FOWC with Fandango — Debut
We hung the feeders on Sunday. By Monday, we had birds. Tufted Titmice and Chickadees and a few woodpeckers. Also some little ones I think are some sort of sparrow or finch. They are all rather beige now, it being winter coat season.
The birds are all shy now and fly away as soon as they see me by the window, but they will relax as the year moves along. Yesterday, I finally hoisted my rig onto my shoulder to take a few pictures of our Massachusetts State Birds, the Black-Throated Chickadees.
I know the birds are busy because the level of seed keeps dropping and I’m pretty sure when I put fresher food in the feeders, they will be even happier. This is the last food from last winter and it’s a bit stale.
Still wondering what to do about the squirrels. The suggestion is to put squirrel feeders at least 15 feet away from the bird feeders to distract them from the feeders — and some of the designs are hilarious and I’m sure the squirrels are pretty funny as they figure out how to get the corn out of the hole or the big jug or the roof flap.
The problem is that 15 feet from the bird feeders is the woods and once the snow falls, I can’t get to the woods. So I’d be able to feed them until December or thereabouts, but after that, I’d be snowed in and they will promptly take over the feeders.
Chickadee
They will do that anyway. I don’t see any reason why they should stop with their food and not move on to finishing the food in the feeders. Food is food is food.
They are such greedy guts!
I will only put out food in maybe 6 weeks because right now they can get worms out of the soil. But I am very worried because lately I have a feeling that we have far less birds alltogether. We’ll see – and I’m glad we have no squirrels around here. They were a major problem when I lived in England. Nothing was holding them back. Nothing!
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I was going to wait, but they’ve been spraying poison for the mosquitoes and I thought maybe it would be good to give them unpoisoned food.
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this truly sounds like a nightmare!
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We’ve lost 29% of all our birds. And there will be more losses. Every time we cut down a woods and build a condo, more birds have nowhere to live. You aren’t wrong. PUT OUT THE FOOD. They are not getting the food that was available.
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Chickadees are my favorites; they’re so cute and I love their song:)
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I wished I had some suggestions, but alas, I don’t. Our little squirrels are adept at feeding and don’t seem to require our assistance although I’d love to. I’m too concerned about the kitty cats. We have two again. Porsche found a new home, Abbey stayed, Sugar found a new home and we now have Oreo (my grand kids new cat) black with white paws and adorable.
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we have the chickadees here too. They tend to stay the winter.
Leslie
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I think they have a heavy cover of feathers. They are definitely northern birds.
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We don’t have either of these birds here… but between Ani (who likes the fat balls, if she can kidnap them) and the squirrels, we face the same problems.
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I’m just glad we still have birds after all the poison spraying! I was afraid we’d killed them off. I will feel better when I see more of them.
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I can imagine.
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Even when we are trying to do the right thing, we STILL screw it up. I’m not sure we really know what “the right thing” is. So much is going on and every item is important. Critical. What needs to get done first? Second? Next? So much to do and not enough money or enough engaged nations to get it done.
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No, I am not sure that we do know, but we do need to get our act togther somehow and act.
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I miss chickadees. They were the only bird that stayed all winter in South Dakota.
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Chickadees are all year round birds here, too. They are apparently cold weather birdies. You wouldn’t know it from looking at them!
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