Thank you! I'm saving this info so I can do this sometime in the Spring, whenever the weather decides to warm up :) !! pkponder ...do you have a picture? Would love to see it. I want to include a Birdhouse and a Birdfeeder. My Birdfeeder is very large and I hung it last summer and was still out till recently when it needed seed and found out the thing broke at the top where you take it off to add seed ... so I'm mounting it on a pole and it will be just fine that way. It is VERY heavy so I can't have a tall pole for it. I included a picture of my bird feeder. It is 13 x 13 and has 9 feeding stations, 11lb capacity. I want to have a birdhouse separate but not too far away. Have an idea to put these alongside our ramp ... will look nice with some vines I think. :) Also, I know this bird feeder can be pole mounted because a couple people told me about how to do it. I saved that info and it says The pipe needs to be no wider than 7/8 of an inch. Anyway, looking forward to mounting that and I have to find a nice bird house to also mount on a pole. We have lots of cats around here (including ours that goes outside) and squirrels, so I might have to figure a way to keep them out.

yep. I posted photos of this happening a couple of years ago. Cheap birdseed has powder the bees think is close to pollen.

We have been noticing this year our feeders are not emptying as fast as previous years. I did see a lot of birds when it was snowing. A group of about 10-15 juncos, a half dozen mourning doves, the usual cardinals, chickadees, tufted titmice and a few finches along with an occasional woodpecker. The last couple of days it has been quiet out there. I asked my husband to check to see if the feeders were empty in the back. I could see there is still sunflower seed in one feeder and one was empty. He said the back feeders weren't empty but he filled them all, so we will see. I just ordered a heated pet bowl to use as a bird bath for them and I'm excited to see if they take to it. I have seen black crows in the yard this year for the first time in 30 years. I have no idea why. We do see an occasional hawk but none of late. There have been a group of 4-6 crows roosting in a neighbor's silver maple trees on some days. They would fly off and circle and land again in the trees repeatedly. Then one day I looked out the window and three of them had landed in our yard on the ground for a bit. That's a first. I keep hearing them in the neighborhood every once in awhile. I wonder what has suddenly attracted them to our neighborhood. I also wonder if they have any effect on small bird populations?

Yes, it's supposed to be 1 part sugar to 4 parts water. Last winter the bees got out of control on the hummingbird feeder and some would get into the feeder and drown. Guess there was a hive too close to here. But before spring, the problem went away...as soon as the Arizona Ash trees started blooming, the bees went to it, then other plants were blooming. Now my problem is that certain kinds of birds have developed a fondness for the nectar. The hummingbirds don't like that! I haven't heard of wasps or bees stinging the hummers.