Business is BRISK, these cold days, at my feeders. I have four feeders that I put Songbird food in. I get Cardinals, Woodpeckers, Nuthatches, Chickadees, and Sparrows.

I also have "socks" full of thistle seed out there, for the finches. I LOVE it when I see the first hint of yellow on their feathers. Then I know that Spring is coming.

I also put suet cakes out, which seem to be quite popular. And I have "squirrel chairs" that attach to a tree, on which I screw on a cob of dried corn. Kind of helps to keep them out of the feeders.

I LOVE nature, anyway, and I get so thrilled when they come right up to my window feeders.

If you feed them all year, they will reward you in the summer, by eating their weight in bugs everyday.

By Yjja123 on Monday, January 12, 2004 - 09:07 am:

We live on a canal and I feed a family of ducks every morning. It is my moment to relax and enjoy the quiet calm. I grew up in the country in upstate NY so living in Florida now there isn't much of that nature feel. My moments with the ducks are a highlight of my day. They walk right up to me and will look for me in the mornings.

By Colette on Monday, January 12, 2004 - 09:18 am:

I feed the birds. But I need to be careful where I put the feeders because I have 2 cats. My suet feeder is empty. I need to get some more because we are supposed to be getting the coldest air in 2 decades by the end of the week!!

By Trina~moderator on Monday, January 12, 2004 - 09:19 am:

We used to keep our bird feeder full at all times UNTIL a black bear became a regular visitor. LOL! He was very dependable. Within 2-3 days of filling our feeder he'd show up, pull down the cast iron pole, demolish the feeder and fill his face. I suppose we could feed the birds during winter months while Yogi is hibernating. I miss watching the birds, especially the cardinal couple that nests in our trees.

By Sue3 on Monday, January 12, 2004 - 09:38 am:

LOL Trina ! Cool Picture , Mr. Black Bear looks pretty hungry.
Hol, we feed the birds also,mainly just black oil sunflower seeds.
We have the kind of birds visiting our feeder as you do.
They are fun to watch , my whole family enjoys watching them as do are barn cats.

By Dawnk777 on Monday, January 12, 2004 - 02:57 pm:

My seed went bad, so the birds aren't coming. I need to get my boots on, empty the feeders and put new seed in them.

By Kernkate on Monday, January 12, 2004 - 05:59 pm:

Trina, we have the same problem here with the black bears. So I gave up on the summer time feeder. I do put seed in the feeders in the winter. And we have so many different little bird friends around. I love to watch them.

By Ginny~moderator on Monday, January 12, 2004 - 07:18 pm:

All you birdfeeders - birds also need water in the winter. If you can manage a flat container for water that won't break when the water freezes, it is good to put out warm water a couple of times a day around the time the birds come to feed. Some really devoted bird feeders will even get birdbaths that have an electric heater to keep the water from freezing.

My mom loved to feed the birds, and in the winter, the squirrels, so we did. The first spring I discovered a huge patch of sunflowers growing where squirrels missed sunflower seeds, so after that we'd microwave the seeds to keep them from germinating - didn't seem to bother the birds or squirrels at all. What I did each time we bought a 25# bag of seed was fill a large microwave lasagna dish fairly full and microwave for 10 minutes, dumping it into a metal lidded trash can we used to hold the bird seed.

One summer I planted really tall, large sunflowers next to the fence so I could tie them up to keep them from drooping. It was a joy to watch the goldfinches on them. The sunflower heads were so heavy the stalks bent and the heads were facing down. The birds would perch on the edge of the head and reach under to get out all the seeds they could reach, then one of them would peck away to break off the empty portion of the head to have a new section to get seeds from.

We wound up using those feeders with the bar that slams a lid down over the seed if too much weight is on the bar the feeding bird (or squirrel) sits on - I had the bars set for about 4-5 sparrows, or 2 jays or cardinals. It was funny to watch the squirrels and pigeons trying to get at the seed when the lid snapped down over the trough when they got on the bar.

By Mommmie on Monday, January 12, 2004 - 09:28 pm:

Oh, Trina, great bear picture!!!

We feed the birds at feeders - no bears here - but sometimes it becomes a bird buffet for the feral cats.

We also have opossums that hang around and eat the seed that hits the ground.