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.

GardenHits-- I just sent my info to you again via this forum's e-mail link. Sometimes this CRANKY, old computer of mine (born 1999) doesn't send out my messages...instead, they just sit in my outbox and I often don't think to check and make sure they went out. Hopefully, you'll receive it this time. Would you please acknowledge either way whether or not you received my message, and if necessary, I'll send you a postcard with the info via snail mail. Best to all, tlr

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?

No, black birds love Cracked Corn, but will eat just about everything else. The ones near my feeder are fond of sunflower seeds. However, the feeder has a roof and restricts the grackles to just a few at a time. I have a ground feeder filled with nyjer seeds. I notice that many Red Wing Black Birds often visit for a bite, but few Grackles eat it. The tube feeder above serve the finches who aren't bothered by the blackbird because they can't use the feeder. The ground feeder is currently used by mourning doves, who can hold their own against black birds. If you sprinkle food on the ground, the blackbirds will go for that first. I vaguely recall that they are also fond of cheap stuff like cheap dog feed, so you can try to give them an alternate feeder with the cheap stuff. However, this will also bring more black birds to your yard plus rodents. If you set up a feeder for grackles they will go to the easier ones. If there are too many, the rest will go to your other feeder. You may be better off with a tube feeder for small birds and a hanging cage feeder for the woodpeckers. Both are difficult for black birds to use because they are too big. If your neighbor has a easier feeder to use, they will go there and be his or her problem. Paul