Hi, Kids, These are my feeders. As you will see, they are kinda close to the house. That's both good and bad...the birds are easy to see and the feeders are easy to fill but it also limits the type of birds I get. ie: no Ring Tails in my yard ;( These are the two tube feeders that are just off the deck. One Thistle and one Safflower. The squirrels don't bother them. The dome baffles are mostly for protection from the weather. I have a seed try for the Safflower tube but I can not attatch it until the tube is empty. This shows the edge of the deck, the suet feeder on the pine tree, the two tube feeders and the heated bird bath. You can also see the older 'bird condo' in the back. This one shows the tube feeder that is hung from the tree that is just outside the den and kitchen windows. It is for black oil sunflower seeds. This is the one that the squirrels have not yet gotten to. I see them on the tree, reaching...but they can't get to it. I see them on the pole above the feeder but, they are unsure of the larger dome baffle. It's been up since Nov. 18th but I have not seen a single squirrel eating from the feeder. Lot's of squirrels on the ground below, but that is as close as they have gotten...so far. Same feeder taken to show how close it is from the house/deck. Same feeder, looking up from the ground. It's about 15 feet up...another reason the squirrels are unsure ? Last one. This is my view of the same feeder from my desk. This is to show you how close it is to the house...about 12 - 15 feet. Also, Claire, you can see some of the plants that hang/sit in front of the window...from the birds hitting the window question. OK...one more. This is my view from inside the house, through the slider screen. My desk and chair are about 4 feet from the slider. From my chair I can look from the tree feeder to the suet and pole feeders...like watching a tennis match. Sorry about the ugly grill. I hope these come through and I hope they are not too big. Let me know. sooey

Cool Lisa! It took almost a year for me to see a Red Belly on the suet log. Now Mr. Red belly visits the suet log almost every day. He is a noisy guy, and makes a big fuss when he's around. It seems like he's telling all the other birds to stay out of his way and they usually do. There was a Red-belly earlier in the summer that would rap on the gutter when the suet log was empty. It was quite deliberate and somewhat annoying! :) Just signed up for the PFW this morning. I did a bird count yesterday afternoon and this morning. I don't get the packet for a couple weeks, but they said it was okay to enter the data when it comes. It's fun! Had a pair of Red breasted Nuthatches this morning, and yesterday afternoon there were dozens of Juncos! At least 30 in the feeding station area and nearby grass and leaves. Along with 8 or more White throat sparrows, all pecking and scratching and rustling leaves. The ground looked like it was alive.

Anyone who believes the birds winter survival is conditioned upon their bird feeders is fooling no one but themselves. We who enjoy watching birds erect feeders, bird baths, nesting boxes, roosting boxes, dusting stations and other items that improve the local habitat in our yards in an effort to attract birds, but lacking such assistance from us the birds will still manage quite well. If the truth were told our bird feeders have about the same impact on the birds continued survival as a local fast food restaurant has on your families survival. Think about it, we can either pop into KFC, Mickey D's or the local pizza joint or we can go to the grocery, then go home and cook for ourselves, but in the end, your families survival would not be threatened if the fast food joints all closed today. The same is true of the birds. They know where the natural weeds and seed producing plants are, and they could commute around in the same manner as we go grocery shopping, or they can simply stop by your feeders and grab the fast food. In fact, after watching the birds closely for 8 to 10 hours a day all winter I have come to realize that birds seem to have the ability to sense when a severe winter storm is coming and they disappear about a day before, no doubt moving to another area where food and weather will be more suitable. Now, understanding that the bird feeders are solely to attract the birds for our viewing enjoyment it then stands that we must put them closer to the house in winter so we can view them out the windows from the comfort of our homes, but once the weather breaks and we begin to have more outdoor activity it makes perfect sense to move the feeders to a position a bit further away from the house where we can view them from our decks and porches, while still allowing enough distance that the birds can feel comfortable to stop by without being spooked by our presence. The question then becomes, how far away must we move them? From my observation there is no hard and fast rule here. The key seems to be where to put them so the birds will feel comfortable? From my experience that depends a lot on our lifestyle. Since I retired when the weather is descent I spend countless hours quietly sitting in a lawn chair, camera in hand, or perhaps mounted on a tripod and the birds are so accustomed to my presence that I have actually had Chickadees land on me or perch proudly on top of my camera while I'm sitting there. One of my favorite places to sit is on the back steps, where I have a hummingbird feeder on a shepherds hook a mere 3 feet away. On the other hand, at my sisters house they have children playing in the yard so they have to place their feeders further away so the birds are not threatened by the activity of the children. Now here is a bit of information that I am sure many will find controversial. Three years ago we erected a large Bat House at the back corner of the yard, and every evening we saw a couple dozen bats fly out. Since then we have built five more bat houses which we have placed around the farm. Now I am sure that some are put off by the thought of bats, but I can assure you that since we started erecting bat houses we have seen a remarkable decrease in mosquitoes in the yard.

Larkspur, I encourage you to reconsider. If for no other reason please read my post "Our Family has Doubled". I cannot tell you how upsetting it is to find out that a creature that one cares for has turned into dinner for a wild animal. And these were not 'my' cats, they were strays that we fed. The Game warden told me that a fisher in the county next to ours took down a fawn, so I would think that a dog would not be out of the question if you happen to have them in your area. But there are many other animals that attack, not far from us a family lost their dog to a coyote when they left him out in the yard to do his business. And no, I don't live in the wilds. We are rural but are 10 minutes from town.