FreeLists / birdky / [birdky] Re: Bluebird Feeder

["joyce porter" <joycelporter@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Thanks, Ann,

It's interesting how other people deal with this problem.
I usually bang on the kitchen window,15 to 20 feet back from the
feeders. But until I get the cardinals, gold finches,titmouse, chickadees, 
etc,  trained to recognize that the
banging on the window is not meant for them , guess I'll have to
settle for scaring them all away. The Grackles however are not nearly  so 
persistent as the regulars.
Sure will be glad to see a  spring warbler! Joyce Porter




>From: "Ann Morgan" <aandm@xxxxxxxx>
>Reply-To: birdky@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
>To: <birdky@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
>Subject: [birdky] Re: Bluebird Feeder
>Date: Mon, 3 Mar 2003 21:36:25 -0600
>
>
>
>  Judy,  I don't know if this would work with bluebirds as we have never
>tried to provide special food for them , but I have had some success with
>"training" my feeder birds.  We have hordes of grackles  and sometimes
>starlings who descend often on our large sunflower feeder. We have our
>feeder out about 15 feet from a picture window at the back of our house.  I
>wave my hands and the grackles fly away and give my "regulars "a chance at
>the feeder.    If it is a particularly large or
>persistant  flock, I open the window and clap my hands several times as
>sharply as I can. As they fly away, the regulars
>(cardinals,wbnuthatches,chickadees, titmice,downy and rb
>woodpeckers,dove,juncos,  wtsparrows, goldfinches and house finches)
>immediately fly in .They just seem to know that I don't mean them.  As long
>as I stand near the window where they can see me, and I wave my hands even
>when just one comes back, the grackles don't return and it does not disturb
>the regulars. Of course, I usually have other things to do and can't stand
>there long but I wave them off every time I pass though the room and it
>gives my regular birds a chance at the feeder. Sometimes the grackles get
>tired enough of me that they give up and leave entirely. In case you are
>wondering,  there is a field behind our house so no one has to witness my
>performance except my long-suffering husband.
>
>If anyone ever figures out a really good solution to this problem, they
>should win some sort of birder's Nobel prize. I know a number of people who
>have quit feeding the birds because of this problem. It was not that they
>especially disliked grackles and starlings, but they just couldn't afford 
>to
>feed hundreds of agressive birds who cleaned out their feeders in an hour 
>or
>so.
>
>Ann Morgan aandm@xxxxxxxx
>
>Madisonville
>
>
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================NOTES TO SUBSCRIBERS==============

The BIRDKY Mailing List requires you to sign 
your messages with first & last name, city, & 
state abbreviation.
--------------------------------------------------
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birdky@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
-------------------------------------------------- 
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birdky-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx 
with 'unsubscribe' in the Subject line.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *  
Visit the Kentucky Ornithological Society
web site at http://www.biology.eku.edu/kos.htm
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * 
BIRDKY List Manager: Gary Ritchison, Richmond, KY
E-mail: gary.ritchison@xxxxxxx