Who's at Your Feeder?

Every winter we hang a bird feeder from the clothesline. We fill it with sunflower seeds and millet and thistle... a whole mix of nutritious seeds for the local flocks. We also hang suet for the woodpeckers - then we watch from the living room window.

Here's who visits our feeder:
chickadees
nuthatches
juncos
blue jays
downy woodpeckers
hairy woodpeckers
red-bellied woodpeckers
mourning doves (they pick up seeds that fall)
goldfinches, cardinals, sparrows, turkeys and squirrels. Lots of squirrels.

Gray Squirrels who climb up the tree, clamber out onto a limb, leap onto the clothesline and tightrope walk to the feeder. They chew the suet. They scoop out seeds by the pawful, tossing them to bird and mammal below.

We wondered if giving the squirrels their own food would keep them from raiding the birdfeeder. So one day I lugged home ten pounds of unsalted peanuts in the shell. We put some outside on the chopping block. We tossed a handful beneath the feeder. We watched and waited. What we discovered: blue jays love peanuts! If the squirrels are too slow, the jays swoop in and try to make off with peanuts in their beaks. They fly around the house to the thicket of forsythia and lilac where they sit around their card table, playing poker and cracking the nuts.

What backyard wildlife visits your feeder? Check out other science resources and book reviews at the STEM Friday blog.