[Alffe]

You might be sorry you asked!

Bizi saw her first ever Baltimore Oriole at fernwood gardens this morning...now if she could just hear it warble....

I make my own suet...got the recipe from Birds & Blooms Magazine. The birds seem to love it because they go thru it so fast...it's cheaper to make it than buy it....course the dang squirrels like it too.

Suet

Melt one cup crunchy peanut butter with one cup crisco
Remove from heat and add 2 cups corn meal
2 cups quick oats
Add one cup flour
1/3 cup sugar and stir in 1/4 cup bird seed.

Spray a square 9" pan with cooking oil (Pam) and pour recipe into it.
Freeze until solid...cut in squares and put in a suet holder.

*whisper...so glad to read that you found a med. that works!

[BJ]

Wow and I thought it was a place for birds to go. This looks easy..even I can do it..........I hope.

But I'm having a real hard time with crows. They're all over and just being obnoxious. My poor Morning Doves are all dazed and confused.

[Curious]

or pack the gunk around pine cones...put on a foil lined cookie sheet and put in the freezer. then just tie a string to them and hang from trees.

hang the pine cones from the trees...or if you are a monkey..hang from the trees yourself.

now alffe...don;t you go using that peter pan peanut butter that got recalled for the squirrels.

[Doody]

Maybe this would help. http://www.bird-x.com/products/gallery/terror.html

[Alffe]

Curious I buy the cheapest peanut butter I can find cause I really go through the stuff fast...especially this time of year. We've been collecting pine cones for our Sunday school kids...they are making feeders for the birds and as far as I know, they aren't hanging from the trees.

Doody, those scarey eyes would probably work but I don't want to scare away the woodpeckers. we have a huge flicka after the ants and yesterday a pair of redbreasted grosbeeks showed up at the mesh feeder. The male is so much more colorful than his lady. I think he cross dresses.

BJ..I am awash in crows and crackles and they are awful. They constantly poop in the birdbath and I've never seen them bath in it.

Ok...time to hit the yard....have a great day everyone.

[~KELLWANTSANSWERS~]

I'm sorry,i hope i don't offend you Doody.I know your trying to help,but that big eyed thing just cracked me up

My parents like to feed the birds and watch them fly in and out f their bird house they have,i will have to tell them about this!

[Wren]

Well ~~ I love almost all the birds including the crows.
I buy enormous amounts of dry dog food for the crows -- they like it so much more than the cracked corn I get for the deer and the sun flower seeds I get for the other birds.

I buy peanut suet too -- lots of that -- for all the various woodpeckers and just occassional flicker. We gets lots and lots of enormous pileated woodpeckers that eat an enormous amount of suet.

We finally have the humming birds here -- late but here.

Somehow the birds make me feel needed and valuable.

[KathyM]

We had a problem with crows gathering in a mulberry tree out back one year.

My husband took the screen out of the window and made himself comfortable, sling-shot and peanuts in hand.

The squirrels enjoyed the peanuts. The crows didn't know what hit them, but they quickly moved on. They rarely return, but when they do the squirrels get a treat - and hubby gets to play with the sling-shot.

I have nothing against crows. They make great garbagemen, but I'd rather they not hold their union meetings outside my bedroom window.

[Wren]

I used to buy peanuts-in-the-shell in 50 lb bags for the birds and toss scoopfulls onto the patio. (this "patio" isn't a people patio ... it was built simply as a place to put bird feeders - a great big cement slab).

I got tired of all the shells on the patio so I started tossing the peanuts into the grass. the crows didn't like trying to peck open the nuts in the soft grass so they carried each nut back to cement !!

I love crows .... they are sooo smart. And they recognize me. They know I'm the person carrying FOOD.

[Alffe]

I have never seen a pilated woodpecker.....only pictures of them. I wonder if they come to northern indiana.....The tufted titmice/mouses? love peanuts in the shell and even fight the blue jays for them. I am exhausted! Is it too early for bed?