Subject: suet visitors
Date: Dec 7 11:00:14 1995
From: "CATHERINE ALEXANDER" - CMA at vmmc.org


LAst year I put out fresh beef-fat from the local butcher shop and
had three downy woodpeckers that fed at the suet feeders regularly.
One, which always seemed pretty ratty-looking, disappeared in
mid-February, but the other two continued to visit until we stopped
feeding. Other regular suet feeders were the bc chickadees, one flicker, and
a nuthatch. The resident Bewicks wren hangs out in the honeysuckle
tangle on the other side of the yard from the feeders. Perhaps the
cover is better there, but I've never seen it at the feeder.

This year I put out a commercial suet-seed block and its only
visitors have been the *(&%$ squirrels. We see (or hear) one
woodpecker pretty regularly, but only in the wayback of the yard. The
chickadees and other regulars are taking seed but seem to be avoiding the
suet block.

So, exactly what are we talking about when we say "suet"? Kidney
suet? indiscriminant slabs of fat? commercial blocks? homemade
peanut-butter and white-grease? lard and oatmeal? And which birds come to
which kinds of "suet"?

Catherine Alexander
South Seattle