In anticipation of the living room being finished, two months ago I hung a bird feeder outside the living room window so I would be able to sit in my comfy chair this winter and watch my winter time friends.
For a long time only the cardinals were visiting. Apparently the safflower that the feed store gave me is popular with cardinals but not too many other species. So I changed feed to something a wide variety of birds would like (safflower, black oil sunflower seeds, millet, peanuts, raisins). I also got a second feeder and put thistle in it hoping to attract finches.
Boy did I ever attract the birds! In addition to the cardinal family I now have black capped chick-a-dees, nuthatches, titmice, mourning doves, one grackle (thank goodness), the occasional Blue Jay and sparrows, but no finches yet. I was so excited! “Was” being the key word in that sentence.
We are now over run with sparrows. Daily a flock of anywhere from 20 to 40 shows up and stays until the feeder is empty; that is 3lbs of bird seed a day.
What to do? I did some research on what my favorite birds liked to eat and went back to the feed store and purchased peanuts, safflower and the same mix I’ve been using. I made up my own mix going a little lighter on the sunflower seed and heavier on the safflower and peanuts. I also hung a suet feeder and smeared peanut butter on the trunk of the tree and pressed seed into that for the nuthatch and titmouse.
We will see what happens over the next week or so.
