Female Cardinal Eating At the Squirrel Buster Feeder
Like most gardeners, I love to see how many different types of song birds I can attract to my gardens and have several feeders that I keep filled year-round. The challenge in our yard is to find feeders that the birds like, yet are somewhat squirrel proof, as there are two 50+ year-old oak trees shading both the front and back yard. Each tree houses numerous squirrels (gray and albino), and they can easily clean out a bird feeder in a couple of days.
We experimented with several different types of feeders last winter, and finally purchased a Squirrel Buster II. It’s the only “squirrel-proof” feeder that we found that has been 100% effective at keeping the squirrels from eating all the bird seed. Don’t worry- we supply cobs of corn for the squirrels to feed on in the winter time so they won’t go hungry. And just in case the corn is gone, they’ve taken the liberty of chewing a hole in the green Waste Management (heavy plastic) garbage bin large enough to fit their furry bodies through and they frequently help themselves to food scraps too.
But I digress – back to the birds. We now own two Squirrel Busters. One hangs from the tree limb in the front yard and is kept filled with black sunflower seeds. We see a large variety of birds at this feeder including Gold Finch, House Finch, Downy Woodpeckers, Nuthatch, Chickadees, and my favorite – Cardinals. The second Squirrel Buster hangs from a limb on the oak tree in the back yard and that one is filled with a mix of cracked corn, millet, black sunflowers and safflower seeds. The Chickadees, Nuthatches and Finches are attracted to this one also, and the Cardinals really seem to love this mix.
When I received a Wingscapes WSCA02 Birdcam 2.0 8MP Digital Camera With Flash Plus 4 Gigabyte SD Memory Card With Card reader Including D-Cell Battery Alkaline Twin Pack
The Birdcam has three different modes – motion sensing, manual, and time-relapsed. I’ve been experimenting with it and haven’t decided with mode I prefer yet, but here are a few photos of what was captured using the time-relapse mode (photo taken every five minutes) while visiting the back feeder today.
Another female Cardinal stops by for a snack.
This female Cardinal looks very well-fed.
This Momma Cardinal seems to be talking to her daughters.
The feeder has reached maximum capacity for seating (and eating).
The colors of the female Cardinal really show up here.
This mom and her daughter may be avoiding each other while they snack.
A lone Chickadee stops by for lunch
A squirrel attempts to access the birdseed, but his weight pulls the doors closed, preventing him from eating.
The squirrel finally gives up on getting and seed and leaps to the ground.
There weren’t any photos of male Cardinals, but I’ve seen them at the back feeder a few times. An entire family, including a male and female adult cardinal, along with 4 female young cardinals were at the feeder one afternoon. Two weeks ago, there were 5 Blue-jays hovering around the feeder, all trying to get at the seed. If more than two were on the feeder at a time, the doors pulled close. The beauty of the Squirrel Buster is that the doors close when enough weight is on the bottom of the feeder to pull it down, closing off the holes to the bird seed.
I’m really enjoying my birthday gift and I’m really anxious to see what creatures will stop by tomorrow.
