That's my #1 rule of thumb. Offer only the good birdseed, not that mixed stuff with junk seed filler in it. It really cut down the number of junk birds, and brings in the prettier song birds. Your one up on me, I've never seen one, yet.
Leslie

Oh, they're beautiful, aren't they? I see maybe one a year if I'm lucky, probably during their migration.

Does anyone get Evening Grosbeaks? We had big, noisy flocks of them when we lived in another county (and they were among the birds that I hand-tamed), but we've never seen one here. I hope their numbers haven't diminished.

Well Leslie - You're ahead of me in the blue bird category. I've never seen one but this year we're going to put them at our place in the PA mountains. We've been researching the best place to put them and ways to avoid other birds from taking over the box. We just walked the property with 2 foresters from the conservation trust and they pointed out likely spots.

They were also able to identify some of the warblers that we hear singing in the tree tops. Unfortunately we can't put out bird feeders there because we have way too many bears.

If you don't have House Sparrows in abundance at your place, your 1 step ahead in controlling them, and having a good experience with getting bluebirds.
You can e-mail me if you'd like more info on them.
Here's a good web site to check out too. It'll give you all the info you need.
Leslie

Here is a link that might be useful: Eastern Bluebirds

Susan do you ever have whip-poor-wills at your place? Thankfully we only had one once. At about 2 in the morning all we could hear outside our window was whip poor will ...whip poor will... I don't know what we could have done if he decided to make that tree his permament home.

Thanks for the link to the bluebird site. The advice for new bluebirders is really good.

Like Alisande, I only see one about once a year...just passing through.

I put out a lot of bird seed. I put black oil sunflower seeds in the feeders in the yard and I get a free mix that is a lot of milo and some sunflower seeds donated to me by Walmart, and I put it out along the driveway for the doves.
It is so dry here. Right now I have 5 bird baths in the lower part of my yard, which is only about 1/2 acre big, but ran the horse water troughs over yesterday, and couldn't believe all the doves down there bathing.

I guess I'm fortunate. I see sparrows in town, but out here in the country, we don't have them.

Bluebirds can be seen in this area...supposedly, but the only time I ever saw them, was a pair in the yard of the old man that I look after a couple of towns over, and he couldn't have cared less. That was a few years ago.

Now he has a pair of hawks nesting in a tree right out his door, and I can't even get him to walk to the door to look out at them.

We had a male Ruby Throated Grosbeak here at our birdfeeder one summer about 5 years ago..He returned every day for a couple of weeks then we never saw him again.

Right now I don't have a feeder up but plan to put up another.

I took it down because it plants so many weeds. And yes sometimes I did buy the "cheap" stuff...Maybe that's where the weeds came from.

This time I'm going to level the ground and put down grass carpet. I bought a piece at a yard sale last year. I will put it in a square and frame it with landscape timbers. Then I can go out with the wet/dry vac. and clean up the seeds they don't eat. There might be a few that escape but not as much as before, I'm sure. I though a pot of red geraniums would look nice in each corner of it.

patti

I remember hearing a whip-poor-will many years ago.

I usually see one or two Baltimore Orioles in the spring, and one memorable fall a large flock of Bohemian Waxwings showed up to feast off our Cardinal Autumn Olive bush. They passed the fruit to each other. It was fascinating to watch.

But my birdwatching took a hit when I had to stop feeding birds in the spring and summer. That happened several years ago when a bear took up residence on the property, killing one of our dogs and destroying the feeders (smearing mud all over the porch in the process). So now the birds are cut off in early April.

Many years ago my daughter was exclaiming about the pretty birds at the feeder. I went to look, and there were eight rose breasted grosbeaks.

I haven't seen a single one since then!

Oh wow - 8 of them! What a feast for the eyes. I'm curious to find out if he's part of a breeding pair or just on his way back home. We are in their breeding range. He's been frequenting the feeder all day. After checking in Peterson's I don't know if I would recognize a female. They look like big sparrows except for their large yellow beak.

Indigo buntings pass thru here for a brief time period. They love mulberries, and it is a vision of loveliness to see a whole flock of them at one time. I've planted 3 mulberry trees just for them. Most people hate mulberries because the birds that eat them poop on their cars, but you can't see bird poop on mine for all the raccoon handprints. :))

Hi McMann,
I know what you mean.I saw my 1st one too last week. What a beautiful site. I don't think they are very common to this area, around St Paul.
Does anyone have a source for buy a telescopic birdfeeder pole? I spend alot of time on my computer on the second floor and would love to watch the birds feed outside my window. Placing a birdfeeder on my windows or overhang is not an option. Hanging one from the high branches won't work either plus I don't want to encourage the squirrels. I would like something that would be easy to fill from the ground. I also didn't know what forum to place this question in. Can anyone help?
thanks so much Jan

Hi Jan -

The grosbeak spent most of the day visiting the feeder. At one point he even started chasing the purple finches away. But we haven't seen him since Saturday so perhaps he was just here on a stopover on his trip further north. The range map in Peterson's shows my area as being on the edge of his regular breeding zone.

I goggled telescoping bird feeders and there were several telescoping poles that showed up. Most of them were designed for purple martin houses but maybe you could adapt it. They raise to 15 feet and have a key lock so you can raise and lower them.

There is a Wild Birds Unlmited Store in St. Paul - I wonder if they carry a pole or could suggest a place where you could buy one.