I would happily share my suet with the 1 squirrel that visits if I could just defeat the starlings and grackles that clean the suet out within a hour. I've tried the upside down feeders and they just stand on the ground, jump and hook a toe on the wire and grab a mouth full. The "caged" feeders just barely slow them down...they stretch their necks and still get the suet.

I've given up

They can be a nuisance.

My mom put up one of these and says all she gets are lots of woodpeckers. There are no songbirds. I seen there were different mixtures of seeds, nuts and berries depending on the type of birds you want to attract, but no matter what kind she buys, just woodpeckers. Any tips on not attracting those?

Mostly the suit blocks do attract woodpeckers. I have seen Chickadees and Mockingbirds eating suet at the blocks though.

Oh I LOVE woodpeckers!!! That's what I WANT to attract instead of the other "demon" birds!

I'll trade with her!!!

Well we were going for finches, chickadees, titmouse, and wrens maybe bluebirds. But seems all we have are woodpeckers, bluejays and some kind of large ugly black things. All of them bullies of course, not to mention hogs lol they can pack it away!

Guess it's all in the eyes of the beholder! As frustrated as I get at the starlings and grackles, they are just doing what they do. I just hold the suet until they leave. Oh....and I LOVE bluejays too!!

Don't give up, Kim. It may just be that the other birds haven't found your feeder yet. I have different birds at different times of year. When the grackles are a nuisance, I do go out and scare them away, and I've been known to shoot at them with my pellet gun (which won't hurt them but will scare them) if no other birds are there.

The bluejays and woodpeckers compete with the grackles here very well, as do the cardinals, titmice and dozens of sparrows.

I do have to grease the vertical part of my big shepherd's hook to keep the squirrels from climbing it. I've also seen rats on the bird feeders at night and the only way they could get there is by climbing the pole. So I keep a tube of SuperLube and an old toothbrush handy and grease up the pole every few weeks. It helps preserve the paint and the metal as a side benefit.

I make tons of suet cakes for winter use, I get Cardinals, Woodpeckers, Chickadees, Sparrows and
Starlings. I just found out that the mystery birds I have tons of are European Starlings, I was not use to
the completely speckled bodies...but I guess appearance changes in winter?, anyway I found out
by looking it up in the Audubon Birds book.

I found this a while back... think I'm going to try it this year. I really want my little downy woodpecker to come back after the bullies chased it away...

regular suet cage (see photo) suspended from a square foot sheet of hardware cloth, with pieces of electrical wire attached to the edges, about 1" apart, hanging down. The starlings were unable to fly between the hanging wires, but other birds had no trouble. They "say" the grackles and starlings don't like the wires and won't fly up into it..

What is your suet recipe Linda... sounds like it's a hit!

klc said:I found this a while back... think I'm going to try it this year. I really want my little downy woodpecker to come back after the bullies chased it away...

regular suet cage (see photo) suspended from a square foot sheet of hardware cloth, with pieces of electrical wire attached to the edges, about 1" apart, hanging down. The starlings were unable to fly between the hanging wires, but other birds had no trouble. They "say" the grackles and starlings don't like the wires and won't fly up into it..

Let us know how that works out.

klc said:What is your suet recipe Linda... sounds like it's a hit!

They do flock to it! Equal parts of lard and peanut butter, flour and cornmeal to correct consistency, add what you want, I put sun flower seeds, raisins and birdseed
and use the plastic molds from previous buying of suet in a store, Google it to get recipes and ideas of add ins.

Linda

I have everything to make a batch today!!