awww, sweet tweeties

Sorry for the confusion; I will check the thread titles better from now on!

Bea, that feeder looks exactly like my millet feeder, a feeder I got for my Dad years ago. He hung it from a maple in the back yard, high enough to see easily from the house, but he had a sort of pulley system so he could easily lower it to waist height for filling.

Snow is gone now, but it was great for bird watching.

Lovely colors...and surprising! I don't associate snow with Texas.

nice pics, GrammaChar. Number 3, a sparrow? Nice contrast of the narrower bill shape to the chunky finch bill in #4.

A few random captures from the past week. This roadrunner was quite content to let me photograph him imitating a loaf of bread on a cold, grey day until Marley the Cat joined the party. Exited over the fence.

Went to visit the sandhill cranes and snow geese at one of their wintering grounds, but chose a dark day, not so great for pictures but they sure were fun to see and listen to.

Sally, I'm pretty sure that's a female Rad-winged Blackbird.

NMoasis said: A few random captures from the past week. This roadrunner was quite content to let me photograph him imitating a loaf of bread on a cold, grey day until Marley the Cat joined the party. Exited over the fence.

He said: "beep beep!"

Zoe
Thanks CalPoly
Bluebirds like something in the Sozzlin Heat food. But dang if the squirrels haven't decided to eat it as well. Feeder emptied overnight.

WOW. I went with a bunch of grad students (we managed to borrow the Ecology Dept van) to a place in Wisconsin with what seemed like tens of thousands of them. Seeing them come in to the lake shore in huge flocks, calling, jostling for position, getting settled only to wheel back into the sky once more... it was one of the most amazing experiences of my life, right up there with driving through misty giant redwoods and hiking around to see a million monarchs draped over the branches, so many of them fluttering through the air that it was impossible to track the flight of a single butterfly.

Ugh on the squirrels gobbling up all that nice birdseed mix, Sally! So far they are staying away from my spicy PB and bird cookies (PB suet, also extra hot). But the last couople of years we had one who obviously couldn't taste capsicum, just munched his way through it with no reaction other than, "yummy!" Apparently you have one or more like that. I wonder if it will become a more predominant trait?

Well. The bag was 14 pounds at about 36 bucks. Seemed like little was wasted ( I'm not sure about what looked like wheat berries) so the price wasn't too bad. About $2.50 a pound?

Not bad for seed that's treated with hot pepper. It doesn't seem to work to just sprinkle cayenne into the bag. I'm trying a mix of sunflower kernels and peanuts in one of the feeders (new deck, don't want the seed mess there), and I know the squirrels will find it. I wonder if I warm the sunflower kernel and peanut mix over low heat on the stove and stir cayenne powder into it, would the cayenne stick better? If I keep the squirrel feeder full, they usually stay away from the other feeders. It's easily accessed and contains 1 part peanuts to 2-3 parts BOS.

A house finch has found the new mix with hulled sunflower seeds and is acting like he can't quite believe his good fortune.

Walmart has some good seed prices. BOS in 40 pound bag is $30, 60 cents per pound. Safflower in 5 pound bags is $1.80 per pound. Sunflower without the shell is $2 per pound in a 15 pound bag (paying 80 cents a pound more than regular sunflower, since I've read half the weight is in the seed coat). Peanuts are also $2.20 per pound (5 pounds for $11). I do watch for sales on store-brand unsalted peanuts.

I feed a lot of white millet, on its own in one feeder and mixed with safflower in another. I get it in 50 pound bags on Amazon, currently $52 (but I've paid as high as $72).

I have a couple of tall, narrow garbage cans that I keep the seeds & mixes in. I tried putting them out on the deck (the lids lock), but you know a squirrel chewed through the lid the first day, what was I thinking? So, they are just inside the patio door.

This Sizzlin Heat seems to have something a bit clumpy about it, as if there is something helping coat the seed.

Good prices!
I don't buy nearly that much in a year. I feel obliged to stick with a particular local business.
Good to know about hulled sunflower! About now I get sick of shells on the deck. With rain/dew, the light colored deck 'boards' get dingy fast.

We can get a lot of birds at a time on the deck! When we feed regularly from fall to spring, we can go through 100 pounds of millet, the same in BOS, plus peanuts and safflower.

I just made another batch of "bird cookies" (PB suet with added cayenne, some minced dried fruit, and an extra 16 oz PB because it seemed too dry), got about 15 patties to refill my square green wire feeder. I put it into sandwich baggies, mold it into approximately the right size, and freeze it. For me, that's easier than putting it into a brownie pan and cutting it, then bagging it. I leave it on the stove over very low heat for several hours to let the cayenne work through the mixture.

For anybody who doesn't have it, here's the recipe

Martha Sargent's No-Melt Peanut Butter Suet

1 cup peanut butter (crunchy or creamy)
1 cup lard (do not substitute)
2 cups of quick cook oats
2 cups yellow cornmeal
1 cup of flour
1/3 cup of sugar
(1/4-1/3 cup ground cayenne, my addition)
(1 cup minced dried fruit, my addition)

Melt the PB and suet. Add cayenne if using (I use a generous 1/4 cup or twice the amount of hot pepper flakes). Stir in everything else. If I have dried fruit that has darkened and become unappetizing, I mince that and stir it in. Simmer on lowest heat 2 hours. Mold, cool, package, freeze whatever you're not using right away.

I just bought ingredients today to make some of the better suet. That's pretty much my recipe except I don't put in any sugar or cayenne. But I do toss in sunflower seeds or raisins or both.

I bought these silicone molds from Amazon one year and they make it so easy to remove the frozen suet from them. The size is a bit too small, but I've seen them made into exact suet block sizes and the prices are ridiculous for those molds and I refuse to pay that. So I don't fill these all the way and they fit well enough for how easy it is to remove them.


Edit: Here's the right size for suet cakes, $20.00 each... no thanks.
https://youdoitsuet.com/buy-on...

@LoriMT and @Murky

Thank you both for the acorns!

I wonder how easy it would be to reuse the plastic molds that come with the suet cakes at Lowes and Home Depot.

I thought of that, but they're really flimsy. I think the first time you removed a suet from them they'd break apart. Most of them lately just come wrapped in cellophone, which I like because they're easier to get out and just drop in the feeder without getting your hands messy.

Avoiding mess is why I put the homemade ones in sandwich bags or press-n-seal, especially since I use so much Cayenne. It's too easy to get it from my finger to my eye. Ouch!!

If I ever made them to give away, I think I'd get a set of silicone tart pans (same link as the square brownie molds above). They are the right height, and they hold about a cup more (total) than making 1" squares with the other molds. (Yes, I*am* that much of a geek, I calculated it, or at least I tried to!)