Suet gets eaten in my yard, by the mammals. They climb the trees and rip apart the netting or try to pull down the metal suet cages. So I stopped using it.

April 3 is the end (of counting, anyway - the feeders stay up for me). sooey: I always have low numbers of chickadees and titmice; It's rare for me to see three at a time. They're in the woods here, so I don't know if I have 50 birds coming single-file or whether most of them don't bother with the feeders. They almost always swoop in to grab a bite and then eat it in a nearby tree. Sometimes I can tell if there's two by the direction they come in (one from the left, one from the right, one from the left, one from the right....) It's interesting also that all three of us have roughly equal numbers of Pine Siskins and American Goldfinches. During the big siskin invasion the goldfinch numbers went way down, as if they had left the premises. Now that there are fewer siskins the goldfinches have come back. The first few times I got equal numbers I worried that I was miscounting the birds and I obsessed over counting with field glasses and photographing them, but I finally decided the numbers were correct. Maybe this is some sort of a natural balance of what each species will tolerate nearby? and/or the capacity of the sock feeders? There are mixed flocks at the socks, but usually the goldfinches come first and then the siskins later. On another note, I'm wondering about the capitalization of bird names issue. I have no problem with capitalizing American Goldfinches and Pine Siskins as definitive names, but I would prefer to just say goldfinches and siskins as generic terms. Besides, it's a pain to capitalize and type out the full name when there's no confusion as to what I'm talking about. What do you guys think? Claire (who is known as claire on GW where there's only one of me with this particular name. If there were other GWclaires, it would be different....)

Excuse the typos. Im on my iphone Im in milwaukee and winters i typically get chickadees cardinals downy woodpecker Sparrows (avoid adding Millet to suet) and the occasional Junco. Haven't seen chickadees this year as of yet, possibly Due to warmer winter. Purchased a squirrel proof suet feeder from menards. Saves Me lots of suet, I just give squirrels a spoon of Peanut butter every day as they're hungry too use chunky peanut butter. Lard and white or wheat flour I also add the following ingredients until mix Turns into easy texture to press into 9x18 cake pan, freeze Then cut to size with spatula. Rolled Oats Cream of wheat Wheat germ Corn meal Crushed fritos (Attracts juncos) Crushed cereals Chopped dried fruits - apples cranberries raisins Nuts- sunflower walnut peanut crushed Syrup or molasses or honey or all three Sugar Sometimes I add strained bacon grease w/lard I added millet once and it attracted a lot of sparrows Which tend to chase other birds away so I stopped Using millet. I tried rendering the real suet once and birds Preferred the p-butter suet mix, happy me it's much Easier. Getting a platform feeder will attract a wider variety Of birds. Juncos like to feed closer to the ground So I put suet crumbs in a pie pan on top of my Central air unit near my suet feeder, but they also Visit my hanging feeder that I keep near brush so they Have shelter from predators. I hang suet feeder On shepherds hook outside my window. At our cottage about two hours north With the same suet I get a lot of juncos Chickadees red bellied woodpecker. Downy woodpecker Nuthatch and cardinals. Do a search for Sialis + bird suet and you'll find A number of recipes there. I sort of "wing" it and Add a bunch of ingredients until I get the desired Texture. No pun intended.

I have an excellent book which someone gave me called "The Audubon Backyard Birdwatcher Birdfeeders and bird Gardens" by Robert Burton & Stephen W. Kress, published by the Audubon Society on Thunder Bay Press. (ISBN 1-57145-186-2) Not only does this book have excellent pictures of birds, it has dozens of plans on how to make bird feeders, nesting boxes, bird baths and how to plant a landscape garden to attract birds. There is one whole chapter devoted to bird feeds and what birds they will attract. In addition to the common seeds and suet mixes they have a long list of table scraps that are great for attracting birds. They suggest making a wire cage and put your meat scraps in it, especially the fats that your trim off cooked hams or beef in addition to ham bones, beef marrow bones and even teh leftover turkey bones. A few other things that i found interesting was cooked spaghetti, cooked rice, uncooked pastry dough, baked potatoes with the skin on and stale cheese. Out of curiosity I baked a potato in the microwave, then sliced it in half and put it on my shelf feeder. It was a big hit with all the birds. Another thing that the birds here seem to like is orange peels. I saw a Blue jay pick up and orange peel that was 1/4 of the orange and fly off with it. If anyone is looking for a great how to book on building bird feeders or bird houses or making their own bird feeds I would highly recommend this one, especially if you are making bird feed because I am a bit skeptical of the health concerns for the birds when i read the recommendations of some books, but I don't think the Audubon Society would steer us wrong.