If it helps any, I think Gail has a point here. Try leaving out the peanut
products, and see if that discourages the starlings at all.

For my suet feeder, I use beef fat cakes with seed in them, and don't see
any starling activity whatsoever (the operative word there being *see*
them). I have, however, so far this year seen two pileated woodpeckers and
a couple of hairy woodpeckers, along with the usual assorted variety of
chickadees, red-breasted nuthatches, and Stellar Jays. The Spotted Towhees
have a penchant for picking up whatever falls on the ground.

In my case, my biggest problem seems to be the chipmunk who keeps climbing
the snag it's on, and marauding whatever is in there. Methinks the birds
don't really get a chance to eat the suet. Suffice it to say, we have
some very fat chipmunks on our property, but there's not much we can do
about it. ;-)

-Jacki Bricker
Woodinville, Washington
-----Original Message-----
From: Spitler/Cannon [SMTP:spitler at wkpowerlink.com]
Sent: Saturday, November 21, 1998 3:02 PM
To: sdownes at u.washington.edu; tweeters
Subject: Re: Suet feeders

Hi Scott and all
Around here the starlings have a marked preference for suet cakes that
include peanut butter in the recipe. When the starlings are present I
simply
leave the peanut out. The starlings also do not seem to be overly attracted
to slabs of actual beef fat.
Don't know if this helps?
Cheers
Gail Spitler
Johnsons Landing, BC
spitler at wkpowerlink.com