Having twice lost postings about my garden yesterday (I get very envious when I see all your gardens that are so far ahead of mine), I'm almost afraid to try again.
But when I looked out this morning, there were 14 Blue Jays cleaning up the ground beneath my feeders. With the feeders less than 10ft from our living room window, it's sometimes hard to approach & not scare some of them away. So here I sit, on a hassock in front of the window, my laptop on my knees, my camera & a coffee next to me, waiting for the Baltimore Oriole to come by. They're new to my feeding community and in all my years of feeding birds, I don't believe I have ever had this bird come by before.
Here we have 3 types of woodpeckers, blue jays, the odd cardinal, grosbeaks, a number of finches as well as grackles, the scourge of every feeder as they scatter more seed than they eat. We've even had a occasional hummingbird hover by to see what the commotion is about.
Yesterday I added a fourth bracket to the pole so I can now give everyone their choice of seed. There's thistle seed for the gold finches. At times I've seen at least 6 or 7 finches trying to eat while at the same time battling each other for superiority. I have a double feeder with sunflowers at the top and canary seed on the bottom. There's not as much demand for the sunflowers now as there was over the winter but the canary seed is still going down a treat as the grosbeaks, blue jays & of course the grackles go for them. I have a third feeder made of mesh containing peanuts for the woodpeckers. It's amazing that the strength of woodpecker beaks means this type of feeder needs to be replaced at least once a year. Last but not least I've added a glass nectar feeder...just for the orioles!
Do any of you feed birds? Do you ever get the chance to watch their antics? This morning I watched a blue jay waiting his turn for the canary seed while belligerently pretending to attack the finch who had gotten there first. Each time the finch would duck down but never yielded.
In the city, where the squirrels grow as big as small cats, I used to grease my feeding poles. I don't mind the squirrels coming round as long as they know their place....cleaning up the ground around the pole. There would always be at least one, cheeky enough to climb the pole & empty a feeder in one gulp. (It's extremely amusing to see them jump onto the greased pole & then slide right down again.)
At the moment I have 4 feeders in use.
Oops, my camera seems to need recharging. I'll try again tomorrow. That'll give the Oriole some time to become less shy.