[masraum]

Originally Posted by john70t

Almost stepped on a rabbit under the bird feeder this morning. Red squirrels have somewhat replaced the fox types but less numbers of both recently. Seen more raptors around and even bald eagles off the freeway.

I keep the feeder full of a variety because we've lost something like half the songbirds in the world over a recent time period.
Lots of reasons for that.
Migrating birds depend on food sources to make it halfway around the planet twice a year.

Feed can get pricey at the regular pet stores. I get 50# bags of black sunflower at menards and mix smaller bags of peanuts or the other mixes in. Should feed corn as well but I don't trust it as much these days.

And it's fun to watch the social interaction. Had a new family of cardinals and blue jays this year. They sometimes come say hello. Had a flicker for the past decade make a home in the back yard and sing regularly but haven't seen lately. Chickadees are a favorite. Wrens and nuthatches now. Juncos in the winter. Only one small Piliated Woodpecker seen. They big boys are like small dinosaurs. Haven't seen many hairy/downy woodpeckers but had them in the past.

A couple days ago a young confused Cooper's Hawk landed in the dense Montmorancy cherry tree and tried to chase them through it while getting almost stuck. Got ringed by the regular crowd and jeered. Normally a squad of jays will chase them and make a fuss throughout the block.

We get a pretty good range of birds on the property. I used to have a bird feeder when we lived in the burbs many years ago. We got to where we were going through a ton of seed, but some birds were pushing a ton of it out onto the ground while they just ate their favorite seen. We ended up with 2" of seed under the feeder which lots of other birds and the squirrels ate. Now that I'm in the country, I'm letting the birds eat what's laying around which is seeds off of the trees and bugs off of the ground. The Eastern Bluebirds seem to be bug eaters, while the cardinals seem to prefer seeds. I've seen a pilleated woodpecker here, several other wood peckers, migratory birds, raptors, carrion birds, and even a road runner (meep, meep!) which was really cool. The chickadees are always fun to watch and hear. The wrens have a heck of a "set of pipes". When one lands on the porch and starts to sing, it's always surprising how much sound comes out of such a small bird. We've also had scissortail flycatchers (more common up the road near larger open fields) and cedar waxwings.