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| I bought a second one at Lowe's for $7. Multiple birds sit on it and eat, and the feeder is easy to fill. |
The squirrels dominated most of the feeding stations because they stood on two of them while eating from the hanging feeder from Lowe's. That also tied up the suet hanging from the squirrel-proof feeder filled with finch seed. Only the squirrels were eating for a time.
I needed sunflower seed, so I stopped at Lowe's for a large bag and looked for a second hanging feeder, which is popular with the small birds and easy to fill. The price dropped from $10 to $7, so I grabbed one, bought a rake, and tossed a bag of seed on the cart.
My ideal is the set-up at the home of Michigander, who has an array of feeders near a large window, where his cat sits and watches patiently. Sassy ignores our animal life altogether.
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| "A new feeder - just for us." |
Now we have:
- Two hanging feeders with sunflower seeds.
- One platform feeder with corn.
- One finch feeder with thistle seed.
- One Jackson EZ Bird Swing.
- Two large, hanging baskets of suet.
The squirrels are having fun with the abundance of food and eating more of the corn. That comes from a large bag of deer corn sold to hunters. I toyed with buying a sack of field corn ears, but they wanted $10 for a bag of gleaned corn, which calculates to $50 a bushel, a bit pricey for the cuteness of the feeder below. They used up an ear a day, so a bag was good for one week. When I stopped filling it, they placed empty corn cobs near the bird feeder to remind me of my duties.
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| "Squirrel, you are not worth $10 for a bag of ears." |
After a brush with snow, we have mild autumn days again. The ground is not frozen, so I tripped over a fresh mole run. Their shallow ones are for feeding, so the soil creatures are active now.
Meanwhile our helper is planning on adding another layer of leaves and needles to the newly covered areas, far in the back. We have a lot of Morning Glory seeds there now, so we should have a fence full of Morning Glories next year and relatively few rank tall, rank weeds. I have nothing against most weeds, but I liked the effect of cardboard and leaves between the Butterfly Bushes in the back. That made them stand out as they strive to reach their designated 12 foot height.
I can also attract the right creatures with buckwheat sown in the wild areas. The buckwheat grows and flowers quickly, attracting bees and butterflies. Unlike some magical plants (easy to establish - or, wildly rampant and invasive) buckwheat is tame, small and attractive.
