newbie here with three chicks and a duckling. two Comets, a Delaware and a runner duck. I am petrified of predators and am researching everything. :( I am so sorry for all of your losses. I cannot stand the thought and before they go out I am going to focus on the most secure barriers I can come up with. We live on 32 acres in Western NY and have it all out here. we have 5 dogs, horses, cats and a 5 year old son. I am a SAHM so will be around a lot. We have approximately 1/4 of an acre with a falling down 6 ft. stockade fence around it that we are going to gradually replace. There is a large area within that fence next to the house where we will put the coop ( the rambler from www.chickensaloon.com and then secure a pen area. Part will be the house, two sides the re-enforced fence and a new part will have to be put up to make the rectangle. We want to put the black plastic shrubbery barrier down ( 6") and then pour cement around the fence. I will get the night time predator lights to move around and do whatever else I can do. If anyone is still reading this thread I am open to suggestions. we also will put bird netting along the top of the run. The problem is that there are no trees in the back. I need to get some put in and also find some things for them to hide under for when they spend time free ranging. In the winter I plan on letting them have a stall with a dutch door and making an enclosure for them but that is a ways away.

We switched to feeding safflower, thistle and upside down suet feeders along with fruit, jelly and nectar, after our first year living in the country. We moved from the city to a rural area in Wisconsin and decided to put nest boxes out for bluebirds and wrens, our first year we had mostly HS but we also had one set of bluebirds and one set of tree swallows. Before the little ones had a chance to fledge the HS killed them and nested on top of them, we were sick over this. I removed all the nest boxes and started researching on how to keep the non-native and rough birds away. The switch to the foods we place out on our property was the biggest part of not attracting the non-natives and rougher birds. When the HS try to take over the nest boxes in the spring I shoot them, it is the best way to keep them out of the box, plus it gets rid of another non-native invasive bird. I tried removing their nests at first but they are persistent and do not give up until you get rid of them. We now get one or two nesting pair of bluebirds and usually four to five nesting pair of tree swallows and a pair of nesting wrens(all have fledged within the last week and a half) the few starlings that come in the yard to feed on bugs in the grass do not stick around long ( they get shot as well). This is not intended to offend any bird lovers ( we are bird lovers at our house ) it is only to tell how we deal with the invasive non-native birds that are taking over the territory of our native song birds.

I know we all have our preferences (I am not particularly fond of house sparrows), but I gotta say that I love grackles. Now, I don't have any on my feeders, and I might feel differently if I did... but they seem like such sassy, funny birds to me, and I enjoy seeing them when I'm out and about. That said, if I were you, I wouldn't count on the grackles moving on. They'd probably be back when you reintroduce your food for the cardinals. It wouldn't hurt to try the corn. The grackles are there, anyway, so distracting them may be your best bet. Good luck! I hope you find something that makes you and the birds happy.

Thankfully I've seldom had to deal with grackles and starlings, but when they have appeared, chasing them off with a Viking yell and a broom eventually seemed to drive them away permanently, as well as entertaining my neighbors. Of course it probably helped that I never ground feed, had no platform or other feeders they could access, and the vast majority of spilled seed was Nyjer, which they can't eat. So - slim pickin's, combined with crazy broom-wielding lady = starling-grackle-elimination-success! Taking it a step further, when I eliminated all mixes and went to feeding one kind of seed per feeder (sunflower seeds in one, nyjer in the other), many other pests stopped coming by. Apparently millet is much-beloved of several pesky species. Finally, switching to clingers-only feeders eliminated the mob of English house sparrows that had taken over my yard last year, driving off ALL the other birds, including the hummers. This year I may see one or two HOSPs going after spilled seed but they never stay long. The hummers have never returned, though.