The Modest Birder (23) the lore of birdfeeding

          The purpose of this post is to report my systematic observations of my feeders from November 1, 2014 to May 15, 2015 as I am still interested in the accuracy of the various advertisements that one can attract birds that would not normally be present by making food available. Among my previous Modest Birder posts ## 3, 13 ( lengthy one), 14 and 20, record some of my previous observation. # 13 also addresses the claims of such advertisements.
           This time I was inspired by several very well done publications by the people of Hawk Mountain with the theme "If you plant them (i.e. native food plants), they (i.e. the birds) will come." At Hawk Mountain with its fine native plant garden in a bird rich habitat, this is probably true, but I am willing to bet that the birds attracted to the garden were already there, before the garden reached its present extent. One of these would be the Chestnut-sided Warbler in one of the illustrations. A pair of these took up residence in 2010 in the jungle tha sprung up on the untended 20 acres across our road that not only has native plants but anything that the wind and birds provided including the fast growing and early flowering Bartlett Pears.
           I couln't, of course, discourage the planting of natives and am increasingly replacing the stuff I inherited from previous owners (one of which, I was pleasantly surprised, had been a wildflower enthousiast) with natives. Some of these, like trout lilies, spring beauties, quaker ladies and columbines have been present in the untended parts since the house was built in the 1960s. The first three make a wonderful tapestry that attracts insects and these attract a passing Bluebird and the resident Phoebes. The columbines attract the resident Ruby-throated Hummingbirds, but I have not discovered where the nest. I see it when the columbines have done their blooming, for ex. on the honey-less  cultivated red geraniums that I brought back from France in 1983 and kept going since by annual cuttings. Nostalgia keeps these around. To please the Hummers I planted Bergamots, but here again I'm not a purist as, in dislike of the mauve wild species, I opted for the red Jacob Kline cultivar, Hummers being as amorous of red as am I. But they also come to the local penstamons and they would love the reds from the Arizona road dividers that sooner or later I'll plant, extending "native" to beyond Penna.
          In the 15 years that we lived here I found that the best way to attract Bluebirds is to have a centenary gnarled oak like the one that stood on the bank across our road before that was moved over in 2007. Also important was the extensive lawn that was cut only once every 2 weeks by my neighbor. And having electric wires helps also as the Bluebirds perched all along the 1/4 mile bank to hawk the insects hidden in the grass. The oak gone, another neighbor with small kids put up bluebird boxes and for 2 years one was used, but the lawn having disappeared under the second growth brush, the birds now only appear as migrants.
          I have often wondered how large a property one needs to feed a variety of birds. For ex. we have  6 dogwoods and we can see 4 more, we also have 2 female hollies and 4 female winterberries. In late October 2014 a flock of  23 Robins took only 3 days to do away with all the fruit, once "helped" by 2 Sapsuckers and 1 Mocking Bird. The Sapsuckers moved on as did the Robins and the Mocking Bird moved back to its territory across 113, a light industrial park, of all places. The holly berries were not favorites and about half were still therefor Christmas decorations, the Cardinals finally having eaten the last ones by 1/29. I noticed that a wonderful large English holly near the post office keeps its berries nearly all winter although there are some 15 Robins roaming around town.  And in New Jersey, hundreds of  native hollies still have most of their berries in spite of wintering Robins and Cedar Waxwings, not to speak of the ravenous Starlings, Grackles and what have you.
          Talking about New Jersey: The NJ ABA birdline had 6 reports on "stormbirds" during Juno with its high winds and snow (Jan. 26-27, 2015). These birders may have hoped for a Redpoll as there was something of an invasion the previous week. I checked them out of curiosity as I found that our birds were fewer in number, the Hairy Woodpeckers having disappeared and of the downies only 3 small and 2 larger ones are left, while nothing new arrived; all of which is unusual, though not as unusual as the 15 or so Robins that forage in the sunny mud spots in our slowly flowing creek (the -10F froze the mud en the Robins have not returned on 1/29). The NJ reports noted more Whitethroats and or juncos, only one had uncommon Am. Tree Sparrow and another: "the only unusual bird was a starling, but at least I can add that to my yardlist."


          Starlings are the bane of my existence. Their hangout is the adjacent farm and they often swarm over the grass of the nearby light industrial park or that of the grade school. But come January and snow they appear in our garden. First one or two that divide their attention between the seed and the suet. But if the snow persists these "pioneers" are soon accompanied by an entire flock of up to 30. They sit in small groups spread out in the trees as far as the opposite slope while six or seven, in relays, fight flutteringly over the suet all other birds having left to avoid their stiletto like beaks. It takes them about 4 hours to do away with the entire cake; without starlings it takes the woodpeckers, nuthatches, Brown Creeper and an occasional titmouse about 4 to 5 days. I decided not to replace the suet an lo and behold, we now have 1 or 2 starlings and some afternoons up to five, but they stay for only 10 minutes at the most. One starling arrived, landed on the ring for the suet basket, looked around and hurried of.  They dislike the tube feeder, it is not easy to bent their ungainly bodies to get at the food with their long beaks. A few years ago I had spread food over a patch of the herb garden an the entire flock of starlings was acting out their version of "black Friday." When I happened to hit one of them with a beebee (not hard to miss) they kept up their frantic pushing, trampling on the dead bird (which became food for our local raccoon).
        In one of the earlier posts I discussed the type of seeds our birds prefer. For my birthday my youngest grandchild brought a bag of a "complete mix" that included white and golden millet, nijer and canary seed. Just as in previous years, most of that seed ended up on the ground as I watched the finches fling it out of the way as they searched for cracked nuts and even black sunflower seed (which took some management before they had removed the shell). I usually mix Cardinal and Chickadee food and that appears to keep every one happy. The suet cakes are my real problem. I have tried every type offered and find that the suet eaters like them all. But so do the squirrels and the  occasional raccoons. A cake would last a day and the following morning only some bits still stuck to the basket. Before my son fixed a "rodent resistant" system, the raccoons managed to take down the entire basket and make off with it down the hill to the thick spreading yews near the creek. Now I use hot pepper suet and when it's out of stock I smear both sides of any other type with something like the spicy dip of a shrimp cocktail.
          The bag of the Christmas present carries 12 color pictures of birds one can attract. It's obviously assumed that the buyer feeds birds all year and is somewhat knowledgeable, for Grosbeaks and Towhees are not winter birds in most of the USA and these also need an even more specific habitat than Cardinals, Mourning Doves and Chickadees. We have had Rose-breasted Grosbeaks as breeders in 2 years and they didn't arrive until the end of April. Towhees arrive irregularly, once in march, but usually around April 15. In the earliest posts, now deleted, I objected to those picture as misleading and false advertising because my barber's wheelchair bound mother liked to look at birds and was disappointed that she mostly saw little brown ones. I still feel uneasy about those pictures having made a survey of "affordable homes" with feeders (most of them filled only during the winter) and wonder whether these people are as informed as the advertising on the bags assumed. But then one never knows. I used to shop in a supermarket that carried bird food only in the winter and in small bags of nijer, a mixture of millets or of cracked corn, that carried no pictures. It must have satisfied the needs of the birds in a small town with small garden plots and tree lined streets.  


and then I ended up in the hospital until august and thus the experiments in the yard come to an and.