Tuesday, May 05, 2009

The Food Court


My yard is tiny, but I crammed in some birdfeeders.
From left to right there's
  • A hummingbird feeder
  • Thistle Sock
  • Suet feeder
  • Nesting material ball
  • Big Fancy Expensive Thistle Feeder (the sock is still more popular)
  • All purpose feeder (nuts, sunflower seeds etc..)
Mostly I get house finches, house sparrows and jays. Recently I've been getting goldfinches.

The squirrel has his own feeder. It's a little box of peanuts. He has to lift the lid to get them.

There's a crow who shakes me down for handouts too...

...and a mockingbird who chases him off.

On Saturday I got off work early and snuck into the yard, eager to see if I'd catch any new species feeding at that time of day...

...and found Jumbo Super Rat chomping away!
Now I sprinkle the feeder with ground hot pepper to keep him away from it.

7 comments:

Linda Davick said...

Your food court is magnificent!

The little box of peanuts for your squirrel is wonderful.

Namowal (Jennifer Bourne) said...

Thanks, Linda.
I almost didn't post the picture because it looked kinda junky, but it is a magnet for wildlife.

The peanut box is one of many gizmos for sale that requires the squirrel to do a little "engineering" to get the goods.

stray said...

Love all the feeders! Squirrels always get to our bird feeders.

Sally said...

If you lived in the Valley you'd enjoy the amazing bird life at Lake Balboa so much. I've seen so many unusual birds this spring including nesting cardinals, western tanagers, green backed herons and least bitterns, not to mention all the great usual suspects. On the other hand, if you lived in the Valley you'd spend about three hours every day on your commute.

Namowal (Jennifer Bourne) said...

Hi Stray,
Squirrels are smart little guys. Even a lot of "squirrel proof" bird feeders are breeched by them.
What kind of birds do you get at your feeders?

Sally,
You saw Cardinals nesting in California? Wow! That's a rare thing to see. I know they were introduced to Los Angles years ago, but I've never seen one! Lucky!

stray said...

Not sure--redbirds, robins, had finches when we had the right seed for them, some I don't recognize.

Sally said...

yes, second year in a row in same approx location for the cardinals.