Hi everyone, this is Noelle from Petitti Garden Centers and we're talking about
birding today and it's a beautiful fall day and as we move our way into later
fall and winter it's a really great time to start thinking about feeding the
birds out there and you're in your yard and it's such a great activity that any
age can enjoy so we really enjoy having the wildlife out there during the winter
months. Well, we did a video about just getting started really quick, providing
shelter, providing a good food source, providing water and so once you get
started and the birds start coming to the feeder you might kind of find other
situations popping up so we're going to talk about that as well in this video so
right next to me here this is a hopper type bird feeder it's a really great
bird feeder for lots of different types of birds for example Cardinals. They
really enjoy the hopper but what's great about this feeder is not only can you
feed your seed or put your seed in this feeder but it also has the suet cages on
either side so here comes your suet block or suet pieces that you can make
or buy obviously and go ahead and put in your suet feeder what the suet does is
it provides a lot of fat a lot of energy for the birds especially during the
wintertime don't get me wrong you can put suet out year-round but when it's
most needed is going to be fall and winter for those birds. The other thing
is if you do like hopper bird feeders but you're running into maybe a squirrel
issue try a baffle. So I'm holding a baffle here, it's just a plastic baffle
you can look at it like an umbrella. And if this feeder was on a pole or on you
know a post, if you will, you would put the baffle just underneath it as it's
hanging right now if you're running into a lot of squirrel issues kind of coming
up and down on top of the feeder you would go ahead and string it right
through the top of its string and hang it just like that
so the baffles are really really useful if you are having a lot of squirrel
issues which we definitely have around our bird feeders. The other thing that
you can look for is hopper feeder that has an adjustable
ledge okay so what happens is when your squirrels your larger birds like crows
or Blue Jays what have you when they come this ledge can be adjusted to the
tension and it will drop and close the hopper off to those birds that you don't
want to attract or the squirrels that you don't want to attract so that's real
handy as well. There are other squirrel feeders out there like squirrel Buster
kind of similar concepts if you will cages and things that will divert the
seed flow so that the squirrels can't get in there and it won't drop all over
the ground when they do okay. One other thing that you should keep in mind if
you are having some squirrel issues is they do not like safflower so safflower
seed is this white seed here and Cardinals really like it you see it on
the front of the package there but the safflower the squirrels don't care for
so plenty of birds will eat safflower so if you are having a lot of squirrel
issues try your safflower in your feed and that should help okay.
Other things that we look for just if you're trying to attract certain types
of birds go ahead and look for specific mixes okay so for example at petite ease
we have a Cardinal mix but when you look at this it is their favorites it's
safflower it's black oil sunflower seed and it's a little bit of striped
sunflower in here too there's some already shelled if you will sunflower so
there's a lot of meat a lot of energy right here in this mixture not a lot of
way so a lot of your songbirds, your Cardinals, will really really love this
so if you're trying to attract certain ones look for those types of particular
mixes if you're looking for sunflower or excuse me,
seeds that don't cause a lot of mess in the garden or in the lawn, look for your
seed mixes that already are pre-shelled or pre hulled and so you'll find these
types of things like fine toons no waste mix from Lyrick and
inside this one, it's not as easy to see but there's peanut chips and lots of
different seeds, some crack corn in here as well where there are no seed shells
so it is just pure food for the birds. They'll go right in and just eat
everything you'll see very very little waste down below the feeder so that's
something to think about as well when you are feeding, okay. So basically,
two-in-one feeders you know squirrel-proof items that are available
out there to help you out really good mixes try to find the mixes that will
work best for the birds that you want to attract to your backyard and enjoy!