Return of the Birds: Attracting Birds to Backyard Bird Feeders

I had started to worry that the birds had moved on and given up on our house. But never fear, the birds are here!

I read all the great advice and ideas from readers. I also visited the Wild Bird Store in Waldorf where they had plenty of ideas about how to entice the birds back to the yard.

Based on all this great input, here were the steps I took:

– I moved the bird feeders out of the tree (where the squirrels and raccoons could get them and damage my tree anyway) and placed them on a free-standing pole with a squirrel and raccoon baffle. – I added a new hopper feeder and platform feeder on another 4 x 4 post. – I invested in some high quality bird seed mixes. Frankly, these new seed mixes smell so good I could probably serve them at a party and no one would notice. – I added a water wiggler to one of my bird baths. – I added a hanging water tough to the bird feeder station.

It has taken a few days, but I see that this weekend the birds have found the feast and are happily telling their friends. So far, it’s mostly finches, tufted titmice and chickadees. But I did spy a cardinal yesterday out of the corner of my eye. And I hear lots of avian activity when the windows are open.

I still can’t take photos of birds worth poop, so I figure I need a better, long-range lens. It’s a shame to go to all the work of sneaking around the yard with a camera and tripod only to get terrible tiny photos of blurry birds.

I believe I’ll start keeping an official backyard bird list. Perhaps that’ll motivate me to learn more about what birds I am seeing. I am always astounded at the wide variety of birds people can spot in their own yards. Surely I’m missing many that I just haven’t identified.

Ciao!