After having the plexi on for a half hour at about 1:00 pm, only one bluebird was able to get through the hole... all these blues (9) are from broods that were hatched here this summer, I presume, so they are all around 6-7 months old. They don't seem to be able to fit through the 1.5" plexi hole. Maybe they are too fat? LOL. I could make the holes a little larger for them to fit through... what do you think? Its like they can't get their wings to fit. I don't want them to injure themselves trying to get food. I am sure its just that they are not used to going through a hole like this... to get food. The one who made it went in through a side hole (where the tape is) and then out through the end - solid. What to do?

The deer eat me out of house and home during this time of year. Why wouldn't they? The snow is several feet deep with a hard icy crust on top, and it's still well below freezing all the time. They have already eaten all the berries they can reach from the crabapples, they've already cleaned all the sunflower heads from the fields. Here is food, easy to get to (as long as the dogs are in the house), and tasty. We put out sunflower seeds and corn for the deer, the resident herd (about a dozen deer) can eat it in ten minutes. We feed the birds, the birds and deer empty 10 feeders in two days. To me, it's part of life in the country. I love watching both birds and deer and I take a deep breath and go buy more food. The newspaper recently had an article that February and March are the most critical times for the deer - they are running out of accessible food. If eating my bird food helps even a few of them get through the winter, good for them! There are those who say we should not feed the deer - it spreads disease, and there are too many deer anyway. The disease issue seems to be significant only where large numbers are feeding in a very small area. As for numbers, the hunters do their best to take care of that problem in the fall. As for eating my garden plants in summer - for the most part they stay out of the yard in summer - there's food in the fields and there's dogs in the yard. But, they do eat some of my flowering plants. Again, that's life in the country. I learn what they like less and plant more of that. Or I spray my roses with a repellent. So, another vote for feed the deer. And enjoy them. Look at this lady's beautiful eyes, how could you resist?

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.

I've had a slinky around my shepherd's hook for two summers now. It has Not stopped the squirrels. At first it did, but they figured out how to leap on putting their little paws in between the slinky rings and scale that shepherd's hook anyway and hang on it, stretch it out, and eat away. This year I found them laying across the rooftop of the bird feeder reaching down eating the cakes. So, I have found that sprinkling a little cayenne pepper on the cakes definitely works! So I put it across the roof too. But it goes away soon because the birds eats it off the surfaces. So I turned to putting olive oil on the post. That works beautifully! Of course, when it rains you have to reapply (we've had a lot lately) & that can be daunting. But Worth It because it is SO Satisfying & Funny to see them sliding down the pole and looking SHOCKED!