Wednesday, March 29, 2006

Safflower Issues

Well, some of the birds are back. I hung the feeders out to see if I could attract some visitors and they came. Thing is that on one of my feeders, this little bird, the Carolina Wren, goes crazy. I have a feeder that I put safflower seed in. It has a little tray at the bottom so that the bigger birds can perch and eat. Squirrels do not like safflower. The Carolina Wren seems to think that it should just hang out in the tray of that feeder and knock the seed to the ground. It doesn't eat any of it, just knocks it all off the tray. Problem is two fold: 1. Safflower will germinate and 2. It is more expensive than some of the other seed.

So after one evening of having that feeder out there, it is half empty and most of it is on the ground underneath. I brought the feeder inside and the birds seem to be content to eat the seed on the ground (which is what I hoped they would do). Once it is all cleaned up, I will figure something else out. I think I will get a regular feeder that doesn't have a tray and see if that works better. If it doesn't, then this will be the last bag of safflower seed I buy, and they will be stuck eating thistle and suet.

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