I feed them all year, but I put out suet in winter also. Sparrows, cardinals, jays, finches are the most common. Woodpeckers find their own food of course. The goldfinches love the lavender seeds and I see them all over the plants.

I never stop feeding the birds. The type of feed varies according to the season (hummingbirds, orioles, catbirds in the summer), but there's always something out for the birds.

Claire

We keep four feeders going filled with a woodpecker mix all year long. It hasn't seemed to stop our variety of birds, and it's certainly much cleaner. We turn on a heated birdbath in the winter so they always have a fresh supply of water. I left a lot of seed heads up in the gardens (pretty much out of sheer laziness this fall) and the goldfinches really seem to like to supplement the food from the feeder with the seeds. Sometimes I walk out the front door into the cottage garden and a large flock will scatter.

it can get so expensive when we go through a couple big bags a month, but I figure I'm not buying plants when they're feeding heavily in the dead of winter, so we continue to let them be hogs!

Not yet. This will be our first winter with a feeder and DH hasn't put it up yet. I'm hoping he'll get to it one of these days. I don't deadhead much in the yard, so there seems to be plenty for the birds to eat still, plus it's been so warm!

Hey Marie! I always find it funny that everyone thinks rats are utterly disgusting, but for some reason people think chipmunks are sooooo cute. I mean, they are adorable, but they're just striped rats after all (no offense to chipmunk lovers). When you have about 125 chipmunks over a season, that begins to be a bit much and I start to think of them as rats. You certainly wouldn't let packs of rats take up residence in gardens, but somehow cute little chipmunks get a pass! LOL! They do love all the seed that drops from the feeders, that's for sure! I'm sorry you had to deal with that. It would freak me out too.

I'll just put in a word for the rats. I used to have pet rats (lab rat cultivars) and they were great pets, somewhat similar to cats. They would play with a string, come when they were called, and snuggle on my shoulder. Unfortunately, I became allergic to them and had to give them away.

To me the outdoor rats are like feral cats - you don't want them in your yard but they're not offensive per se.

Claire

We feed the birds all year too and have not had problems with rats, or mice, just squirrels and an occasional visit by a Hawk. I do let the feeders empty for a day or two to allow the squirrels to finish off what is on the ground before I fill them again. We had a couple of chipmunks two seasons and then none since then.

We've added bushes that berry and they are finally reaching maturity to provide some for the birds. Love to catch the day the berries ripen and a flock of birds descend on it and empty it out in just about a day, sometimes in a few hours.

If you don't want to read more r-t stories, stop here. They are eclipsing birds tales...(not even funny)

Yes, "feral" r-ts are part of the ecosystem. Urban legends and truths certainly color my reactions, as does the fact that "my" r-ts dragged a 6 oz bar of baking chocolate off a pantry shelf, to behind the washing machine where I found it half eaten. They left a permanent souvenir: a two inch hunk chewed off the bottom of a lower cupboard. Poor thing, it must have been bored or something.

As for chipmunks, I would have gladly gassed the ones that pulled up every single crocus and snowdrop I planted. However I haven't heard stories of chipmunks biting babies in their beds or transmitting the plague.

Enough already. These are vile thoughts to have the day before Christmas. (You can bet there were rodents in the stable, if not in the manger) ..... clearly I started down a bad road....

I have been feeding them for a couple of months. We just built a replacement bird table (screened-bottom platform feeder) and made one for a neighbor. Throughout the year I put various scraps like fat, older nuts, worms, fruit pieces on it. In the spring I often set a dish of jam on it and the cat rids five me thumbs up on Yelp.

When the weather gets "colder" I put chunks of suet in a large hanging wire cylinder. I may put another suet feeder on a pulley and hoist it up higher into the tall red maple in holes that the pileated woodpeckers will go to it. Lately I've seen the eating the fox grapes hanging from maples out back. I love watching them.

We've got an assortment of feeders and arrange to have them close to some twiggy or brush shelter. Some are covered a bit. All have baffles to prevent squirrel and chipmunk access. We usually have cardinals, but the they've all hightailed it to my neighbor's where she puts out safflower and mixed seed. We just use BOS and Niger thistle and suet. She told me that she had a large owl swoop down for a bird in the morning. Tall trees and woods across the road. But, really? Do owls prey in the daytime? Shouldn't they be in bed?

starsplitter, some owls do hunt in daylight, like barred or great horned owls. I think I saw a large owl hunting in a field last week in the afternoon. No camera,but I believe it was a huge owl.

Jane

Thanks, Jane. Interesting. I've canoed past last owls in daytime hours as they appeared to be dozing on a nearby branch. Locally we have barred owls that we can hear -- "who cooks for you ...."

Anyone want to here my coyotes? ;-)

I'm trying not to post on here because I'm in Michigan but, Thyme2dig, I cannot thank you enough for mentioning using a woodpecker mix. You've made my day. Merry Christmas!

Claire, indoor rodents are on an entirely different level for me. I do enjoy hamsters, guinea pigs, rats, etc. when they are "domesticated" so to speak. Very intelligent creatures! And tell me, WHO doesn't love Templeton from Charlotte's Web?! He's an outdoor rat I can get behind! LOL!

Pat, I'm so glad that was helpful. We used to go through pounds and pounds of black oil sunflower but the shells were insane after a long winter with lots of snow. Where we feed, we don't shovel underneath so after a long snowy winter we were knee-deep in shells! I was really worried when we decided to try the woodpecker mix that we would lose the variety of birds, but we have not lost a single bird that we would normally see. I was so pleased. My pocketbook, not so much! LOL!