Subject: Yellow rumped crowd
Date: Feb 2 14:38:24 1999
From: jbroadus - jbroadus at seanet.com


Hi Tweets:

The yellow rumps that have started showing up at our suet feeders are
calling their friends. Today there are 10, all clambering about like big
bushtits. By the way, one feeder is attached to suction cups on the window
of my home office. The binoculars on my desk are getting more of a workout
than my computer. Billable hours are shot, though.

Someone asked about starling proof suet feeders. The one we have
downstairs is home-made and hangs beneath a wooden arbor. I took field
fencing and made a cage that completely surrounds the suet feeder itself
(which is one of those small "cages" that is just big enough to hold a
double suet block). The outer cage is big enough for sparrow sized birds to
stand inside and get at the suet feeder, which is suspended inside. Then, I
just cut a few sparrow sized holes in the hardware cloth outer cage. So far
it has worked pretty well. Right now there are seven yellow rumps and one
bushtit inside the outer cage, pigging out. We often have a downy
woodpecker who either gets entirely inside the outer cage or hangs beneath
the outer cage and eats from below.


Jerry R. Broadus
Geometrix Surveying, Inc.
P.O. Box 249
Puyallup, WA. 98371