FreeLists / tn-bird / [tn-bird] Re: Crow problem

[James Brooks <comeback@xxxxxxxx>]

I got one at a vendor during Jonesborough Days a couple of years ago 
that works great. It is a little flat cedar house with its suspension 
ropes (it hangs) passing through holes in the roof, which lifts up to 
insert the suet cake. It is only accessible to the birds through a wire 
mesh bottom, Chicadees caught on pretty quickly, titmice and nuthatches 
took longer, and finally the downy woodpeckers began using it. That's 
about it. Starlings, crows, jays finches cannot get to it. In the winter 
a suet cake lasts about a week. It also shades the suet, making it 
usable in summertime as well.
The people who designed and built it also had a squirrel feeder which 
has also been successful. It cradles a gallon glass jar on its side in a 
wooden platform, with a squirrel-sized access on the side toward the 
tree. The jar can be filled with shelled corn, but yesterday I found 
squirrel feed at PetsMart, which also includes peanuts and other 
squirrel goodies. They love it. Of course I mounted it in a walnut tree, 
well away from the house and the bird feeders, not at all in their line 
of sight, and at the edge of the woods, where the squirrels belong.
I was spoiled by the years I had my feeders in a fenced-in yard with a 
German shepherd. No squirrel or raccon problems. When he died I had to 
buy new metal-capped tube feeders, but since I've set up the squirrel 
feeder away from the house, they've given me no further problems.
James Brooks
Jonesborough, TN

Will Wright wrote:

>First I like squirrels and crows! We just can't keep feeding their
>bottomless pits.
>
>I had to get a Mandarin Sky Cafe to keep the squirrels from emptying our
>sunflower feeder about every other day. They also have had no luck with
>the perchless thistle feeder for the goldfinches or interest in the
>hummingbird feeder.
>
>Now it looks like I will have to put a cake of suet every day in one of
>our two suet feeders the way the crows inhale them. We only have 3 - 4
>crows at at time. We want to leave the suet out year round to attract
>the various types of woodpeckers and nuthatches that are regular
>visitors.
>
>We have only seen the type with 2 wood finish boards that you put peanut
>butter between. I don't  think putting suet cakes in that type would
>work.
>
>We would like suggestions for suet cake feeders that are crow resistant.
>
>Thanks.
>
>Will Wright
>Tellico Village
>Loudon County, TN
>
>
>
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=================NOTES TO SUBSCRIBER=====================

The TN-Bird Net requires you to sign your messages with
first and last name, city (town) and state abbreviation.
-----------------------------------------------------
To post to this mailing list, simply send email to:
tn-bird@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
----------------------------------------------------- 
To unsubscribe, send email to:
tn-bird-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx 
with 'unsubscribe' in the Subject field.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Topographical Maps located at http://topozone.com/find.asp
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
     Visit the Tennessee Ornithological Society
          web site at http://www.tnbirds.org
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
    TN-Bird Net Owner: Wallace Coffey, Bristol, TN
        jwcoffey@xxxxxxxxxx      (423) 764-3958
=========================================================