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I PUT OUT my first chook feeder of the season on Thanksgiving and received the get together began. However there’s extra to feeding the birds than simply filling the feeders, like preserve them secure within the age of elevated illness transmission or present important water within the coldest months, and naturally, a lot wanted techniques for outsmarting the squirrels.
Good chook feeding and extra bird-related knowledge is our matter right this moment with Julie Zickefoose.
Julie is a wildlife rehabilitator and artist and writer of assorted books, together with a favourite of mine, “Saving Jemima: Life and Love with a Laborious-Luck Jay” (affiliate hyperlink). She lives and gardens on an 80-acre wildlife sanctuary in Appalachian foothills of Ohio. (Above, woodpeckers having fun with suet at her Lifelong Feeder.)
Plus: Enter to win a duplicate of “Saving Jemima” by commenting within the field on the backside of the web page.
Learn alongside as you take heed to the Dec. 12, 2022 version of my public-radio present and podcast utilizing the participant beneath. You possibly can subscribe to all future editions on Apple Podcasts (iTunes) or Spotify or Stitcher (and browse my archive of podcasts right here).
bird-feeding finest practices, with julie zickefoose
Margaret Roach: Hello, Julie, and thanks for being right here to information us this feeder season. I’ve received a variety of prospects on the market.
Julie Zickefoose: Me too, me too.
Margaret: Yeah. “Saving Jemima” is such an awesome e-book. Each time I see a blue jay, I consider you since I learn that e-book.
Julie: Oh, thanks a lot, Margaret.
Margaret: Yeah. What was that? Possibly three, 4 years in the past possibly it got here out? Yeah.
Julie: It got here out in 2018.
Margaret: Oh, so nearly 5 years in the past. O.Okay., good. Additionally, earlier than we get began on the information and so forth, I used to be glad to see that, I believe it’s a 43-year-old journal, “Fowl Watcher’s Digest,” that you simply’ve lengthy contributed to, however that had ceased operation a couple of 12 months in the past, was rapidly reincarnated as “BWD.” An excellent thought for presents if you recognize chook watchers. So, inform us about that simply rapidly.
Julie: Effectively, it’s been an all-consuming factor in my life to go from being a freelancer to being a type of de facto editor of a brand new journal [laughter] that’s so… it’s large and delightful. It’s a print journal, in addition to on-line. And it’s now full-size format. The “Fowl Watcher’s Digest” was all the time a digest measurement, very small. And so we’ve these great new horizons with with the ability to print pictures and have them seem because the photographer meant.
Stunning layouts by our very proficient designer, Lisa Coe. Our editor, Jessica Vaughan, is doing a good looking job. We’ve Daybreak Hewitt, who edited the outdated publication, again on board. And so the three of us are of within the traces, Don and Jessica and I, getting content material and ensuring it’s compelling and the best, most interesting we are able to get.
Margaret: Yeah. Numerous nice contributors. Completely.
Julie: Sure, great contributors, together with many individuals we’ve used earlier than and a bunch of latest ones, too, who’re intrigued by the brand new format. I’m answerable for getting the duvet artwork. For 44 years, we’re the one journal that has all the time featured work on the duvet.
Margaret: Oh.
Julie: Yeah. Lots of people don’t actually understand that, however should you assume again, it’s all work. We don’t wish to break that custom. I’m so excited to be in contact with fairly numerous creative contacts who’re chomping on the bit to provide us stunning issues, and to date our covers have simply been jaw-dropping. Yeah, very, very enthusiastic about that.
Margaret: So, I’ll give the hyperlink with the transcript the place individuals can study extra about BWD, nevertheless it’s fairly straightforward to search out should you put “BWD journal” right into a Google search.
So it’s bird-feeding season, and I believe in possibly the September-October one of many first new points, you probably did a bit about rethinking summer time chook feeding. There’s a variety of rethinking happening, to not point out the worth of sunflower seeds [laughter].
Julie: Might I simply offer you my coronary heart assault du jour yesterday?
Margaret: Sure.
Julie: Once I went into the feed retailer for my typical 50-pound bag of sunflower hearts. Now this can be a luxurious, I understand that.
Margaret: I simply did the identical factor. Uh-oh.
Julie: Yeah. I received to know your value there as a result of my value in Ohio was $91, $91 up from $56, and I stood there and I mentioned to the individual behind the desk, I mentioned, “You discovered my restrict. I’m not going to do that.”
Margaret: Wow, wow.
Julie: “I can’t do that.” I did a psychological guidelines of all of the birds coming into the sunflower-heart bounty, and I understand that each one of them have seed-cracking payments, all of them can deal with black oil sunflower, they usually’re simply going to need to lump it.
Margaret: Proper. And it’s about… I’ve learn one factor that mentioned it was about 30 p.c the burden of the shells. So how a lot you’re saving by solely having edible and never shells, nevertheless it nonetheless doesn’t make up for the worth differential. I purchased it upfront this 12 months, which signifies that you get a early shopping for low cost, nevertheless it nonetheless was, I wish to say, excessive 70s about.
Julie: Oh yeah.
Margaret: As you mentioned, it had been mid-50s. And anyway, so O.Okay. However we’re loopy and we’re going to need to then shift all the way down to the common stuff. And that’s all good.
But it surely’s extra sophisticated than it was on many ranges. I don’t know the place we wish to begin, however we’ve learn a lot about illness transmission and so forth, protecting feeders clear, every kind of… being a accountable chook feeder. So possibly we discuss a bit of bit,… are you not feeding in summer time? I don’t feed in summer time as a result of I reside in a black bear space they usually simply come proper into the yard and-
Julie: Oh, gotcha. Yeah. The black bears have actually solved that drawback for lots of New Englanders and North Carolinians and down the coast, too. Yeah. We don’t have black bears right here in Ohio but, however I’ve give up summer time feeding as a result of I lastly made the connection that the hordes of chipmunks and grey squirrels that destroy my backyard and eat my hibiscus, and so forth., and so forth., had been proliferating underneath my feeding program. And I mentioned, why? And to not point out rabbits, who completely love to wash up seed underneath the feeder.
And I mentioned, why am I doing this? Why am I feeding mass numbers of mammals, after which preventing all of them summer time in my gardens?
And the opposite factor that was taking place is I had home sparrows coming from a farm a couple of mile and a half away and gorging on peanuts, and feeding them to brood after brood of younger, which they’d then deliver to the feeder and eat the woodpecker peanuts. So I used to be like, wow, I’m having a web destructive influence on ecology in my backyard. (Above, a squirrel at Margaret’s.)
Margaret: You’re doing rodents and different undesirable, furry little creatures. And also you’re additionally fostering extra home sparrows [laughter].
Julie: Proper, precisely. And what’s the return? Effectively, probably not that top sufficient to justify doing these issues. So I give up, and it was truly so peaceable. It was not having to go service the feeders. Now, I did preserve my chook bathtub entering into my WarblerFall chook fountain, and that was an absolute pleasure to see birds are available and bathe and drink. However they don’t really want meals in the summertime. And so I discontinued it.
Margaret: And theoretically, if one has a backyard—and also you’re in a really wealthy pure space, like a protect nearly and a sanctuary—and if one has supplied with the correct plantings and so forth, and as you say, water, and we are able to discuss extra about water in a minute.
So the opposite factor is that every time we feed, it looks like the problem of sick birds and transmission of illness… and has that figured into atother instances of 12 months, even if you find yourself feeding, use of various feeders or completely different protocols or how are you coping with it? Inform us about home finch illness and the attention illness and so forth.
Julie: Yeah. I uncared for to say that the opposite purpose I ended feeding in the summertime is the ailments proliferate so readily. And when home finches are elevating broods of younger and bringing them in, they’re the main illness elements in my space and elsewhere, as a result of they’ve low genetic resistance to illness, being genetically inbred from a small introduction in in regards to the Nineteen Forties on the East Coast. A launch of the birds at JFK airport brought on the founder impact in these birds. All of them radiated out from possibly a pair hundred birds in that one launch. And so we didn’t have home finches east of the Mississippi earlier than that occasion. [Below, a male house finch; Wikipedia photo by John Benson.]
Margaret: Oh, I didn’t know that.
Julie: Isn’t that loopy?
Margaret: That’s loopy. That’s fast. That was fast.
Julie: They’ve been a part of the avifauna for thus lengthy. However get this, I grew up in Virginia, and after I went north to highschool in Cambridge, Massachusetts, I noticed these little rosy birds singing round city, and I didn’t know the track and I didn’t know what they had been they usually weren’t in my “Golden Area Information.” So I needed to ask round and I used to be advised they had been home finches after which advised the story of how they received there. So that they’ve unfold like wildfire up and down the East Coast, after which they’ve additionally unfold west to the Mississippi they usually’ve truly met the western populations there.
And in about 1991 I imagine they contracted a rooster illness known as Mycoplasma gallisepticum. And that occurred within the DC space. That’s when the primary sick goldfinches began exhibiting up. And so they then carried that illness all over. And now there’s most likely 35 species of different wild birds which can be vulnerable to Mycoplasma, which is home finch illness. It causes conjunctivitis and huge swelling of the attention membrane in order that the birds grow to be blinded, and it’s a nasty illness. And most of us who feed have seen these birds huddled on the bottom, blinded, unable to see and mentioned, “Oh gosh, poor factor.” However that ought to be a sign flag to us that we’re introducing that illness into our yards by feeding.
Margaret: Effectively, and when you concentrate on it, if you concentrate on a feeder, a variety of feeders, what’s it? It’s a collection of little ports [laughter] that I can perch on and stick my head into identical to the earlier buyer did, and over and over and over. So if somebody with the illness sticks its head into the port after which I come there and do the identical factor, nicely, there we go. Proper?
Julie: Sure. Home finches take it one higher. They’re evolving with the illness or evolving resistance to it such that it doesn’t are likely to kill them anymore. However they’ve additionally developed a behavioral resistance to it, in that they’ve realized to rub their eyes on perches and feeder ports to maintain them open…
Margaret: Oh boy.
Julie: …in order that they’ll see. So, the dots that I linked within the winter of 2020 and ’21 had been that my tube feeders, which I had damaged out after most likely a decade of not utilizing them because of this. I broke out my tube feeders as a result of we had this super-wet winter and I simply couldn’t preserve the seed dry on the platform feeders. And my tube feeders had been truly performing because the illness transmission station.
Margaret: Just like the hub. Proper, proper.
Julie: It was the hub [laughter]. If I might see a radioactive map of the feeders with the germs, I started to take a look at my feeders that manner.
Margaret: So now, as an alternative of tube feeders, are you utilizing domed trays, type of floating trays with a dome/baffle-y type of factor over it? Is that what you’re utilizing? [Platform feeder under domeat Julie’s, above, hosting a blue jay.]
Julie: Sure. I’m utilizing a bit of recycled plastic sq. possibly the dimensions of a brownie pan. I’ve purchased a wide range of plastic domes, and I droop these over all of my feeders. And it’s a little bit of a ache as a result of droppings accumulate amazingly quick on the domes, however that tells me what can be falling into the meals, if the domes weren’t there. So I principally simply take the domes down, run them underneath the tap with the outside hose faucet, and put them again. And I’m a believer as a result of I had 19 goldfinches in my hospital final winter, or two winters in the past after I was utilizing tube feeders. I switched to trays with plastic domes and in addition feeders of wire mesh that don’t have ports, however simply emit the seed in order that the birds can choose it from the tube.
Margaret: Proper. It’s like a vertical cylinder that the seed goes in they usually pull it out by the little hardware-cloth openings, so to talk.
Julie: Precisely. So, no one sticks their head in a port. They simply take the seed and go. So these are the 2 varieties of feeders that I exploit now. And down from 20 birds in my chook hospital—I’m a wildlife rehabber—final winter within the winter of ’21-22, I had one.
Margaret: That’s nice.
Julie: Yeah. It’s admittedly a small pattern measurement, and I can’t say with certainty that it’s the tube feeders, however I’ve an actual robust feeling that there’s a connection there. [Above, a goldfinch at Julie’s “hospital” with Mycoplasma infection.]
Margaret: So one other factor that I wish to feed within the winter—and we’ve been having actually aberrant heat climate. I awoke this morning and it was 55 levels; it ought to be 25 or one thing.
Julie: 60 right here.
Margaret: Yeah. So, it’s simply insanity. So I’ve not been placing out suet but, as a result of I normally wish to put that out when it’s constantly chilly. However that’s simply my factor. However I noticed in your, I overlook the place, your web site or someplace, I noticed a beautiful tip of a loopy suet feeder that you’ve that appears like nothing I’ve ever seen. It’s not a dangling little sq. basket factor.
Julie: Proper.
Margaret: How did you uncover that?
Julie: It’s completely great. This was one of many beautiful issues that got here by the “Fowl Watcher’s Digest” workplace years in the past, from a feeder producer known as Lifelong situated in Ohio [photo, top of page]. Pretty man named Hyperlink Llewellyn makes these feeders. If I can describe it, and also you’ll have pictures.
Margaret: Sure, sure, sure.
Julie: If I can describe it, it’s principally two perforated metallic plates that seem like they’re simply drilled with rows of holes. They give the impression of being truly precisely like sapsucker holes within the facet of a tree. So these two aluminum plates slide right into a metallic body and the entire thing is secured and put along with bolts. And also you cling this factor up, you place one-inch slices of uncooked suet in it. You could possibly additionally put truffles in it should you needed. And also you tighten down the bolts and even raccoons can’t get to the suet.
Margaret: Proper.
Julie: So it’s a raccoon-proof suet feeder. They in a short time give up making an attempt. So that you don’t have to hold it on a baffle pole or something like that. And the woodpeckers adore it. It’s actually a bird-specific feeder as a result of nothing else however one thing with a pointy pointy beak can entry the meals.
Margaret: Proper, precisely. It’s very well armored, that’s for certain within the footage.
Julie: Sure, sure.
Margaret: And I believe one of many issues I believe is that you simply talked about your WarblerFall, and I’ll give the hyperlink to that too, as a result of that’s type of a bit of course, type of like a how-to educating factor, plus all the data you’ll want to do it your self, to create this factor that you simply name the WarblerFall. And it’s type of a product that you simply’re promoting, not the factor, however the instruction, proper?
Julie: Appropriate.
Margaret: And it’s nice. I imply to only watch the birds. But it surely’s not a winter factor as a result of it’s a bit of waterfall, as you name it, the WarblerFall, dish water backyard type of factor with stones and every kind of goodies.
However within the winter, water is crucial, and but it’s tougher to supply. How do you present water within the winter the place you’re? I’ve two in-ground water gardens, and for the good thing about the overwintering amphibians within the water, I preserve holes within the ice clearly, as a result of in any other case they’d suffocate. So, the birds use that. However what do you do?
Julie: Effectively, what I do is I went out and purchased a heated pet dish at a Tractor Provide the feed retailer. It’s the type of factor that folks use for his or her canines in winter in the event that they preserve their canines exterior. And it’s not beautiful [laughter], nevertheless it holds a couple of gallon of water. I throw a brick in it, after which I prime that with flat stones and the birds can solely drink across the edges. And the explanation I do that’s as a result of mourning doves like to make use of chook baths as bathrooms, as everyone knows. And they’re going to sit on the rim with their tails pointing in and simply poop into the bowl all day lengthy. And it’s very annoying. I don’t know why they do it.
Margaret: To not point out unhealthy for the opposite birds. In order that’s not good.
Julie: Though doves as a rule are fairly clear so far as illness. So I do this. I principally cowl all however little cracks across the edges with flat stones. After which in the event that they poop on the stones, no large deal as a result of they’re above the water floor. In order that’s what I do, and I plug that right into a GFCI-protected outlet. And that will get me by the winter. The birds admire it a lot. They’re unable to wash. And that’s a superb factor, as a result of bathing in super-cold climate is a foul thought whether or not they understand it or not. So, that’s how I do it. After which as quickly as spring comes, I escape my WarblerFall, which is my delight and pleasure. My little invention.
Margaret: Proper, proper. But it surely’s ingenious, as a result of it’s deceptively easy. It’s stunning, nevertheless it’s so easy and you are able to do it your self; you may assemble it your self. And also you’ve type of found out all of the engineering particulars in order that it actually works, versus improv-ing and have it not be actually suited to the birds.
Julie: Proper. And should you’re curious, WarblerFall.com has every part you want.
Margaret: O.Okay., good, good, good. Have you ever had any type of wild and loopy birds at your feeders or in your backyard both recently, this feeding season, or this previous gardening season? As a result of what I really like in regards to the winter is the type of woodpecker, which is why I really like suet. The woodpeckers are simply… they’re charismatic birds for me. They’re simply characters. They’re actual characters. So I get pleasure from seeing extra of them up shut. They’re all the time right here, however they’re-
Julie: Agreed.
Margaret: Yeah. I really like that.
Julie: I really like woodpeckers. That’s why I feed peanuts in a cylindrical tube feeder, or a mesh feeder principally, that lets them take the peanuts by the mesh. I’ve to have my peanuts. I truly drive an hour and a half to a retailer to get my uncooked peanut halves.
Margaret: Wow.
Julie: Yeah. It’s robust round right here. It’s onerous to get what you need. And naturally you don’t wish to ship a 50-pound bag of peanuts.
Margaret: Proper.
Julie: So, I’ve had… the mix of getting a working water fountain for the birds and feeders is a robust one, as a result of the feeder birds type of entice in, you recognize, different birds say “One thing’s happening in that yard.” They hear the trickling water they usually’re drawn in a magnet. So I’ve had simply an array of… I imply, it was loopy. This fall earlier than I dismantled the WarblerFall in October… I truly dismantled it in mid-November. I had a parade of ruby-crowned kinglets bathing on this factor, which I by no means knew they bathed.
Margaret: They’re so little.
Julie: I do know. And it was fabulous. After which I had golden-crowned kinglets bathing in it. So any chook bathtub that will get in golden-crowned, ruby-crowned kinglets, is a robust one. Additionally, warblers of each stripe, Cape Might, Tennessee, bay-breasted, Blackpool, prairie, black-throated blue. So I assume it’s unlocked a world for me of drawing in forest birds that may not usually come proper into my window.
Margaret: Usually you’d see them in your binoculars up on the forest edge or once you’re “chook watching” type of a factor extra typically than proper there in entrance of you.
Julie: Proper.
Margaret: Yeah. On the deck or no matter.
Julie: That’s the ticket. Yeah, precisely. That’s the ticket. My sister put up a WarblerFall on her deck in Massachusetts, and inside days, had a male rose-breasted grosbeak come down and bathe whereas they had been sitting 3 toes away on their chairs. And she or he was like, “This factor works.” [Laughter.]
Margaret: Yeah. That’s fairly humorous. And I used to be simply going to say, one of many oddest issues for me, and this can be a quite common chook, a cardinal. He, we’re not on a first-name foundation, however we all know one another fairly nicely by now, he’s starting his third consecutive season of defending his territory.
And after I say that: All 12 months spherical, not simply in breeding season, he circumnavigates my home. I’ve large home windows all the best way round, and he goes from window to window, relying on the sunshine, the reflection at completely different instances of day, and bangs on the home windows, due to course he sees “the opposite male cardinal” who he desires to do away with. And he additionally makes use of the motive force’s facet rear view mirror. I used to be going to say reverse mirror, however that’s not what I meant. rear view mirror [laughter]. And it’s hilarious. And it’s like that is… I assume it’s the identical particular person as a result of the habits is similar and he does all of it 12 months spherical, which is so odd. [Above, male cardinal; photo from Wikipedia by Rhododendrites.]
Julie: Sure. I’ve had that at my home as nicely. I had a deranged cardinal. And actually, I consider these birds as birds with unhealthy circuitry. They get an thought of their head and nothing will cease them. I’ve a pricey buddy, an artist buddy, named Larry Barth in western Pennsylvania, who had a feminine cardinal do this round his home for six consecutive years.
Margaret: Wow. O.Okay. Effectively, I’ll inform my man that the world report he’s taking pictures for is six years then, as a result of he’s received three extra years to go.
Julie: You have to be an early riser to not be too disturbed by it. I hate that.
Margaret: Yeah. No, it’s fascinating. I simply attempt to go together with it and I simply attempt to go together with it. I imply, what are you going to do? Cowl each window downstairs with material? No matter. I simply let it go. Let it go. Let it go.
Julie: No, you may’t.
Margaret: Yeah. Obtained to be a bit of zen with a few of these issues [laughter]. So, another sightings you wish to inform us about within the final minute or so? Another goodies?
Julie: Let me take into consideration this. Goodies. Effectively, I’ve deer consuming every part in my yard for the primary time in 30 years. So, I’m in a bit of little bit of a gardener’s fetal place proper now [laughter].
Margaret: Proper, proper.
Julie: Yeah. I don’t know what it’s. Possibly it’s all of the unique clearing I’ve carried out. I’ve taken down all of the honeysuckle and I believe they’re placing again. So, it’s not a constructive factor, however I’m making an attempt to determine how I’m going to backyard subsequent season with that happening. Yeah.
Margaret: I’m a fence believer and clearly it’s onerous to have a fence on an 80 acre property, clearly, however creating some type of a barrier or some type of a zone that’s your zone. It’s tough, however they’re unimaginable.
Julie: They’re unimaginable. Sure, they’re. I put out 28 pumpkins that I had grown, little white pumpkins, like large white pumpkins truly. They ate each certainly one of them [laughter]. They had been in ornamental bundles round my yard on the masonry and every part, they usually simply stored disappearing. So I put out a recreation digicam and certain sufficient, it was three pricey simply consuming all of them.
Margaret: Yeah. Effectively, Julie, I’m glad all the time to talk to you and thanks for some chook feeding recommendation. And I hope I’ll discuss to you quickly.
Julie: Thanks a lot, Margaret. This has been nice enjoyable.
enter to win a duplicate of ‘saving jemima’
I’LL BUY A COPY of “Saving Jemima: Life and Love with a Laborious-Luck Jay” by Julie Zickefoose, for one fortunate reader. All it’s important to do to enter is reply this query within the feedback field beneath:
What’s your bird-feeder scene proper now? Any winter water supply concerned? Inform us extra (and the place you’re).
No reply, or feeling shy? Simply say one thing like “rely me in” and I’ll, however a reply is even higher. I’ll choose a random winner after entries shut Tuesday Dec. 20, 2022 at midnight. Good luck to all.
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want the podcast model of the present?
MY WEEKLY public-radio present, rated a “top-5 backyard podcast” by “The Guardian” newspaper within the UK, started its thirteenth 12 months in March 2022. It’s produced at Robin Hood Radio, the smallest NPR station within the nation. Pay attention regionally within the Hudson Valley (NY)-Berkshires (MA)-Litchfield Hills (CT) Mondays at 8:30 AM Jap, rerun at 8:30 Saturdays. Or play the Dec. 12, 2022 present utilizing the participant close to the highest of this transcript. You possibly can subscribe to all future editions on iTunes/Apple Podcasts or Spotify or Stitcher (and browse my archive of podcasts right here).
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