With the start of October and a chill in the air, now is the time to remind you to reassess your bird feeding program.
Whether you feed all year long, or just during the colder months, now is the time to ready your feeders for the fall and winter seasons. The colder weather often keeps us closer to home, and bird feeders can add to the enjoyment of your home and yard. Feeding birds is still a relatively low-cost hobby and offers a great return in entertainment value.
Bird feeders become one of those fall projects that you add to your “to-do list.” Depending on what else is on that list, birds may become a low priority and the feeders won’t be up until the first snow flies. By then, however, the ground is often too frozen to put in another pole if one is needed to hang the feeders.
You’ll want to place feeders where you can watch from the house for the greatest enjoyment. Before the ground freezes, put a pole in the ground to place one or more feeders in a visible area from your windows.
You can place the pole in the yard, near cover that the birds can use, but far enough away from trees and shrubs where squirrels might reach them. Unless you use feeders that are squirrel-proof, then you should add a good baffle to help deter squirrels.
You could also hang a bracket off your deck or porch to hold a feeder. Brackets will clamp or screw onto your railing. There are also brackets that mount on a window frame and will swing and lock in front of the window for close viewing.
Window feeders stick right onto the window with suction cups to bring the birds right up close. You can also use a two-way mirror film separately for any window feeders and watch the birds while they just see their reflection off the film. Window feeders can provide great entertainment for children and cats as well.
Now is also the time to add more feeders if you choose. A thistle/finch feeder will lure the goldfinches, house finches, and pine siskins. A peanut feeder, which is most popular in our yard, will draw woodpeckers, nuthatches, and tufted titmice. Sunflower and mixed seed in an open platform, or a hopper feeder with a platform area, will attract a wide variety of birds, especially those winter visitors for the north. Adding a suet feeder attracts so many birds, including woodpeckers, nuthatches, chickadees and titmice.
Black-oil sunflower or sunflower chips in a tube feeder is easy and very popular. Tube feeders are easy to fill and are easy to clean. Many of the newer tube feeders have quick release bottoms for easy cleaning. It is usually the base of the feeder where seed gets wet and moldy, so access to that area for cleaning is critical. The most popular squirrel-proof feeders, the Squirrel Buster feeders, also disassemble easily for cleaning.
If you have feeders up but haven’t cleaned them in a while, please add that to your project list. It is all too easy for seed left in a feeder too long to breed bacteria that will harm the birds. If seed goes bad, birds will stay away.
Every few weeks, feeders should be emptied, and cleaned thoroughly with soap and water. For particularly moldy feeders, use a 10% bleach or vinegar solution, rinse thoroughly, let dry completely, and refill with fresh seed. Keeping feeders clean, with fresh seed, is key to attracting more birds as well as protecting their health.
An advantage of starting to feed earlier in the fall is that you are likely to catch some interesting migrants on their way south. Having feeders ready might reward you with visits by white-throated, white-crowned or fox sparrows as they move through. You may also catch the early arrival of wintering birds from up north such as juncos, pine siskins, redpolls, or evening grosbeaks.
All the more reason to have your feeders up, cleaned, filled and in position to lure birds to your yard!
Steve Grinley is the owner of Bird Watcher’s Supply and Gift in the Port Plaza, Newburyport. Email him at Birdwsg@comcast.net. On the web: www.birdwatcherssupplyandgifts.com.