Hope everyone is having a healthy New Year so far. Jim and I have had fun the last week watching the birds feed at the suet we put out each year. When we "undecorate" the Christmas tree, we put it out on the back deck and add suet feeders. Unfortunately, starlings discovered a new restaurant here on Darlene Ct last year and I was hoping that wouldn't be the case this year. No such luck! They are back. I wouldn't mind feeding just a couple, but they can come in droves and can eat a whole suet block in one day. One time I saw 10 starlings at one feeder and they are also noisy and messy, I've gotta do something. So I put on my "Dick Vogel" (my dad) thinking cap and came up this.

I was walking back into the house after picking up the mail when my eyes landed on these planters (they were upside down on pots to foil the squirrels - yep - that's another story). When I spotted them, I knew they would be perfect, or so I hoped. I brought them around to the back deck and used electrical zip ties (found at Home Depot on clearance in the garden section so they were green, what a score) to form a ball to protect the suet from the starlings. And I kid you not, within minutes of me adding that protection, this is what I saw.

I'll bet you thought you were going to see starlings at the feeder. Nope these little darlings are Thompson warblers and it was like they were saying "thank you, thank you, thank you. We can eat without being bullied away from our food." My one concern was that I would also keep the flickers and varied thrushes away. I don't mind them because they usually feed as singles, so even tho they are big, they don't deplete the suet as quickly as those danged starlings. but as you can see by the pics below, that has not been the case.



The flicker's beak is long enough to reach and the varied thrush was smart enough to come up underneath the cage on the tree. The starlings may figure that one out so will have to keep an eye on that. I did have to add extra zip ties to the ball I made because some of the holes were big enough for the starlings to fit thru and if they still make it in there, I'll resort to duct tape - now that would really be a Dick Vogel fix, lol.
So as you can see, the bird watching continues for us and I'll be sharing some pictures we've taken recently on some jaunts out to Sauvie Island. I also plan on sharing Christmas pics too, so be sure to come back. I'll leave you with this adorable shot of a Thompson warbler. They really are not easily spooked, I was standing within 6 feet of the tree when I took this shot. Thanks and enjoy! 