Bird Feeders Replaced after Squirrel Attack

Three weeks ago, I had to replace my hanging tube feeder, the Squirrel Buster.  My old one succumbed to the skills of the squirrels. The squirels can not eat the seeds with the feeder hanging from a post, so they teamed up to knock it down.

summer photo of squirrel working on the Squirrel Buster.

The squirrels destroyed it by knocking the stand down, which cracked the plastic tube which holds the seeds. I just saw the stand crashing to the ground as two squirrels high-tailed in out of my garden.

I was so ticked off, I wouldn't write about it until I cooled off. Which is now. It took me three weeks to get over the annoyance, forget the money I had to spend and like the squirrels again.

This is one of my new feeders. It is a Squirrel Buster Classic. I stuck with the Squirrel Buster because they do work and last awhile. I bought two this time, a small and a larger one. I like the wire cage on the outside, which will protect the plastic tube from cracking during squirrel attacks.

House Sparrows on new Squirrel Buster

I ordered my new Brome 1055 Squirrel Buster Mini and Brome 1015 Squirrel Buster Classic from Amazon.com.

For those of you who are just starting out feeding birds, here is a good article on what types of feeders to use, 5 Best Bird Feeders for Winter | Audubon Magazine Blog

Winter - a photo collage

Winter

Top left: female Red-tailed Hawk lives in the Philadelphia area year-around.

Top right: White Pine cones

Bottom left: Last of the Oak leaves falling from the branches

Bottom right: Full moon on the Winter Solstice, December 22, 2010

Winter Birds and Winter Food

Birds at my feeders, through the years.

The ability to require food is what determines whether birds stay the winter or not. This collection of photos were all taken in my backyard. These are some of the hardy birds that stick around during cold winter weather in Philadelphia and elsewhere. There are only 20 -30 land birds (common and easily found), which stay in cold winter in North America.

These birds will feed on seeds of grasses, flower, trees and shrubs, on the still hanging fruit of fall-fruiting shrubs. And on the insect eggs and hibernating insects hidden in the nooks and crannies of trees and shrubs. 

In winter there are no airborne insects for aerial feeders like warblers, swifts and flycatchers, so these birds go where the insects are hovering in the air, Central and South America.

Slowly moving water like ponds and lakes, freeze over in cold weather. So the ducks, herons, rails and sandpipers move to open, unfrozen water. In the Philadelphia, these birds can be found along the Delaware and other Rivers, in Tinicum Marsh and Atlantic Ocean along the Jersey and Delaware shores.

Of the birds pictured in the collage above, the Dark-eyed Juncos migrates to the Philadelphia area and Delaware Valley. The Juncos breed in conifer forest far to the north and migrate south in the fall. They spend the winter from southern Canada to the Gulf of Mexico. 

Each fall I look for them underneath the shrubs in my backyard. When they arrive it is a clear sign the wheel of the seasons is turning and living beings are following their instructions on how to live.  

Top left: Mourning Dove, top right: Dark-eyed Junco

Lower left: male Cardinal, lower right: Chickadee (Carolina/Black-capped, I live in an area were they hybridize)