On Tue, 2 Feb 1999, Dan Logen wrote:

> What am I doing wrong? We never have bushtits, butterbuts,
kinglets,
> starlings, house sparrows or flickers at our suet feeders. (We do
have
> plenty of steller's jays, downy and hairy woodpeckers, house
finches,
> siskins, rb nuthatches and all 3 chickadees--yes the mountain is
still
> around.)
>
> Dan Logen
> Stanwood, Wa


Not to worry Dan, I have your exact same situation, Almost. I think
it's just the neighborhood. There have been a few times, very
infrequent, when bushtits have made an appearance. When they do, it
seems there will be a flock of them and they will be all over the
trees and bushes around our house for a while. Then they move on.
They never have shown much interest in our feeders. I have counted
one kinglet in all the years we have been here. That was this year
one day when it was very cold and windy. He was grounded by the
weather for a while on our back deck. I think these little guys like
insects better than most anything you can put in a feeder. We do have
flickers once in a while. As for the Starlings and House Sparrows,
So much the better!!

We have had a few starlings off and on in the neighborhood. They seem
to spend most of their time policing the lawn. I have heard that they
eat Crane Fly Larve, which would mean that starlings may serve one
useful purpose afterall. That's not enough to make them all that
desirable though. I remember one time when they tried to nest in our
attic They had an entrance right over the front door. I think it
must be a characteristic of the birds to relieve themselves just
before entering the nest hole. We had a very messy front door for a
day or two until I got control of the situation. Whenever I see a
starling around here, I think "Well, there goes the Neighborhood".

Ed Lamb, Bellevue WA