Human snowbirds face bird-feeding dilemma

Q: We love to feed the birds in our back yard but now that we're retired, we plan to be away for several months this winter. I don't really want to ask anyone to come over each day to fill all the feeders, so I'm wondering if I should start weaning the birds off their seed before we leave.

A: I sympathize with your dilemma and it's one that many Minnesotans face each winter. Your impulse to taper off on the feeding is a good one — the seed will run out earlier each day, and this will encourage your birds to look elsewhere for additional food.

When you return and fill the feeders again, the birds will return after some days. Probably the first to notice will be a curious chickadee, swinging through on his foraging route through the neighborhood.

Our back-yard feeders aren't really making a difference between life and death for birds (except possibly on the coldest winter days). They do make life a bit easier, especially in the early morning and late afternoon in cold weather. But what we're really doing by feeding birds is bringing them in close so we can observe their fascinating activities.

Q: The mice in my back yard are getting really fat on the seed from my bird feeder (which is hanging from a shepherd's hook). I tried putting hot chile powder and crushed red pepper in with the seed, but this hasn't worked. Any ideas?

A: Those pesky mice have got to be stopped from shinnying up the shepherd's hook pole. I checked with Cathy Gagliardi at Wild Birds Unlimited in St. Paul and she suggested fitting a baffle around the pole. Once this metal collar is mounted on the pole, no rodents (mice, squirrels, chipmunks, etc.) should be able to reach the feeder.

Since mice can fit through incredibly small spaces, it might be a good idea to wrap some duct tape around the pole first, to close any gaps, and then screw in the baffle over it. A further tip from Gagliardi is to mount the baffle about 5 feet up the pole, so no animals can jump over it. One other way to deal with this problem would be to wrap the pole with aluminum flashing, secured with nontoxic silicone.

A: I agree, having an influx of doves (or pigeons) can be a detriment, especially if they scare off other birds. Platform feeders do a good job of providing food easily for a wide variety of birds, but pests like doves and blackbirds can dominate them. The most effective thing to do would be to replace your platform feeder with a feeder with a dome that can be raised or lowered. You could set the dome's height to allow birds as large as cardinals to enter, but exclude doves. The dome will also keep most rain and snow out of the seed.

Q: I have several feeders filled with nyjer seed and the goldfinches have always loved it, but this year they are avoiding those feeders like poison. I've washed the feeders and changed the seed, but still no goldfinch action. Any suggestions?

A: This is very strange: With clean feeders and fresh seed, your goldfinches should be lining up for all the feeding ports. The little birds seem to be telling you they don't like something about the seed — it's either stale or has gone rancid. This can happen fairly quickly with a high-oil content seed such as nyjer. So even if you bought it fairly recently, seed stored outdoors can go "off' in summer's heat. It's also possible that the seed sat around for months at the store where you purchased it and is now stale.

Try buying a 5-pound bag of nyjer seed at a wild bird supply store, washing your feeders again and filling them with this new seed. I'll bet the goldfinches will return soon. It might be good to buy this expensive seed in small batches.

Q: I'm having a problem with my cardinals — all they want to do is feed underneath the feeders. How do I get them to come up to my hopper feeder?

Q: A gorgeous little bird hit my glass door and sat around, stunned, before it flew away. I looked it up and found it was a golden-crowned kinglet. How rare is this?

A: Sorry to hear that a kinglet hit your window and I hope it recovers on its own. Golden-crowned kinglets move down from Canada in early fall and spend the winter in our region. It's not rare to see one, and unfortunately it's not rare for a bird to injure itself by running into a window, either. Even if the bird seems to recover and flies away, it may have broken its beak or suffered a head injury that will lead to death.

I'd like to offer the standard advice I give to anyone who reports a bird striking a window: You need to make that window more visible to birds, and a good way to do this is by attaching several ultraviolet-light reflecting decals or tape strips to it. These are nearly invisible to us, but they stand out for birds, who see UV reflectance. It also helps to place feeders within 3 feet of the window (so birds don't develop dangerous momentum) or more than 30 feet away (so they have time to veer away).