Greetings Well, I finally had to do something. Between the yammer and feeder drainings of the absolute neighborhood of grackles in my yard, I had to try anything to prevent my birdie paradise from becoming a summer blackbird hangout. Their presence effectively eliminating, out- competing, antagonizing, and distracting my birding pleasure of practically every other species of bird that I had come to love and appreciate amongst my grapevine/bittersweet arbor foliage and my first-of-the-year water feature. Nothing can be so annoying as an area dominated by noisy, aggressive blackbirds - unless perhaps I was running a BBA (blackbirds anonymous) hostel, a BB rehabilitation resort (doubt if I could enroll the overdone papparazzi favorites Lindsey or Paris to at least check it out or would that be equally annoying?), or some other type or recovery respite that would serve to provide an opportunity for these denizens of grain elevators to better themselves. Then again, I thrust my personal anthropogenic illusions on these critters - and after all they are simply grackles being and doing grackle things.
Aside from my analytical ravings and personal self discovery wanderings, my favored birdies were no where to be seen - just grackles and plenty of them! So I took action. I removed - yes removed - my feeders - the ones that held the corn, sunflower seeds, nuts, peanuts, dried fruit, and other assorted grains designed to attract my birds of choice and supposedly turn off the house sparrows (never did work that way anyway). I also let the suet feeders run out - they were being emptied in a single day anyway without me seeing a single non-grackle. I did leave my modified covered feeder platform which seems to be working very well in moderating the frantic feeding frenzies of these birds. I have covered the floor of the feeder with chicken wire that allows selective pickings through the screen rather than allowing far flung outcastings of seeds by picky or competitive birds. The squirrels really appreciate the underling abundant residue from such habits as evidenced by the line ups of "rats with fuzzy tails" (as I have come to know them) and the ample sproutings that will eventually become my sunflower forest later in the summer (another way for the wiley squirrels to reach their feeder nirvana). Anyway, the other feeders outside my home office window came down. I did leave up the thistle feeders (love those goldfinches and actually appreciate the colorations of the house finches) as the grackles aren't that hungry. I also left up the jelly feeders who delightfully are attracting the catbird family, the oriole family, the occasional robin, and the almost always now present thrasher family. And my goodness the results came fast and furious - if such adjectives can be related to a void, an absence, a clearing, a silence or an opening for something else. I pulled everything for one day and the grackles were gone - practically every last one of them - nary a grackle to rasp my auditory nerves or spray seeds for ground squirrel hibernation preparation. It was like a magic wand was passed giving me exactly what I wanted - nothing except jelly feeding birds for a full day. So I got brave - not bad for only 24 hours later - I put back up the doubled suet feeders outside my window in hopes of seeing a downy or hairy and for sure to support the thrasher clan - and lo and behold - they came and the grackles didn't. Twenty-four hours later I risked again - up went the window suction-cup-held trough feeder in which I put shell-less sunflower kernels. Would it hold? Were the grackles primarily interested in only the numerous tube feeders and their corn/ shell seeds/nuts/fruit contents - and perhaps the pillaging of the other feeders was just to check them out or due to competition? Could I put up any seed and not re-draw these nuisances to my space? Yeeessssss! In fact I even began drawing in Chipping Sparrows and the orioles were even soon checking the window out - there only a foot from my face as I sit at my desk earning a living was a beautiful male oriole - can it get any better in late June?!?!?!? Bottom line - by playing with the availability of various feeders and food types, I modified the bird population in my yard and can now enjoy my other resident birds - for even if they were always present I was too focused on my annoyance by the grackles to notice. Another huge experience was how I modified my garden watering methods to feed my birding compulsions. I altered the water delivery so that the sprinklers would water the overhanging tree branches. The water still got to the garden or the surrounding desired vegetation plus a great birdie surprise! - a pair of previously unseen Cedar Waxwings were soon showeringing in the tree branch drippings only to be joined by the orioles and chippers. I hadn't seen any of them at the water feature. I figure they must be shower versus tub bathers. But that is another story. Always something to discover with living in the moment and taking that chance. Thomas Maiello Angel Environmental Management, Inc. Spring Lake Park, MN -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://moumn.org/pipermail/mou-net_moumn.org/attachments/20070625/4eae4f8f/attachment.html
