Originally posted by UserAccessDenied Great shots!
How long after laying seed do they show up?
Do you ever use recordings or calls?
The Chickadees and Nuthatches will come and try and get the seed from my hand before I scatter it. People come and go all day long feeding these birds. There is competition to see who gets there first.
I mix up a special Grey Jay mix, that contains chopped nuts, peanuts in the shell that they can cache, Chicken Rice dog food (because they are also carrion feeders) chunks of bread (what the park rangers use to attract them on tours) and chopped bits of good ol Canadian cheddar cheese, which some of the Grey Jay study people use to attract them.)
So, I've spread the food for the Blue Jays, Chickadees , etc, which contains corn, millet, black oil sunflower seeds and peanuts as well, and they were all digging in.
Apart from being really cute these are really clever birds. It works for me, because I carefully note what they pick, to tell what their preference of the day is.
This guy is sitting 8 feet away from me in a tree. He knows the special Grey jay mix is on the car seat and he's not going to touch the other bird food until he's had a chance to see what's in the special Grey Jay container. You wouldn't want to pig out on crap before the good stuff gets here would you?
He gets to sit on the container (which I hold in my hand) and take his pick before it gets spread on the ground for the others.
It works for me, partly because I can closely monitor what they are eating, which helps me decide what to put in their care packages as I prepare to head out, next time I go.
This time of year I try to go on less popular days. The birds are used to being fed. I like to go on days when few others if any are likely to turn up and feed them.