Cowbird Suet?

I found this suet at a Walmart last night.

Periodically,  people email or ask me, "Hey, I've had a suet feeder out, but no bird comes to it.  Why won't they come?"

Most of the time, I picture a yard void of trees, but after finding this suet in a popular shopping destination, I wonder if this might be one of the reasons?  The above suet cake is LOADED with milo.  This is a cheap filler seed that does not attract many birds.  If you live out west and get quail--milo is great.  In the eastern US only a few birds love it: pheasants, turkey, rock pigeons and brown-headed cowbirds.

This was not the only crap block of suet I found, but this was the worst offender I found on the shelf.  It's bad enough that suet cakes are being loaded with cracked corn but milo?  Really?

If you are looking for suet, look at it from the back.  If the label reads that it is a peanut suet and you see lots of corn...that may be a sign that it's not a good brand.  If you see lots of peanut chunks, then that is a good suet.  If you see lots of small, yellow round seeds, this is millet and woodpeckers don't care for that either.

I don't know if I can fault the company that makes the above suet.  I mean, they wouldn't unless they were making some sort of profit.  Is there enough of a profit to be made in a suet cake that is not attractive woodpeckers and ends up sitting in a feeder for along time?  Or maybe more people like to feed cowbirds than I realized?  I am frustrated because this company does make some pretty good, affordable bird seed mixes.  They make regional blends that are good for someone new to bird feeding and they don't know what seed to get.  But that suet...that's lame.

Rainbow Mealworms Is In Dire Need Of A Bird Consultant

Oh, Rainbow Mealworms, why couldn't you have had a birder to take a quick look at this ad before you submitted it for print?  I feel for you, I bet you'll get a few phone calls over this one.

I was thumbing through one of the many bird magazines that find their way into my mailbox when this half page ad caught my attention.  Rainbow Mealworms used a starling as the target bird to attract with their product for a US bird publication.  This is a bit of an advertising blunder when you consider the type of birders who purchases mealworms: bluebird and purple martin enthusiasts.

Mealworms gained a place on wild bird specialty store shelves because bluebirds do not eat seeds and bluebird trail monitors wanted a way to offer them food.  Starlings are one of the birds bluebird and purple martin enthusiasts work to great lengths to avoid since this introduced species will displace so many birds from nesting cavities like bluebirds, purple martins and flickers.  Using a starling in the advertising is somewhat of a smack in the face akin to giving the peace sign backwards in the United Kingdom.  Mealworms are a great addition to any feeding station, regulars like cardinals, chickadees and nuthatches eat them but so do catbirds, orioles and robins.  I've yet to see any US bird feeding enthusiast anxious to attract starlings.

I don't blame the magazine's editorial staff for this one.  Editors have remarkably little control over the ads, especially in this media era when few advertisers are investing in print. Often, the advertisers are submitting their pre designed ads last minute and the ads are put in with very little thought.  A company should do a bit of research before they do their marketing.  I'm sure both the magazine and the company will get some emails over this.  Perhaps some enterprising bluebird or purple martin enthusiast will offer use of their photos of birds eating mealworms in exchange for a few bags of a 1000 Mealworms?

Rainbow Mealworms has had a tough few years.  They are the biggest supplier of mealworms to North America and were one of the reasons for the mealworm shortage in 2008.

Better luck next time, Rainbow Mealworms.

Snowpacalypse 2010

We got a wee bit of snow.  We're still trying to dig out of it.  After watching the feeding frenzy at Neil's on Friday, I felt certain that the weather folks were "for serious" when they reported one to two feet of snow was eminent the next day.

Saturday morning I woke up to seven inches of snow, with more falling.  I would fill out my window feeders, only to have snow block the food ports ten minutes later.  It reminded me of the time in 2006 when Cinnamon and I were stranded in a blizzard after the Sandhill Crane festival in Nebraska.  At least this time we were home and not trying to entertain ourselves in a hotel room with nothing but an Irish/Mexican restaurant to feed us.

Non Birding Bill and I spent half the day moving cars before the Snow Emergency kicked in (for those who don't live in the Twin Cities, local communities declare a snow emergency and you have to pay attention to the parking rules or one of three things happen to you: you get ticketed, towed or plowed in).  Above is a car entombed in a snow bank, the plows hadn't even gotten to this street yet, if they didn't get it out soon, they'd be plowed in and stuck for some time.

Our little car was blocked by a snow bank too, but between the two of us and a shovel, we got the Stiteler Mobile out.  We even helped shovel the ally when one of our neighbors was stuck and she needed to get to a wedding.

Ah, this is the spirit of our neighborhood--take to the streets with your cross country ski gear when a blizzard hits!  The side walks were totally impassable on Saturday.  The only way to get anywhere was in the street, either walking or on skis.

Since we were spending show much energy moving cars, we spent the other half of the day eating.  While I was bottling up honey on Friday, NBB was gathering supplies for survival during Snowmaggedon which included alcohol infused whipped cream.  As tasty as this is on hot chocolate and an Irish Coffee, I find the warnings about not refridgerating it--even after opening, a little disturbing.  What kind of cream are they using in there anyway?

And so we kept tabs on the news and learned of various highways closing, theater performances canceling, bus service was halted and even snow plow drivers were taken off the road because they were getting stuck.  Some local bars sent out messages on Twitter that if you could walk to them, they would buy you your first drink.  We met up with one of our neighbors at Moto-i for drinks and some appetizers marveling at how crazy it was to walk around a city almost completely shut down.  Minneapolis usually is on the ball when it comes to snow removal, but getting 17 0 21 inches (depending on where you lived) was too much.  And there are only so many places the city can put the snow.

We went to bed and when we awoke the next day, we got the news that the snow was so heavy, the Metrodome (home to the Vikings) collapsed.  For my family who has not seen the video footage--here it is:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kh5iE5FA84g&feature=player_embedded[/youtube]

Holy crap!

I was supposed to work at the park service on Sunday morning, but learned that we would be opening three hours late.  That game me plenty of time to dig out our car and help others in my neighborhood.  When I eventually could drive to work, it was no picnic.  It was about as much fun as getting a TSA pat down from Barney the Dinosaur.  During the storm, the temps were in the 20s.  After it finished, it plummeted to below zero, rendering most of the snow melting techniques used by the salt/sand trucks ineffective.  It looked as though none of the streets had been visited by a plow in the last 24 hours.

This poor car owner that did not heed the Snow Emergency rules was so boned.  Blocked by a snow drift one one side and plowed in completely on the other side.  There is probably a parking ticket attached to the car windshield beneath the snow.  The only reason this car did not get towed was that the tow drivers saw that it was too packed in with snow to be worth the bother.

The roads were so narrow from all the snow, that often only one car could fit.  Everyone was trying to move their cars at once before a new set of Snow Emergency parking rules were about to take effect.  If you were walking the streets with a shovel, hungover hipsters would accost you, "Dude, can you help me dig out?"

They stood before you in their pajamas in the -3 degree F temperature with their sad ice scrapers trying to dig out their no-wheel drive cars--how could you say no?  Actually, that's one of the things I love about where I live.  If you are out about after a hard snow and you see someone struggling with their car, you help--no questions asked.  That's just what you do.  One poor dope  was stuck in the middle of the street.  Four of us tried pushing his car but could not get it to budge more than six inches at a time.  His wheels spun hopelessly in the snow while he was blocking traffic both ways.  Finally, I decided to use my little Kia to push him to a street with less snow (that's what bumpers are for, right?).  That did the trick and he was on his way to safer parking ground.

Not even bicycles were immune to the fury of the snow plows.  Believe it or not, quite a few people ride continue to ride their bikes in winter up here.  NBB and I saw a couple during the blizzard and a few on Sunday.  I hope the person who owns this bike gets it out soon.  The below zero temps will soon turn the snow banks into rock solid slabs of ice.

I marveled at all the robins in my neighborhood.  We saw quite a few watching the birds at my feeding station during the storm, but none of them came to the window.  We have quite a few hackberry trees loaded with fruit and that appears to be a big source of food for them this year.  Still, even though the robins we see in winter are from Canada, I wonder if they wished they could go further south?

Here it is the third day after the storm and life is not completely back to normal. I realized with a grin that it's still technically Autumn and we haven't had the Winter Solstice yet.  I do enjoy the snow and that's one of the reasons I chose to live here, but it will be interesting to see how this winter plays out.

Banded Birds At My Bird Feeder Camera

In case you have not heard, we're buried under an old school blizzard dumping up here.  The local weather folk were predicting with barely restrained glee the potential for a massive storm.  And though many of us have heard in the Twin Cities that we could get 1 - 2 feet of snow, many of us eyed this impending Snowmaggedon with skepticism.  It often amounts to only a few inches.  But to to be safe, I head out to Neil's for some last minute honey bottling finished--I need to get some together to mail to family for the holidays.  I generally use birds at the feeder as an indication if the weather predictions are true.  On Friday all feathers pointed to us getting seriously slammed on Saturday.  The goldfinches were draining the thistle feeder and even the pileated woodpecker chowed down on the suet feeder closest to the window.

While I was dealing with the honey (more on that later), I set up my WingScapes Camera out on a stump and covered it with some bird food.  Above is a male and female cardinal along with a winter plumage goldfinch.

Check out this ambitious white-breasted nuthatch!  Besides black oil sunflower seed, I crumpled up some peanut suet and the nuthatch was grabbing one of the larger chunks.  I also noted the nuthatch was banded.  Most likely the handy work of my buddies Mark and Roger who come out to band birds twice a year.  There were quite a few banded birds coming in to the cam:

Here's a banded blue jay--I think it's been a few years since Mark and Roger got one of these in the nets, so this bird could be a few years old.  Can't say for sure, since I can't read the band number, I can't say for sure.  It could even be someone else's banded bird.

Here's one of several banded black-capped chickadees.  Are they all photos of the same banded bird or several banded chickadees coming in to the seed, each taking a turn?

Here's a banded dark-eyed junco.  With the dark gray head and the brown on the back feathers, its looks like a first year junco, probably banded this fall.

And here is a banded titmouse.  It's nice to see all of the banded birds surviving and still coming to the feeding station, despite the nets going up twice a year.

There were a few other interesting photos that the cam picked up:

I find that crows are the hardest birds to capture on a motion sensitive camera.  This crow was watching the other birds go after the suet and it really, really wanted it.  It watched the stump for about ten minutes, trying to work out what the camera was all about.  After watching dozens of smaller birds go down for the suet, it tried.  But as soon as it landed, it bounced off the stump.  I wonder if it can hear the digital camera go off?  Can it see some change in the shutter?  It never grabbed any suet and it never returned to the stump--which suited the smaller birds just fine.

This photo cracks me up.  It looks like the cardinal is totally planning to ambush the chickadee.

These are just a small fraction of the hundreds of photos my Wingscapes Cam grabbed that afternoon.  The birds didn't lie, we got slammed with snow.  Even though the storm was Saturday, I can hear a semi truck in my neighborhood squealing it's tires as I type this.  It's been stuck in a bank of snow for the last 45 minutes. Minneapolis is pretty savvy when it comes to snow removal, but this one came so fast and there's only so any places that a city can put it, we're still a few days away from normality.

Mom, I'll post photos of our neighborhood later

Blue Jay & Hairy Woodpecker Interaction

Well, we're about to get Snomaggedon in the Twin Cities this weekend (12 inches with blizzard conditions).  The birds are going bonkers at the feeders so I set out the Wingscapes camera to grab some images.

The jaunty blue jay is loving the crumpled up peanut suet mixed with black-oil sunflower seeds.

And then he is joined by a hairy woodpecker.

Take That, Wax Moths!

Earlier in the summer I reported that an empty hive feel victim to a wax moth infestation.  The frames were nasty and full of webbing and tons of squishy larvae.  This gross combo did lead to me finding a way to combine my love of beekeeping and birds:

It took some convincing, but the birds got comfortable enough to approach the frames and totally dug the fat little protein packed larvae (note the black-capped chickadee above with a worm)!  I placed the frames on a stump that I use as a tray/feeder photography studio.  At first, I had to scatter some favorite seeds to get the birds' attention and when they landed, they instantly saw the squirming wax worms and chowed down.  I did have to flip the frames over from time to time, the larvae would crawl to the other side to hide but I think the titmice, chickadees and nuthatches took care of them.  I'm not sure what to do with the webs that remains on the frames.  Some beekeepers say to put them in the hive and the bees will clean it off.  At night, something has been coming up to the stump and eating all the wax off of the frame (perhaps mice).  Maybe if I leave the frames out, the mice will take all the webbing too and I'll have a totally bare frame?

Dealing With Grackles At The Feeder

It's that special time of year when migration is in the early stages and any sign of spring is a welcome sign--even the first few small flocks of common grackles like the one above.  They really are a pretty bird in the right light.  But soon, grackles will be driving people who feed birds a little crazy.  They big dark birds fly in with their ravenous appetites and large flock numbers during migration and need the extra fuel to make it to their breeding grounds.  Those who have enjoyed chickadees, cardinals and titmice all winter will find the feeders crowded with these aggressive blackbirds.  Once insects are out in full force, grackles will go for those, but in the meantime they can be a bit irritating as they crowd out some of the smaller birds.  When I worked at the bird feed store, grackles were welcome because that always meant a bump in seed sales because the grackles eat so much.

You do have some options in dealing with grackles.  One is to feed safflower.  There's a method to feeding safflower.  I've said it before and I'll end up saying it a thousand times but you usually have to introduce your feeder birds to safflower.  Sometimes when you have been feeding black oilers all winter and then make the sudden switch to safflower, the usual feeder crowd quits coming.  It's like going to your favorite burger joint only to discover that has turned to a Mexican restaurant.  It's not that you do not like Mexican food, but when you arrived there, you were expecting to get a hamburger, not a bean burrito.  Birds are the same way.  They flew in expecting black oil sunflower and find something else.  Switching cold turkey could take a few weeks to get regular bird activity back to "normal."

It works best if you can gradually increase the safflower in your mix so that the birds get used to the change.  If you start this after you already have grackles coming to the feeders, they will kick out safflower in favor of the seed they prefer.

You can also have one feeder that is all safflower.  The grackles may go after the other feeders, but the cardinals, rose-breasted grosbeaks, chickadees, nuthatches, titmice, house finches and mourning doves have a place to go.  I usually offer safflower in a tray feeder since cardinals tend to feed more readily in that.  There are some good tray feeders in my OpenSky shop (if you purchase from there, 20% of the profits to go kid programming at the American Birding Association).

You can also try weight sensitive feeders with grackles--at least weight sensitive that have a way to adjust the setting.  I've use the Squirrel Buster II with fairly good results at keeping bigger birds out--it especially works well if you are having problems with rock pigeons.

Birds of Snowpocalypse

For those like my mother who lives in Indianapolis (who are getting Rainmageddon) and cannot experience the white Christmas we are enjoying in the Twin Cities, I thought I'd put out my Wingscapes cam to get some photos of birds and the falling snow. I forgot that I had it set to take video, so here is a cardinal in the snow:

I love the crow who seems to be on cue giving periodic two caws for ambient noise. Love the little dome over the tray to keep the seeds dry and uncovered.
Happy Holidays to everyone--however you celebrate it.
Thank you so much for taking the time to visit my blog throughout the year and a special thank you to everyone who sends to that read, "I've never really noticed birds before reading your blog, but..." and then you send me your bird story. That's what makes sharing my bird stuff so fun.

The One That Got Away

A couple of weeks ago, I saw a squirrel loafed out on the top of the telephone pole outside our kitchen window. It seemed to be staring in, willing me to put seed out on the ledge of the kitchen window. It would then be able to walk the wires to gain access. I'm not really supposed to feed birds there. That window is right over the back door of our building. But I figured one little handful wouldn't hurt. It would snow soon, covering any evidence of empty seed shells below.

But the squirrel ignored the seed. A week went by. It snowed. Nobody ate the seeds, nobody noticed the seeds. That is, until today, a curious chickadee found the stash and quietly spirited away the black-oilers one by one (leaving the white millet untouched--no surprise there).

Although, one seed did escape the little bird. You could almost here a Homer Simpson-esque, "Doh!" as it slipped over the side.

Now, let's see how much I toe the line and sneak bird seed on this ledge over the winter. I think as long as the pigeons and house sparrows don't find it, I can manage my bird feeding addiction.

Is Cheap Bird Seed A Good Deal?

Recently, Dennis Donath who I volunteer with at Carpenter Nature Center sent out an email announcement to bunch of us that a local large scale retailer was going to have one heck of a deal on bird seed, specifically black oil sunflower. It was one of those Black Friday deals of black oil sunflower seed going for $9.89 for a fifty pound bag.

That is an exceptionally good deal on sunflower. Birds like the goldfinch and house finch above love sunflower. If you are only going to offer one seed at your feeder--that's the seed to offer. More birds eat that seed than another.

I responded to the group email that based on my experience working at a bird store that a retailer known as a "big box store" had deals on seed that were below dealer cost, it was a sure sign the seed was old. Many wild bird specialty stores insist on fresh product. When it comes to black oil sunflower, the specialty stores usually purchase seed from the most recent crop, it's rarely more than a year old. Once the new crop comes in, the seed distributor must find someone else to purchase it and it's generally sold to big box stores, grocery stores, hardware stores etc at a greatly reduced price.

Unlike Nyjer thistle which tends to only attract birds if it's less than six months old, sunflowers will still be eaten by birds if it's over a year old. After the first year, the nut meat begins to shrivel, so it's not going to be as desirable to wild birds, but if you're the only game in town, they'll go for it. Also, all stores and seed distributors have a problem with insects. The most common ones are the Indian meal moth and the dust weevil. You can only do so much safe pesticide treatment around the bird seed. The bugs are no big deal to birds--it's added protein in the feeder. But those insects are a pest to humans if they find their way into the home. Also, over time, an untreated infestation of the seed can affect the quality of the food as different insects tunnel through shells and eat the seed.

Check it out, even downy woodpeckers go for sunflower seeds. I warned the group in the email that there was probably a good reason the seed was so cheap and recommended they avoid buying it. Dennis brought up the point that it may be great seed from a bumper crop or this could be a loss leader situation--the store gets you inside for insanely cheap sunflower seed and then you end up purchasing several other items in the store. This wasn't out of the question, CUB Foods had an insane turkey sale going on the weeks before Thanksgiving. They were selling turkeys below cost for .37 a pound in the hopes you would come in and buy all your other holiday accoutrements at regular price.

I suspected that this would not be the case--sunflower prices have steadily increased in the last five years because 1. Frito Lay switched to using sunflower oil for their chips leaving less sunflower available to be used as bird seed and 2. fewer farmers have been growing sunflowers because of the ethanol boom and all the subsidies available for corn (which crashed) also leading to fewer sunflowers available for bird seed.

And it gets even more expensive when you see birds eating sunflowers out of the shell like this photo above of a black-capped chicadee. These are great because they do not germinate or leave a hulled shell mess on the ground, but sunflowers out of the shell can be twice the price of regular in the shell black oil sunflowers.

I was surprised and delighted to see a follow up email from Dennis regarding the validity of my claims. Before he retired, he worked for the USDA Seed Research Laboratory in Madison, WI and put his skills to use in testing the advertised seed and if my warning was warranted.

He purchased some of the advertised sale sunflower seed against some old sunflower seed he had on hand. He measured a given volume of both seeds and compared weights. He repeated the test three times and discovered that the sale price seed weighed 12.8% less than even the old seed he had on hand. I would guess this seed is over two years old, but I do not know that for sure.

He then did a visual examination of both seeds. He wrote, "I noticed that the sale price seeds were generally a little smaller. I also observed about 1% of the sale price seeds had tiny holes drilled in them (pictured above), indicating insect damage. I did not observe any evidence of live insect infestation, frass or webbing. My guess is that the infestation occurred in the field, not in storage." I did not find any damaged seeds in my samples of old seeds."

Finally, he broke open several of the "drilled" seed and found the nut meats were damaged. He estimated that 30 - 40% of the kernel weight had been consumed before whatever insect larvae left the shell. Above is a photo of two seeds. The upper is a damaged kernel from the sale seed, the lower is a whole kernel from old seed.

He summed up his research that the seed on sale was no bargain! Thank you Dennis for taking the time to do the actual research! It's cool to know that I have friends with handy skills!

So, beware when you see sunflower or any bird seed on sale at an unusually good price. Chances are it's a sign that the seed is old or of little feeding value to the birds. Again, if you are the only person for miles feeding birds, they will take what they can get. But if you are in a neighborhood and several people feed birds and you feeder is ignored, find out where your neighbor who has birds gets their seed, chances are good that it's fresher.