Anne Lurie wrote:

Just put up more feeders, I guess! My suet feeder was being monopolized by
a Brown Thrasher, but he mysteriously disappeared when it snowed, so now the
feeder's accessible to Carolina Wrens, Chickadees, and my 2 favorites,
Brown-Headed Nuthatch & Pine Warbler (I never knew warblers came to feeders
at all, but this gorgeous little guy is apparently an exception).

Funny, despite having a mockingbird establish territory in and around
our yard, he's not the one that sets fierce guard on the suet baskets -
it's the bluebirds! *grin* The mockingbird spends most of his time it
seems sitting on the gutters of the second story of the house surveying
his domain. Only thing I can think that might have him a bit nervous is
the hawks and owls that also have territory congruent to his.

As to the type of suet we put out - I've got a recipe for making suet
patties but so far have been too lazy or too busy to get a round tuit.
After experimenting with all the different types offered at Lowes, we
settled on the "peanut treat". It seems to be the one that makes the
birds the happiest in our yard and they also eat it year round. I think
our daily 8 a.m. visitor - a red bellied woodpecker - would be extremely
put out if we didn't have it out year round.

Thanks everyone for the mention of the pine warbler - I've been seeing
lots of them for a while but hadn't bothered to look them up. (I still
don't know why....)

As to the bluebirds - I was really surprised last year that within two
weeks of puttin gup the first bluebird house we had a nesting pair in
it. That's when I went out and bought another one. *smile* All in
all, we had three broods raised last year - two in the first house and
one in the second. Since they've managed to keep ownership of the
houses over the winter, I'm looking forward to my first broods this
year. I do clean out the boxes fairly soon after the nestlings are
fledged.

I also put out a "nesting basket" which is simply one of the black pots
a tree I bought came in from the nursery with cat fur, twigs, and long
grassy type weeds. It seems the bluebirds definitely prefer the fur
from our grey cat Spike as of the three nests I have cleaned out of the
boxes, they have all had his fur in the lining of the nest. *smile* I
guess it's time to start brushing him again....

Susan
s h simko at duke dot edu