What can I say, it has been a bird feeder weekend. Something I learned from my father is that it is very easy to put together your own bird feeder. Using what I remembered from him, I grabbed a branch of Birch tree and hollowed out a few holes, filled them with a peanut butter and bird seed mixture, popped in some nails as posts for the birds to perch on when they are eating and hung it from the tree.

Now we have five different types of bird feeders and I hope it will attract a wide variety of birds.

Left: bird seed mix, Right: suet.

Suet

Bird seed

The temperature has finally gotten above freezing. I took it as an opportunity to get two more bird feeders (in addition to the one we have on our deck) up.

/via Jason Kottke.

Click on the images to zoom. For much, much larger versions click here, and here.

I’ve been remiss to update everyone on our current bird feeder situation. Since Eliza purchased the $1 bird feeder we’ve upgraded our offerings to our feathered friends many fold. First, we put out a bird-bath type feeder that, rather than filling it with water, we fill with sunflower seeds. This takes care of the needs of larger birds that like to eat off of an exposed, tray based feeder – like Blue Jays. Second, we have a small ‘gazebo’ shaped feeder for smaller birds like finches, chickadees, etc.

Recently at a yard sale we picked up a larger version of the gazebo shaped feeder and have since mounted it to our glass doors to the deck. This isn’t getting nearly as many visitors as the smaller one (though that seems to be changing), but we have plans to slowly bring the birds closer and closer to the doors for better shots.

Not two days ago we picked up a hummingbird feeder. Eliza had spotted a few hummingbirds buzzing around our flowers and, after I saw one hovering over our red flowers, I thought it a good idea to pick up a feeder. We’ll update the progress with this in the near future.

So, how many birds are we getting? A lot. I fill the smaller feeder once every three or four days and I fill the bird-bath feeder every single morning with sunflower seeds. Morning doves, Blue Jays, and a few other birds that I have yet to identify accurately visit this feeder regularly. We’ve had chickadees, nut hatches, finches, tufted tit-mouse, cardinals (though not many lately), hummingbirds, and several other species so far. Our little fly-thru bird restaurant is becoming quite the hang out.

Today, as you can see from the photos above, I managed to stand near the door long enough that they let me open it, and open the screen door, to get unobstructed photos of them while they ate. Taking photos of creatures that fly and skip about rather quickly isn’t easy – but above are two of the better shots I managed to capture.

Looking forward to many, many more visitors.

I’ve wanted to have a bird feeder on one of our windows for a while. I’ve looked a few times for one and somehow turned up empty handed. Last week Eliza returned from a shopping trip with a $1, suction cup powered, bird feeder for our window! Thanks Eliza!

This morning at 8:30AM I hung the bird feeder and put some seed in it. So the countdown until we have our first bird begins. I plan on chronicling what goes on with this feeder here on my blog. Once we get some visitors I’m going to setup my tripod and camera to see if I can get some good photos of the birds.

Oh, and since I got the seed from my mother-in-law’s bag of bird seed, this was truly a $1 investment! Can’t beat that.

Date taken: January 11, 2008 | Resting on a street lamp on the lower-east side of Central Park in New York City.

Date taken: May 13, 2005 | A happy couple.