On Thursday, February 12, 2015 at 12:00:07 PM UTC-6, Brooklyn1 wrote:
> Christopher Helms wrote:
> >Thomas wrote:
> >>Christopher Helms wrote:
> >> >> This time of year is very tough on all the little critters.
> >>
> >>I often wonder how many perish. It's 10f right now and going to zero.
> >>I feed them and wonder if I am helping. Must be hard to find food with
> >>all the snow.
> >
> >They're very good at locating anything people put out for them.
> >I put out unsalted in shell peanuts. A lot of people around here
> >are good about helping them out.
>
> I feed birds an assortment of seeds including in-shell peanuts, suet
> blocks, table food scraps, and they even help themselves to dried pet
> food, nothing edible goes into my trash... rather than toss cooking
> fat into the trash I scrape it out onto the snow.... many people feed
> birds so they quickly learn to make their rounds... and since there
> are many farms here birds are seen feeding with the livestock. Lots
> of birds are killed from flying into glass, not many starve to death.
> Naturally like all critters birds die of old age and disease. All my
> fly-thru window situations are well identified to greatly minimize
> birds attempting to fly through; I hang CDs and paper tags from thread
> so that they flutter and the backs of my window shades have a black
> raptor silhouette taped to them... there are web sites where you can
> print the raptor silhouette. Plants on a window sill is a big NO-NO.
> There are many products but I've found hanging CDs works best.
> http://songbirdphoto.com/wordpress/?p=136
> http://stores.santarosanational.com/
> http://abirdseyeview.com/?gclid=CIfo...FQ0jgQodAFwArw
> http://www.nixalite.com/?gclid=CNX5m...FRQQ7AodN1oA7Q
> http://www.songbirdgarden.com/store/...idproduct=2615


It always struck me as fascinating how birds and squirrels that don't migrate and have never been in a place where peanuts grow can instinctively recognize them as something edible.