Feed Station Zebra.. Spring 2022

roddie Sat May 07, 2022 8:29 pm

Hi. Some of you know of Robert's (rsv1cox) and my bird-feeding efforts. I relocated my feeder a few days ago.. and it's been a lesson in patience. The feeder consists of a 1.25" dia. EMT pole with two bracket/hangers at the top and a conical baffle below.. to prevent squirrels from climbing up.

The photo below shows the new location..

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The squirrels could now jump onto the baffle from the railing.. Shocked

I needed to raise the pole higher. It was doable.. and I did it.

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That's pretty high.. huh? well........ not high enough. The little $#!t$ were taking me back to school.. What?

I decided to raise the pole and the baffle. The baffle is held and rotates atop a spring which passes through a hole drilled-through the pole to accept it.

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I drilled another hole through "higher" (6-8") and reinstalled the spring and cone.

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I now use a broomstick with a J-hook turned-up on the end, to service the feed-station. It works very well. I used to climb a rickety wooden step-ladder. No need to take that risk any more.

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Lynne and I LoVe to see the birds that come to feed.

rsv1cox Sun May 08, 2022 6:23 am

Looks like a Swiss chalet roddie serving smorgasbord, a little something for everybody. Mom used to set out suet for the Chickadees, but I never tried it. Robins are back here in abundance, Bluebirds too. Saw a Red Cardinal last week, brilliant in his deepest breeding season red.

Now if it would just stop raining. Still going on out there.

getback Sun May 08, 2022 7:32 am

The little boogers can bee persistent for sure , I am just waiting for my Kiefer Pears to get a bit bigger and the squirrels will be carrying them off birds too for that matter . Cinco de Mayo

Son shot one with the pellet gun just knocked him out the tree and he got up shook it off and hauled , didnt see any for awhile now they are coming back few at a time Censored

NEW222 Sun May 08, 2022 9:33 pm

Gotta say that them squirrels are sure a crafty little rodent and can be good problem solvers....

rdw777 Mon May 09, 2022 9:34 am

My wife and I are amateurish birders and feed them in the backyard as well and also have a bath for them…I like to photograph them and those we find out in the county…, We live in a rural tiny town so we get a lot of species that come to the yard.,, Fortunately we don’t have tree squirrels where we live ..,

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andrew Mon May 09, 2022 10:20 am

Nice contrast of a redwing and yellowheaded blackbird sitting together. We have redwings here, but I don't believe I've ever seen a yellowhead in this part of the country.

roddie Thu May 26, 2022 8:07 pm

rsv1cox wrote:Looks like a Swiss chalet roddie serving smorgasbord, a little something for everybody. Mom used to set out suet for the Chickadees, but I never tried it. Robins are back here in abundance, Bluebirds too. Saw a Red Cardinal last week, brilliant in his deepest breeding season red.

Now if it would just stop raining. Still going on out there.

Yes Robert, I enjoy trying different seeds/feed to see what species of birds I can attract. I'm on my 3rd 50# bag of black oil sunflower seed since the beginning of this past Winter. I mix the seed and a few cups of dried mealworms into a steel canister for storage. That seems to attract a nice variety. I also hang a tube-feeder that dispenses thistle/nyjer seed, which the Goldfinches love. Then there's currently X3 suet cages which get the "no-melt" type suet cakes. The cakes last 3-5 days on average. The two Cedar trough-style feeders have gone through some modifications in an effort to control their dispensing. They can be emptied in one day otherwise.. Shocked

I'll post more on that soon.

roddie Thu Oct 20, 2022 10:32 pm

Ooo.. I've neglected this thread too....

This is the feed-station's current configuration.

Feed Station Zebra.. Spring 2022 20220910

X2 trough-feeders which I fill with a mixture of black-oil sunflower-seed, with a healthy portion of nut & berry feed.. and dried meal-worms.

A central tube is filled with Nyjer/Thistle-seed and there are X3 suet-cages that are regularly filled with a "no-melt" seed-suet that my birdie friends seem to love.

rsv1cox Wed Oct 26, 2022 5:35 pm

I had one of those feeders roddie, a bear destroyed it along with several others.

Remarkably this one has lasted.

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Unusual because I took your lead and bought one of those seed filled suet feeders and stuck it in there. I see the birds pecking at it frequently. The bear can smell those easily. Matter of time I think.

These are the two types that I'm seeing presently in abundance. Occasionally a Gold Finch, Red Cardinal, and Towhee.

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Carnage by bear, not all by any means:

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roddie Tue May 14, 2024 5:59 pm

Been a while... We had our deck refinished which required relocating Feed-Station Zebra to a free-standing arrangement.. about 8 feet away from the deck. The "Slinky" is still working to repel squirrels. They don't like the way it feels when they try to climb the pole. There hasn't been a squirrel at the feeders since I installed it.