As fall segues into winter one cannot help but miss the plaintive and beautiful flute song of the Wood Thrush. They're back home now and it is with some anticipation that I await them each spring. As I've moved into my new & last home (7 years ago), I have naturalized the yard, letting the oak leaves mulch my now extensive gardens. What I've found is that Thrushes will oftentimes use the property for a few days, and that is indeed a treat. While the Wood Thrush is a quite common woodland resident in our local woods, it's nice to see them on the property. What has been icing on the cake is that as the woodlands have progressed on my property I have also had the pleasure of hosting Swainson's Thursh and Grey Cheeked over the last few springs (the GC was here but for a couple of hours). On the downside, I had 3 Hermit Thrush window kills this fall. While that's disheartening, it's a pretty good indicator that the neighborhood is still getting plenty of birds (I'm but a mile from the beach). It's funny when I walk our neighborhood in May, and folks tell me they saw a cardinal or a bluejay. I smile. If they only knew of the beauty and magnificence of spring migration, maybe they wouldn't cut down the trees that many new homeowners seem hellbent on doing when they move into my neighborhood. It's like a compelling itch that they have to scratch. Well, off of my soapbox for now. I hate to have to tell all of you this, but their (Wood Thrush) numbers are falling and have been for the last 20 years (blame deerbrowse and the lack of an understory). Give thanks this week to our natural world. And help educate those who don't know..... All the best Ted

whenever I hear people discussing ways to discourage the sparrow I have to ask myself why? As You can easily see from my photo's when there is an abundant supply of food the birds will all mingle well. From my observation it is only when the food is in short supply that they really begin to be territorial. The question then becomes, why is the seed in short supply? No doubt the answer here is simple economics. People don't care to spend a lot of money on expensive birdseed, only to have it consumed by the less desirable birds and they don't get to see the species they are really interested in. From my experience the solution here is to shop around for your wild bird seed. By example, we have a local store that caters specifically to feeding and attracting wild birds. They sell a general mix of wild bird seed for $15 for a 20lb bag. On the other hand, Walmart has 20lb bags of the same seed for $10, however at Walmart it is a seasonal item and by now you probably can't find it. How would you like to find a year around source that has a better selection at prices far below the average retail store prices? In almost every community there is a store that specializes in selling feed, grain and hay for horses or farm animals. When my sister goes to the feed mill to buy feed for her horses I tag along and buy 50# bags of premium wild bird seed (mixed seed & peanuts) for $12 plus I buy a 50# bag of black oilseed sunflower seed for another $13. I then mix the two together and I end up with a premium blend for an average of $.25/lb. If you cannot find a Feed & grain supply in your community check out TSC (Tractor Supply Co.) TSC is also a great place to find feeders of all types for prices far below what you find in the regular retail stores, but then feeders are so simple to build i don't see why anyone would pay the prices they ask in most stores. While we are on the subject of bird feed, you may be surprised at how much you throw away every month without realizing it. When you bake a ham or a roast trim off the excess fat and put that in your suet feeder, the birds love it. At my house we all love to eat acorn or butternut squash. When you hollow out the seeds put them out for the birds, here again, they love it. Making a salad? Save the carrot peelings of the birds and by all means, be sure to save your orange or grapefruit peelings. I have seen a Bluejay grab an entire half section grapefruit peel and fly it up into the pine tree. Stale popcorn, potato chips, pretzels, breakfast cereal and cookies all go over well with the birds and as silly as it may sound, even leftover porky beans, whole kernel corn or green beans will quickly disappear when the birds find them. As you can see, I have taken feeding the birds rather seriously however to tell the truth it is more an means to an end. Since I retired last June I have taken up nature photography as a hobby, and since it is a bit too cold to get out in the woods like i would like to do, this is a way i can bring nature to me while i comfortably sit in the house...LOL. Gein that the subject of this thread was how to attract cardinals I thought i might post a couple more Cardinal Picks, along with one of my favorite pics of a Bluejay.

thank you! I was under the impression food was scarce in the early spring. He is definitely not attacking the "bird in the window." I've seen that behavior with birds, and this is different. He perches wherever he can find a foothold and sits there cheeping and lightly pecking his beak on the glass (maybe because it's so close) until I look at him, he sees that I see him, and then he flies over to the door where he knows I come out! He also sits on the planter right outside the window and looks at me. If I don't come out within about 10 seconds, he comes back to the window to see what the holdup is about. It was hilarious for awhile, but it's actually starting to get annoying. He hangs out in any one of the nearby trees and as soon as i put the shade up or he sees activity in here, it starts up. I really thought maybe he was taking food back to a nest for some babies. When I go out with the seed, he'll buzz all around me. A few times I stood there with the food in my hand and he came close to landing, he'd buzz closer and closer, but wouldn't actually land on my hand. I'm sure if I had nothing but time to stand out there and wait, he'd eventually do it. I just think I've created a monster and he's gonna have to go browse the other neighborhood feeders or start digging up bugs, or whatever they eat.

Nice video. Poor bird; he seems to have that disease...