Backyard Bird Feeding Peanut Butter
Our new favorite thing to feed our backyard birds is peanut butter spread. Our peanut feeders are very popular with the birds, both the shelled and whole in the shell peanuts, but we are having great luck with the wildlife peanut butter spread. Ours is on a simple wooden feeder as in the picture, with the perches as we seem to feel like this will help the non clinging birds have a bit of this special treat should they care to try it, but of course that’s all our human doing as the birds manage to cling all over stuff without our micro-managing. Check this feeder and spread starter kit at Peanut, Nut, Peanut Butter Bird Feeders.
Some people use the peanut butter spread directly on the bark of a tree. Just smear it right on there. They have great luck with this method and report to us that woodpeckers in particular love it. It is a great system to attract woodpeckers to feeding station as they are likely to hang out in the trees around a feeding station for awhile before taking the plunge into landing on the actual bird feeders. We haven’t tried this method of spreading the peanut butter mix on the trees but only because we are in the south and no matter what the time of year, we have bugs galore. Also it will probably be a pure squirrel feeder for us! Still, if this is something you can do, give it a try. Our birds are loving the peanut butter food.
Some of the backyard birds visiting our peanut butter spread are: wrens, nuthatches, chickadees, downy woodpecker, red bellied woodpecker, pine warbler and a hermit thrush.
Posted in bird feeders, types of food, woodpeckers
Great Backyard Bird Count 2009
Hey bird watchers! It’s that time of year and the spring Great Backyard Bird Count is almost here! Please participate in this program if you can, it’s very easy and fun. This is a program we at bird-house-bath strongly support.
The Great Backyard Bird Count an annual four day event by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology and National Audubon Society. The project lets bird watchers of all ages assist in counting bird they see to create a real time list of where wild birds are across the United States. Anyone can participate in this program, you don’t have to be an expert. Count the species you see 15 minutes on one day, or count for as long as you like each day of the event. For more information on how you can be part of this and how the information you gather can help wild birds, visit The Great Backyard Bird Count website.
Posted in birding programs
Wild Bills Battery Operated Squirrel Proof Bird Feeder
Wild Bills Battery Operated Squirrel Proof Bird Feeder Review
We do like the Wild Bill’s bird feeder an recommend it. Now, we give it a good review probably not for the common reason but instead because it is just a great hopper design. The Wild Bill’s bird feeder is what we have in our own backyards as a primary hopper feeder, and we fill it with black oil sunflower. While the feeder itself is promoted as being a battery operated squirrel proof design, what you aren’t told is that with the circular design, you tend to get a lot of birds perching on it at once. They can’t really see each other and it cuts down on the bickering and jostling that happens at feeding stations.
Also, it holds 10lbs of seed. This is a great feature! If you have busy feeding stations or are just a busy person - aren’t we all - you spend far less time refilling feeders when you use a large capacity model. The cone shaped design goes a long way to keep the seed dry, too. Even when it rains really hard here the seed in this feeder does not get wet. We clean our Wild Bill’s bird feeder far less than we do our others.
As far as the squirrel proof feature, the battery operated zap works like a charm. It does not hurt the squirrels either, but they surely don’t care for it. Our personal Wild Bills is not even used in this manner as we have it squirrel baffled in other ways, but we gave one of these to our Grandmother who lives in an apartment and has major squirrel trouble. Well she did anyway, she doesn’t any more. Our Grandma gets tickled to bits when a squirrel gets a little zap. We thin she has it out for them since they kept the birds from her feeders for so long, but that’s another story. One thing you need to watch out for is the batteries. If the batteries go dead, you have no way of knowing until you see a squirrel on your feeder. We have found the batteries last and recommend simply using re-chargeable. This hasn’t been a problem for Grandma!
See more about the Wild Bills Battery Operated Squirrel Proof Bird Feeder or visit our selection of Squirrel Proof Bird Feeders.
Posted in bird feeders, squirrels
Bird Nest Building Materials Door Wreath
Nesting Materials for Backyard Birds 
This is an item that we completely love and one a backyard bird watcher can appreciate. A beautiful door wreath made out of bird nesting materials. Not only can you use it to decorate your front door, but birds can land on it and take some of the fluff use it to build their nests. The wreath is very attractive with it’s earthy colors and is made out of all natural materials which are safe for birds. The nesting wreath is made from feathers, cotton, hemp and aspen fiber and it is so soft! We are really taken by the idea of having a bit of living art in the yard with birds landing at our very door. If you are going to decorate the outdoors, why not make it green and part of the overall wildlife habitat? It’s a great gift for that bird watcher on your gift giving list who has everything or just for yourself. The feather your wreath is one of those small items that you don’t need but is sure nice to spoil yourself with! To find out about the Feather Your Nest Wreath visit our page of backyard bird nesting materials for an assortment of nest building helpers.
Posted in bird houses, outdoor decor
Hopper Bird Feeder Review: Sky Cafe
Sky Cafe hopper style bird feeder review:
Simply put, this is a great bird feeder. There are several good features about it but our favorite is the fact that it is has larger capacity hopper that can hold up to ten lbs of seed. Also, since the reservoir is clear, you can easily see when the feeder needs to be re-filled. If you have been a backyard bird watcher for some time, you’ll know how much easier these two issues make your hobby! If you are new to bird watching, take these features into consideration.
The tray is wide enough to suit larger birds such as cardinals, which is a benefit. The top is squirrel proof due to it’s shape. Any squirrel approaching from above will slide off - the distance from the hanging chain an anything a squirrel can reach is too far. The sky cafe is designed as a hanging feeder so take into consideration placement if you intend it for a squirrel proof feeder. It will still need to be placed far enough away from spots squirrels can’t jump from the sides or below. It is only squirrel proof from the top. It may be pole mounted but requires an adapter kit.
The sky cafe comes with different color roof options - red, clear, blue or green. We have found it to be very weather resistant and good for keeping bird food dry in foul weather. We recommend feeding black oil in it, a mix with a smaller seed will just spill out, as is the case with most hoppers.
Really, we have no negative points about the sky cafe. If you have the right spot for it, it is a great bird feeder. If you only have one bird feeder, it’s a best pick. The sky cafe with BOSS is going to attract and suit a large variety of songbirds. Please visit our hopper bird feeders page for a larger selection, including the sky cafe with different color roofs or find out more about the sky cafe hopper bird feeder.
Posted in bird feeders
Porcelain Roof Stainless Steel Wire Bird Feeder
Here is a new product for backyard bird watchers that we think we are just going to have to buy for ourselves. It’s a wire mesh bird feeder made of stainless steel and has a porcelain roof. The roof is extra wide to help protect seeds or peanuts against weather. The overall design of this bird feeder is just beautiful! And it looks like a feeder that is not only pretty, but the birds can actually use it, and birders can actually clean it. Now that combo can be hard to come by. The feeder features attractive ring, circle perches around the hopper.
You can use this wire feeder for sunflower seeds, nuggets or peanuts. We think it will be the perfect peanut feeder. Our current peanut feeder is similar and also stainless steel, which is a material we can recommend. It holds up great for years. If you have one, let us know what you think, good or bad. It’s just so attractive! See more wire mesh bird feeders.
Posted in bird feeders
Feeding Squirrels - Bird Feeder Diversion
Feeding Squirrels in the Backyard
Backyard bird watchers are forever attempting to keep squirrels out of bird feeders. To completely keep squirrels away from feeding stations, there are several squirrel proof bird feeders, and the best system we have found is by using squirrel and raccoon baffles on pole mounted feeders. However the idea of keeping squirrels, chipmunks and other four legged wildlife from raiding songbird feeders and keeping the birds from being allowed to eat is a system. Part of the system that works on our yard is by providing squirrel diversion feeders.
A squirrel diversion feeder keeps the little tree rats occupied and since it is set up specifically for them, a lot easier for them to access than a baffled or squirrel proof bird feeder. Hopefully this means they will use their special feeder instead of a bird feeder!
There are many styles of squirrel diversion feeders on the market, including models that hold wildlife mix and treats, or those which are more of a challenge for a squirrel and quite funny to watch. You can shop for a variety of them here: Backyard Squirrel Diversion Feeders.
Best Squirrel Feeding Station
The very simplest and least expensive type of feeder designed purely for squirrels is a tree or post mount Squirrel Feeder.
This feeder is designed to hold an ear of dried corn and you can set one up easily, replace the food easily, and it does not cost a lot. We occasionally use corn cobs, but to be honest, the squirrels easily eat an entire ear of corn on the cob in a day and then you have the trash of the stripped cob. Not that the trash is a big issue but we are firm believers in low maintenance! The less work it is the more likely any backyard feeding program will continue. Our recommendation for the tree mount feeder are Squirrel Log Corn and Nut or the ever popular with tree rats, Squirrel Log Sweet Corn.
The squirrel logs last a heck of a lot longer than an ear of corn. Considerably longer! And it’s a bit more work on the squirrels part to get the food off, instead of just ripping off kernels and dropping them all over the ground. The squirrel logs are compressed corn and equal to 12-24 ears of corn. As avid as we are about backyard feeding we would not be changing out corn cobs daily. The logs eliminate that need, the squirrels got lucky! They have a hole in the center for skewering on a cob feeder. Try them, you will not be sorry. It ends up being less costly in the long run due to how long they last. Since the squirrels love them and they are so easy to get to (unlike our baffled bird feeders), they head for these first before our feeders. It’s worked out great for us and helps to keep squirrels off our bird feeders, plus the birds feed off them as well. Particularly nuthatches! The nuthatches just love them. Chipmunks also scurry up the tree and nibble away on the logs.
Here are some photos of our backyard tree or post mount squirrel feeder using these treat logs. You can see that they are solid and the squirrel has to spend a bit of effort chewing them up. The squirrels tend to bite off only what they eat right then as it’s too much work for them to just throw food around. We like that part! Less waste and much less refilling!
If you try any of this out, please leave a comment and let others know how they work or you. These compressed corn logs are designed to fit any squirrel feeder that holds ears of corn, but we have only tried them on the tree/post mount feeder.
Posted in diversion feeders, squirrels
Backyard Squirrel Diversion Feeding
Backyard Squirrel Diversion Feeding
Should I feed Squirrels? People ask if they should feed squirrels and other wildlife in their backyards to help keep squirrels out of their bird feeders. We say yes. In our personal backyards, we feed the squirrels and it does help keep them from frantically trying to get to our bird feeders and eat all the seed, let alone chew up and destroy expensive feeders. Understand that squirrels will always try to get to bird feeders so a feeder must be baffled or squirrel proof, but baffles and squirrel proof feeders are a separate topic. Here we are just going to talk about our systems of diversion feeding for the bushy tailed tree rats.
The above photo shows our main squirrel diversion feeder. It is a ground bird feeder table - you can shop a selection of these to purchase at: Ground Bird Feeder Trays. A ground table is fantastic for feeding squirrels and also helps to keep bully birds such as blue jays, grackles and starlings away from smaller songbird feeding stations. Again, the topic of bully birds is another post altogether, but we do have jays in particular feed from this table, as well as juncos and rufus sided towees who prefer to feed off the ground. These species rarely land on our elevated feeders.
The food we put out on our ground tray table is cracked corn, which is inexpensive. We blend the cracked corn with a cheap bird seed mix that has a lot of milo in it. The cheap mix is just about useless to attract songbirds since it is full of fillers, but great for squirrels and doesn’t cost a fortune to keep food out which the squirrels plow through. Milo is a filler food that the birds don’t care for in general but squirrels love. The seed mix does contain white proso millet which appeals to junco, sparrows, indigo buntings, also the mourning doves like it, so it has uses. Our advice on these food types is to purchase them at a local shop that sells livestock feed if you have one in the area. Cracked corn for used as chicken feed is cheap cheap cheap. (Uggh, no pun intended. Seriously). Just make sure that it’s straight cracked corn without diet supplements.
Our ground tray feeder is made of recycled plastic. We are absolutely crazy about it!! It is made of recycled plastic milk jugs and by golly is it easy to clean. It’s not often that we will recommend a feeder that costs more than other feeders, but the recycled plastic is honestly going to last so much longer than wood that the extra cost is well worth it. The legs don’t rot on the ground, the mesh screen comes out, and if the tray itself gets cruddy you can use a mild bleach solution to clean it. Note: remove screen before using bleach - don’t ever bleach metal!! This feeder is terrific for helping us keep jays, pigeons, doves, and other feeding hogging birds out of our songbird feeders. It serves more than just squirrels.
In fact, we replaced our wooden ground feeder table with the recycled plastic because it is so much lower maintenance. The wood on our ground table had aged well but the plastic is not porous like wood, so grime does not suck into the plastic like it does wood. We haven’t got enough food to say about this feeder. Here is one that you can buy a Ground Feeding Table.
Some models do come in a version with a roof, however we personally do not use a roof because we are in a drought ridden area and have little weather past hot or hotter. If it ever rains again we can put a roof on our table feeder. A roof will help keep the food out of the weather but we prefer the visibility of an open table. You may have a different opinion if it rains often in your area, or you have snow in the winter. In the case of winter feeding and snow, the roof is handy. It’s detachable so you can remove the roof in the summer if you wish. The mesh on this table is small enough to hold millet and screws in, we have had zero problems with it. The one in our picture is slightly different, however we actually own both and the green version is outstanding. Can you say hardcore bird watchers? This method of diversion feeding helps keep squirrels away from bird feeding stations, attracts ground feeding birds and is relatively easy to maintain. It works for us!
Tips on the feed: Food should not be placed directly on the ground as it gets moldy and goes bad very rapidly, but instead placed on a table or elevated platform. Don’t put out too much at one time. Corn molds quickly! Do not feed any animal or critter moldy food!! Only put out what they can consume on a few days and if it gets moldy, throw it away. This is why there is not much food on our feeder. It stays clean and we just drop a scoop of fresh food on it when needed. You do not have to use the same foods we do of course. There are plenty of specialty squirrel and chipmunk feeds available, corn foods and wildlife blends and mixes. Table scraps are also good for squirrels and chipmunks. The squirrel above is munching on a cut up piece of honeydew melon ring. Again, only put out small amounts so that is does not go bad and make backyard wildlife sick.
If deer are eating from a ground feeder, please be aware that straight corn is not good for deer!! Please do a little research on this prior to feeding deer at all. Deer feeding is an entirely different topic than diversion feeding.
The block on the feeder in the top picture is a small deer lick, a 4lb apple flavored mineral block. Squirrels and birds alike enjoy this so we use it for the heck of it. Finches in particular just love it and visit the mineral block daily. Finches will dig through fire pits to get minerals out of. Normally we use a 50lb mineral block - it’ll last for years, and deer of course visit it, but we need to replace ours at this time and were having a difficult time finding the larger, apple flavored deer block specifically. We found the smaller mineral block so just grabbed it in order to have one available to our yard wildlife. These are available in the hunting sections of stores. (Yuck). The mineral blocks made for livestock, cattle and sheep are not the same as deer block. However, mineral blocks made from goats, which come in a berry flavor, are a close match and are good for birds and squirrels. It all gets so complex, doesn’t it? A note on these blocks is they are primarily salt so you would not want to leave it on the metal mesh of your table feeder for long periods of time as eventually the salt will corrode the metal. Also, being salt, keep it away from plants of any sort. Salt will kill plants.
Posted in diversion feeders, squirrels