{"id":1660,"date":"2022-03-16T14:00:00","date_gmt":"2022-03-16T18:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/urbannaturestore.blog\/?p=1660"},"modified":"2022-03-16T14:00:00","modified_gmt":"2022-03-16T18:00:00","slug":"migration-is-underway-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/test.mppdev.net\/index.php\/2022\/03\/16\/migration-is-underway-3\/","title":{"rendered":"Migration is Underway!"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Have you heard your first red-winged blackbird yet?\u00a0 Conk-la-reee\u2026 a sure sign that spring is truly on its way.\u00a0 I always look forward to the return of the red-wings.\u00a0 However, that also means that the grackles will be close behind.\u00a0 I know from listening to your questions over the years that there are some birds you would rather not encourage to visit your feeders.\u00a0 The main question I hear is, \u2018how do I keep grackles away, and is there any way to keep starlings away from suet feeders\u2019.\u00a0 The answer is yes!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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I spent a day this week cleaning my feeders and deciding which ones I would leave out and which ones I will put away until fall migration is underway.\u00a0 Starlings have been cleaning out my suet feeders within 2 or 3 days, and they sure arrive in extremely large flocks.\u00a0 Last year I decided to invest in a caged suet feeder.\u00a0 My choice was the Squirrel Resistant Suet Palace<\/a><\/em>, but any caged feeder will work.\u00a0 This feeder holds two suet cakes.\u00a0 By leaving the metal plate that sits under the suet off, larger woodpeckers such as the hairy and red-bellied will be able to feed from the underside, just as they would with an up-side-down suet feeder.\u00a0 Up-side-down suet feeders<\/a> are another choice for you.\u00a0 Woodpeckers don\u2019t mind feeding from these feeders, but starlings\u2026 not so much.\u00a0 At this time of year you can also use pure suet to fend off the starlings as they prefer the flavoured varieties, however, you need to know that during the hot summer months pure suet can melt.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Heavy Duty Caged Mixed Seed Feeder<\/a><\/strong><\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The next question is how to keep feeding smaller birds sunflower hearts such as goldfinches, house finches, chickadees and downy woodpeckers.\u00a0 I chose to go with a caged feeder<\/a> again to let the little guys feed in peace.\u00a0 Many manufacturers including Droll Yankees, Stokes, Audubon, Gardman and Woodlink offer different styles of these feeders.\u00a0 Brome Bird Care also offers feeders that allow you to adjust the weight to fend off bigger birds.\u00a0 This works to a degree, but grackes have taught themselves that if they flap their wings they can still manage to steal a few morsels of seed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now, how to keep feeding cardinals and rose-breasted grosbeaks.\u00a0 Safflower is a favourite of theirs and thankfully the larger bully birds don\u2019t like this seed.\u00a0 By offering\u00a0 Safflower in a nice hopper feeder, you will invite cardinals, grosbeaks and house finches to dine in your garden.\u00a0 One of my favourite feeders for safflower seed is the Sky Cafe <\/em>by Arundale<\/a>.\u00a0 This feeder has a great feeding tray that the cardinals and grosbeaks love.\u00a0 You can also add a dove guard to keep mourning doves from overtaking the safflower seed. \u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Arundale Sky Cafe Bird Feeder<\/em><\/strong><\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Nyjer seed and finch and friends can also be offered in\u00a0 separate feeders.\u00a0 The feeding portals on a nyjer feeder are too small for large birds to feed from.\u00a0 I don\u2019t mind the red-winged black birds and they are content to feed from my Droll Yankees Clever Clean Feeder<\/em><\/a> which I use to offer finch and friends or white millet.\u00a0 These blackbirds have a slender bill which allows them to feed from this feeder.\u00a0 I have a separate clinger feeder for nyjer as well that keeps the many goldfinches accommodated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Next month I will be setting up my oriole and hummingbird feeding station.  Something to look forward to!  Oh\u2026 and as I have been sitting at the table writing this blog, the first grackle has arrived in the yard.  Good thing I set up my \u2018spring feeders\u2019 yesterday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Happy Spring Birding!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jane Paradis<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Brand Ambassador<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Have you heard your first red-winged blackbird yet?\u00a0 Conk-la-reee\u2026 a sure sign that spring is truly on its way.\u00a0 I always look forward to the return of the red-wings.\u00a0 However, that also means that the grackles will be close behind.\u00a0 I know from listening to your questions over the years that there are some birds […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1674,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[96,60,61,21,76,30,17],"class_list":["post-1660","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uns-birding-blog","tag-birdmigration","tag-birdwatching","tag-canadawildbirding","tag-janes-birds","tag-unsbirds","tag-unsblogs","tag-urbannaturestore"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.mppdev.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1660","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.mppdev.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.mppdev.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.mppdev.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.mppdev.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1660"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/test.mppdev.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1660\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.mppdev.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1674"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.mppdev.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1660"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.mppdev.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1660"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.mppdev.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1660"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}