I have been shooting about 60ft from my window to the bird feeder in the maple tree. Yesterday I got the crazy idea to take an old pipe garment rack I had and set it about 15ft outside my bedroom window, then hang a feeder on the rack. first I hung a simple tube type seed feeder, then I got the idea to also hang a tube type thistle feeder. While i was hanging the thistle feeder on one end of the rack two chickadees came down and landed on the rack about 3ft from me and as soon as I started to walk back in the house a Titmouse landed on the seed feeder to be my first customer. That Titmouse remained there long enough to allow me to get in the house and snap a picture. Within the first hour after I hung that feeder i had chickadee's, Titmouse, Nuthatches and a small female downy woodpecker who seems to have taken it over as her personal feeder.

I camouflaged the long white Canon 400 mm lens the cheap way-with permanent magic markers. I have to refresh the camouflage pattern occasionally, but it still works. We were back at Lockegee Rock yesterday and a 1rst year female Blackburnian Warbler came up over the top and landed so close to me that sometimes the lens couldn't focus From April 11, 2010 birds

You can prepare a sand bath, which most birds like to do, and add, I think it is called the "sevin" powder, just a little bit to the sand, which gets rid of those mites. It worked for my quail when they were losing feathers. Look it up. I know there is something you can add to the sand, and when they take their sand bath, they get this on them and get rid of the mites. I'm guessing its something like l/2 tsp in a 5 gallon pail of sand. There must be something on the internet about this. Poor bird!!!

This precious bird is one of my favorites and I love watching the 4 or 5 who frequent my yard and feeders all year long. They'll often hop around my patio and breezeway looking for a few spilled seeds...probably letting me know that the feeders are empty! They will pick out the shelled peanuts from the feeders, and like the dees, will grab one and fly off to a branch, but I've never seen them on my suet feeders. Hope they stick around as they are such a joy. Donna