Thank you all for your responses to my suet feeder question. I've been
working for a week now trying to come up with answers to my problems
with crows and starlings at my feeder. Christy wrote:

> I have had good luck with upside down feeders. The kind with the screening
> on the bottom and a wooden roof on top. The crows are just too big and
> apparently not graceful enough to flip to the underside, and I have only
> had one starling figure it out.


I do have an upside down feeder and the woodpeckers figured it out
fairly rapidly. It took the Starlings three days. I have to admit the
suet does not disappear as fast as before. I have another suet feeder
which is in a traditional metal cage. Then I placed that cage into
another specially made larger cage made of 1 inch mesh. The nuthatches,
chickadees and other smaller birds can fly right in but larger birds
have to work harder to manuver the cage around and then stretch their
necks out to reach the suet. Both of these feeders have stopped the
crows although they still try even after a week.

Dave Stiles wrote:

> My suet cakes are held in the coated metal cages that you can buy at various places. Because the suet is so close to the window of the house, crows have not been a problem. The suet is frequented by wrens, chckadees and nuthatches many times a day. There are crows in the backyard but they have not tried to attack the suet. I think they are too skittish to come that close to the large living room window, but it may be that they just don't know the suet is there.
> ________

Placing the suet cages closer to my windows is something I will try
next. Right now they are across the yard and near the edge of my
ravine. I have had woodpeckers at my window seed feeder but the
Starlings have never attempted to get to close although they sit on the
roof and even tried nesting in the attic. We'll see how this works.

Jane Stewart wrote:

> Everytime I think about taking mine down something wonderful comes by;
> so, I leave them up until it is too warm to keep the suet from dripping
> or going ransid.
>

I do love the variety of birds that suet introduced to my yard. I am
still waiting for Bushtits to come to it. I leave my suet up year
round. In hot weather in the summer I buy the Suet Doughs which have a
higher melting point of 150 degrees.

Let me know if anyone else has a creative idea about pest proofing their
suet.

Thanks,
Yvonne Bombardier
Everett, Wa
ravenn at premier1.net