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steve(ill) 
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Joined: 11 Sep 2009
Location: illinois
Points: 86130
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 Topic: Bird Feeder
Posted: 07 Feb 2021 at 4:23pm |
I got a couple big feeders in the front yard. Normally have 20 sparrows / swallows , a couple blue jays and a couple cardinals every morning and late afternoon..
For the past week i have a dozen cardinals in addition to the above.. Dont know why there are so many and why now ?
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Like them all, but love the "B"s.
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Coke-in-MN
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Joined: 12 Sep 2009
Location: Afton MN
Points: 41910
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Posted: 07 Feb 2021 at 4:36pm |
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I have about 8 feeders between back and front yards , go through 20 pounds or more feed now a week . From black oil sunflower seeds to mixed seed , have couple wire feeders with cracked corn and squirrels seems to hit them .
Also 5 feeders with suit blocks and get woodpeckers and Blue jays on them regular. Have some small black and gray birds that only ground feed so scatter some seed for them but they clean up under feeders when other birds seem to get selective on what the throw out.
Now in the field out front I had 3 or 4 bald eagles coming regularly and setting in field or a large maple tree in front yard . Walked out there and found a deer carcass half eaten - must have got hit by car and made it into field to die .
Had to watch the dog as it's about the right size for a snack for the eagles so keep tabs on it when it's out. Have not seen many hawks of late but just after corn was taken off the field they were circling regularly and getting small varmints and rabbits
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Faith isn't a jump in the dark. It is a walk in the light. Faith is not guessing; it is knowing something.
"Challenges are what make life interesting; overcoming them is what makes life meaningful."
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modirt
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Joined: 18 Jul 2018
Location: Missouri
Points: 8346
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Posted: 07 Feb 2021 at 6:02pm |
Have one feeder out on front.....and for past few days, about 20 to 30 birds at all times. Chickadees, titmouse (mice?), various sparrows, junko's, jays, woodpeckers and about a dozen cardinals. All taking turns at the feeder, with a big puddle on ground below. Plain old BOSS. Doves like the cheap mixed stuff, but I don't have any.
Have to hang the feeder up inside a dense bushy tree.....in this case a crab apple.....else the Sharp Shined hawks or Cooper's hawks will make a run at em.
This morning, about a dozen robin's showed up. Boy is their timing off.
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plummerscarin
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Joined: 22 Jun 2015
Location: ia
Points: 3823
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Posted: 07 Feb 2021 at 7:12pm |
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Robins!? Well your south of us so maybe can see it. Better let em know to hang out there a while. Way too cold and snow for them to be thinkin bout coming this way
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DMiller
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Joined: 14 Sep 2009
Location: Hermann, Mo
Points: 33301
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Posted: 07 Feb 2021 at 7:22pm |
Have two big feeders, reload every four to five days, two smaller feeders the little birds like, refill every couple weeks and two suet cake dispensers, every Three days all gone!!
Cardinals, Sparrows, what we call Snowbirds, Jays and a few odd assorted other songbirds. Have two Pileated Wood Peckers, they do a Mexican Standoff at one suet feeder daily, have three or four different Downy woodpeckers and a couple Hairy(Downy size with a Red Spot on back of head) woodpeckers. Happy little monsters.
Has been a Bald Eagle on occasion when the carcass is not frozen solid on the Coyote I dropped last year. Been cold enough has not decayed all too fast.
Edited by DMiller - 07 Feb 2021 at 7:26pm
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Dave H
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Joined: 11 Sep 2009
Location: Central IL
Points: 3563
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Posted: 07 Feb 2021 at 7:58pm |
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Big increase in cardinal and blur jay visits lately just east of Springfield IL here.
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steve(ill)
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Joined: 11 Sep 2009
Location: illinois
Points: 86130
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Posted: 07 Feb 2021 at 9:58pm |
thats what i am seeing also Dave.....cardinals and blue jays increase..
I buy a 50 pound bag of cracked corn.. lasts about a month.. $8. takes you all the way !
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Like them all, but love the "B"s.
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desertjoe
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Joined: 23 Sep 2013
Location: New mexico
Points: 13681
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Posted: 08 Feb 2021 at 2:41am |
Well,,,in this high desert country,,we don't get any of the beautiful colored birds,,maybe a robin or two every so often. We get a lot of Humming birds so I keep two feeders out but they be back maybe another month,,,,  Funniest thing,,,bout 7-8 years ago we started seeing some "wild" parakeets,,they'd be either all green or all yellow would come around and then not see em for a month then here they are,,,!! I put some seed out but they just come and go,,haven't seen em yet this year,,,,,,
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tadams(OH)
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Joined: 17 Sep 2009
Location: Jeromesville, O
Points: 10687
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Posted: 08 Feb 2021 at 3:32pm |
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We got through about 100 lbs of sunflowers and 50 lbls of mixed bird feed a month, I filled them everyday. we have counted 30 cardnials and a big bunch of sparrows and a mixture of other birds.
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steve(ill)
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Joined: 11 Sep 2009
Location: illinois
Points: 86130
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Posted: 08 Feb 2021 at 4:16pm |
DANG Tom.... you got a real Business there !!
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Like them all, but love the "B"s.
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Scott B
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Location: Kansas City
Points: 1047
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Posted: 08 Feb 2021 at 5:08pm |
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We've got a pair of Bald Eagles that keep landing in the field by the house and picking up loose grass from my Fall mowing. They're clearly nest building to my South/ Southwest and near the lake that borders us. Going to try and track down the nest. Eagles nest are huge and would love to get up close and underneath.
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D17 Series 1
Allis B- 1939
Allis B- 1945
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HaroldOmaha
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Joined: 11 Sep 2009
Location: Omaha
Points: 862
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Posted: 08 Feb 2021 at 9:53pm |
Have an acreage next to a federal water control project. 1000 acre lake and a lot of trees' When I started feeding birds, I had 36 male cardinals not counting females. but the squirrels , black birds and grackles and coons ate a lot. Then I found out that Cardinals liked safflower seeds and squirrels, blackbirds, and grackles did not like that seed. and I can get it at the local elevator in a 50 lb bag for $ 28 - $33 which is about 1/3 of what sunflower seeds cost. There are a lot more houses here now , and more people feeding them. We have 2-3 bluebirds 12 cardinals, nuthatches , orioles ( eat grape jelly) Flickers, several kinds of woodpeckers, several kinds of other small birds. Kids love to feed them. When there is snow in the forecast , we can get a dozen more male cardinals.
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john(MI)
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Joined: 12 Sep 2009
Location: SE MI
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Posted: 08 Feb 2021 at 10:24pm |
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We have a half dozen feral cats. I wonder if it may be cheaper buying bird food and letting the cats fend for themselves. Wife said she saw one of the cats sitting on top of a bluebird house the other day. That'll make me happy when them darned sparrows try to move in come spring time!
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D14, D17, 5020, 612H, CASE 446
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Gordy
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Joined: 12 Sep 2009
Location: SWMI
Points: 2533
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Posted: 09 Feb 2021 at 8:11am |
Have lots of different kinds of woodpeckers at suit feeders yesterday for first time had a Pileated woodpecker was about the size of a crow.
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“If you can't explain it simply, you don't understand it well enough”
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tadams(OH)
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Joined: 17 Sep 2009
Location: Jeromesville, O
Points: 10687
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Posted: 09 Feb 2021 at 3:10pm |
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We had a pileated a couple years ago but it hasn't been back sure was fun to watch it fly in to eat suet. They must have run out of shelled peanuts the local elevator said they can't get anymore. We always bought them for the Bluejays
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ACinSC
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Location: South Carolina
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Posted: 09 Feb 2021 at 5:24pm |
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Trying out some dried meal worms in our feeder today . Bluebirds seem to like them .
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steve(ill)
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Location: illinois
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Posted: 10 Feb 2021 at 6:31pm |
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Like them all, but love the "B"s.
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desertjoe
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Joined: 23 Sep 2013
Location: New mexico
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Posted: 10 Feb 2021 at 7:36pm |
Hey Steve,,,that right there is an almost perfectly choreographed setting for a Norman Rockwell postcard picture,,,,,,maybe if you'da been a tad closer,,,,,, 
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steve(ill)
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Posted: 10 Feb 2021 at 9:00pm |
Joe, its 7 degrees outside... IM 75 ft away with a zoom lense, STANDING IN THE HOUSE where its warm !
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Like them all, but love the "B"s.
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desertjoe
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Location: New mexico
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Posted: 11 Feb 2021 at 4:15am |
Aw,,I was just teasing you, Steve,,,,, That still is a great timing picture with the two cardinals and the four others staged around them. I have no idea what the four are,,,they look like the Quail around here with the tufted heads,,,,?? "A cold wintry day,waiting on the morning fog to clear, and the groceries to be delivered"
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nella(Pa)
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Joined: 11 Sep 2009
Location: Allentown, Pa.
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Posted: 11 Feb 2021 at 4:43am |
 desertjoe wrote:
Aw,,I was just teasing you, Steve,,,,, That still is a great timing picture with the two cardinals and the four others staged around them. I have no idea what the four are,,,they look like the Quail around here with the tufted heads,,,,?? "A cold wintry day,waiting on the morning fog to clear, and the groceries to be delivered" |
The other four are female Cardinals. 
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Harvey/pa
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Joined: 11 Sep 2009
Location: York Co. Pa.
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Posted: 11 Feb 2021 at 6:41am |
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About 10 years ago Grandson trapped a coon and a possum and put them out in the field after skinning them. Day later He said "Look at that huge hawk eating that coon" I told him it was an immature bald eagle, he didn't believe me till a mature one showed up minutes later. He drug every dead thing he could find, including chickens, here so we could watch the eagles. Fast forward 10 years and now I wish they would live somewhere else. A deer got hit on a farm next door and there were 5 of them on the carcass at once. They have aquired a taste for chickens and guineas and have about cleaned out mine and 2 other neighbors. The only ones left stay in the barnyard or next to the house . Too many of them and red tails now, even the barn cats are dwindling, don't get me wrong I still enjoy seeing them just not being over run with them...Harvey
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Dave H
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Posted: 11 Feb 2021 at 8:35am |
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Steve, what are you feeding that brings those cardinals in like your pic shows?
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steve(ill)
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Posted: 11 Feb 2021 at 8:49am |
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all ever use is cracked corn... I get a 50 pound bag at Menards for $8. been doing this for 10 years.. Use to be barn swallows and sparrows.. Last 5 years we have picked up 4-5 blue jays, a few wood peckers, and 3-4 cardinals........ This year about a dozen cardinals showed up starting with the snow last week. I have had to double the amount i put out to feed... was 2# per day, now about 4#.
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Like them all, but love the "B"s.
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nella(Pa)
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Posted: 11 Feb 2021 at 9:11am |
Dave H wrote:
Steve, what are you feeding that brings those cardinals in like your pic shows?
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Black oil sunflower seed is what the birds like the best here. They eat it first, had my own cracked corn and they would not eat the corn. 20$ for a fifty lb. bag.
Edited by nella(Pa) - 11 Feb 2021 at 9:12am
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Dave H
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Posted: 11 Feb 2021 at 9:30am |
I get the bird seed by the 50lb gag (econo). Has lots of cracked corn.
I found suet blocks on sale a while back and the wood peckers are going nuts over it. I get three kinds of wood peckers in, but piliated are not around here.
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NEVER green
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Posted: 11 Feb 2021 at 9:47am |
john(MI) wrote:
We have a half dozen feral cats. I wonder if it may be cheaper buying bird food and letting the cats fend for themselves. Wife said she saw one of the cats sitting on top of a bluebird house the other day. That'll make me happy when them darned sparrows try to move in come spring time!
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Are you serious Mr, lusty ??????? Since feral cats arent native to the US they do huge amounts of damage to song birds and other wild life.
They dont last long in my neighbor hood, for that matter most of the county.
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2-8050 1-7080 6080 D-19 modelE & A 7040 R50
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steve(ill)
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Posted: 11 Feb 2021 at 1:07pm |
Im not much of a bird expert, and my camera leaves a lot to be desired.. I can figure out cardinals, blue jays and wood peckers.... 75% of the birds are what i have been calling "sparrows and barn swallows".... probably not quite correct.. You can see a couple in the photo below that looks similar to swallows.. split tail and a blueish top and white belly.. to the sides are what i call sparrows ( spotted brown)
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Like them all, but love the "B"s.
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steve(ill)
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Posted: 11 Feb 2021 at 1:17pm |
this little guy prefers to push his luck and eat cat food.
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Like them all, but love the "B"s.
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Alberta Phil
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Posted: 11 Feb 2021 at 8:39pm |
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Those little dark guys with the white belly are "Junco's". Lots of them around here at the bird feeder. Sometimes called "Snowbirds" here.
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