Discussions

Hi everyone. I have bird feeders set up in my yard serving black oil sunflowers (in the shell and shelled), mixed seeds, peanuts (in the shell and shelled).  
I've had the usual winter visitors - chickadees, blue jays, and downy woodpeckers, visit the feeders daily.  
Last week I had a small flock of redpolls arrive and they have returned off and on, sometimes in a flock and sometimes just two or three individuals with the chickadees. I also had a few evening grosbeak visit last week.  
The robins that were still hanging around two weeks ago now seem to have migrated.  
This morning I had a new bird at my pre-shelled sunflower feeder. It has all the markings of an immature male goldfinch - yellowish head and throat, black wings with white/buff bars, and a notched tail. According to the All About Birds Cornell site goldfinch shouldn't still be around.  
Just as I was writing this message I had two new and different birds fly into my front yard, scaring away the chickadees and sending the blue jays into the trees. One of the birds was a magpie. I've never seen one in my yard before. I think that the other was a Northern Shrike. (I used All About Birds for identification clues) I've never seen one of those in my yard either. It was slightly smaller than a blue jay. It was a fast flyer with a grey body, a black eye stripe, and a hooked bill.  
The magpie and shrike have now left and the chickadees and jays are back but they are more flighty than normal.

Are never welcome...any time, anyplace as far as most of us are concerned. Beautiful bird but that’s as far as it goes. They can survive on almost anything but prefer carrion. Shrikes on the other hand, hunt and eat other birds. Nice looking bird, quite shy and rarely seen...but puts incredible fear in all other birds that may be at your feeder. They typically catch their prey in the air and will often go and impale it in a thorn shrub of some sort to dine on. I’ve seen them dart across the feeders to grab something else but never actually land on the feeder.

Does anyone else still have goldfinch hanging around?

They come and go...sometimes gone for a few weeks then back for a few days. On a really mild winter, it is not uncommon for them to stay around all winter. Too bad they lose their “gold”, it would look pretty awesome against a white backdrop of snow!

Either store-bought recommendations or DIY/MacGyvered - all suggestions welcome as I look to set one up for the first time this Winter! From YouTube it seems these cute rodents can be quite persistent...  
 
EDIT: currently browsing some of the older threads...  
 
Edited by HelpfulAvocado, 2020-11-30 19:46:18

Solution: dog  
 
Our dog knows the word "squirrel" and all we have to do is open the back door. :D  
 
We just have an inexpensive gazebo feeder suspended on a long wire, and the squirrels mostly leave it alone. They do try sometimes, but usually fall off. They will forage on the ground under it, but the dog usually takes care of that.  
 
Now, we occasionally get turkeys cleaning up under the feeder... that one I haven't figured out yet. Our dog isn't very big, so I don't let him go out (doesn't stop him from begging to go out and "get the birds").

We have one of these from Lee Valley!  
 
https://www.leevalley.com/en-ca/shop/garden/wildlife/bird-feeders/48756-large-squirrel-resistant-feeders?item=AG339

I supply our local scavenger with its own nut selection, I have netting about 3 ft beneath the bird feeder I have in the past put the squirrels nuts there and it leaves the bird feeder alone. The birds eat, the squirrel eats ..... except this fall no squirrel, I think the neighbours dog may have something to do with that and that is sad.