GRRRRReat pic! Let the fun begin!

I love this thread ... Depsi glad you finally have birds at your feeder. You will spend most of your day watching them ... hope DH can do laundry and cook. I have seven feeders and spend a lot of time just watch the cute little things fly back and forth from the trees to the feeder. I love to listen to their songs. Most of the birds I see in my yard are wood peckers, titmice, nuthatches, finch, sparrows, cardinals, blue jays, doves, and of course a hawk. I spend a lot of time trying to keep the squirrels out of the feeder ... what a challenge.

Enjoy the watching the birds ... I find it relaxing.

Michael

Relaxing, Michael?????????? I'm so excited my hair is curling!!!!! We've had the big turks for so long we've gotten over the thrill of them but OHMIGOSH, this darling little guys!!!!! I can imagine how much I'm going to enjoy recovery from my surgery...I will put the recliner in front of the window and feast!!!! Deb

This was a couple of moments ago...We still do love the "Boys".....

These guys are so incredibly beautiful when the sun hits them....in the snow they do kinda look like lumps!!!

WooHoo!!! See it's just like they say, "If you build it, they will come."
We expect to see you over on the daily pics before long now!

I can't get over the beautiful view of the mountains and open fields you have ... plenty of room for feeders and bird houses. What a way to recover from surgery. Make sure you keep your camera with you and post those lovely pictures.

WAY TO GO DEPSI !!!!

Wow to have a red shafted Ficker as one of your first birds is Awesome!!!

We have had the flicker here since we moved here but normally is on the roof looking around in the eaves or we have a border of large rocks & driftwood along the bottom of our shop and he spends alot of time climbing amongst that. He really is beautiful and Bob was so excited because he just happened to snap while he was sitting still on the birdhouse. The other little red headed tiny guy we believe is a house finch...sound right? I don't know if you will be able to tell much but I snapped a pic of a bald eagle this past Saturday while he was circling me...Have a wonderful time with your birds tomorrow and as I say, I will be watching all the posts on this forum but won't be posting again for possibly a month. Be assured I will be bird watching...nice to hear from each of you and we appreciate your encouragement. Bob just got the new bird bath up that we bought at WBU. These fellas have found friends here at our house. Deb

Good Luck w/ your operations Depsi !

That does look like a HF but its pretty far away for me to tell positive.

Hope you have a fast recovery!

Pelle :-)

I just wanted to say I've been following your thread, but hadn't previously posted to it. It's been very helpful to me as I've started feeding birds myself. Like you, I was beginning to wonder if they were ever going to find my feeders, then shortly after I started a thread asking about it, they found me too!

I hope your surgery goes well. Maybe you could get some of that voice recognition software so you can still "type" while your wrists are healing. It would drive me crazy to read the message boards without being able to talk, LOL.

Depsi,

Wonderful! So happy for you! ;-)

You bird setup looks great! What is the feeder that you stated "this one" ? It has some sticks around it as perches. Did your DH make the feeder? I like it!

Love all the Turkey pics and all the other pics!

Take care and keep us posted! ;-)

Marilyn

This message was edited Dec 19, 2007 11:40 PM

I took a little trip to NYC last weekand got back to find out the birds found your feeders! How fun! And did you take out a second mortgage for your shopping trip to WBU?? You made quite a haul! Christmas came a little early!

I try to stay away from WBU, but I know I am obsessed and have down loaded all kinds of esoteric stuff from the internet about just which nyger seed is the 'best' one--but don't ask me now because I can't remember anything much!

Good luck with the wrist surgery! The last thread I was on today had 'Karrie' out with a broken wrist so the wrist issues must be contagious here on DG--is it a carpel tunnel out break?

And so since you are house bound you can do the Audubon back yard feeder bird counts from your windows. I know they will want those magnificent turkeys in the count!

Pelle, I will study up on the Photo program. Thanks for the tip.

Tobasco, typing with one hand so will be short: removal of the trapezoid bone with a tendon replacement + CARPEL TUNNEL REPAIR. with pain meds not doing any counting anything....Deb

Marilyn,

Deb's a little under the weather and will be for a few days so she had me reply to your question regarding the bird feeder. It was given to us by a neighbor this past summer, it had been given to him by someone else as a gift. That's what got us started on this adventure. It's a home made feeder and I added the bamboo plant supports which we bought at Home Depot. The birds were reluctant to come to the feeder at first because they had such a small landing zone. After the sticks were added they came readily, land on the perches and hop inside the feeder. We're learning and sure having fun at the same time.

Bob

Bob,

Hope Deb gets and feels better by the day! I had wrist surgery for a fractured/broken wrist (with 2 long 'nails' added till it healed) in Spring of 1995, then had a cast that went to my elbow, so I know it can't be fun at all!

Thanks for responding and showing a closeup of the feeder. That was a great idea to add the bamboo sticks around for perching! I can't believe your neighbor didn't want it! It's a beautiful and beautifully made feeder!

Marilyn

Bob, that is a beautiful feeder and such a great idea to add the perches! Tell Deb that I hope she gets to feeling better soon.

Bob...so glad you are responding to this thread! Nice shot of the feeder and yes the fun is addicting! Tell Deb I hope she is feeling better and is back online soon. You two have a Wonderful Holiday...Rose

Thanks for all the good wishes!!!! one hand typing sucks big time!!!! had to share this with you, tho. the pic is blurry but that's Bob in his robe this morning taking care of the babies before the sun came up even!!!! We have become addicts for sure....but what a joyful addiction....Deb

This message was edited Dec 23, 2007 9:23 AM

Deb...this pic is just priceless! So glad you can post even if it is one handed...be well!