In discussion with my wife, I recalled why we tried unshelled (I'm
defining "shelled" as with shells) sunflower seeds and then stopped
using them. All through the winter chickadees and nuthatches gather
sunflower seeds (with shells) to cache them, but they apparently
won't do that with the unshelled ones, at least that was the behavior
of our birds, and their visits to the feeders diminished perceptibly
when we started using them in the feeders. So we went back to shelled
seeds, even though it was great for a while not having the ground
littered with sunflower-seed shells.

The only way I would use them now is for House Finches and the other
birds that would eat them on the spot, but I'd have to find a feeder
that the House Finches can't get into for the seeds with shells on
them for the cacheing birds.

-----
Dennis Paulson
1724 NE 98 St.
Seattle, WA 98115
206-528-1382
dennispaulson at comcast.net



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