Continuing the archive — slow essays and observations from marshes, mangroves, and pondsides around the world.
№ 427 Squirrel-proof feeders fall into three working designs - weight-activated, caged, and pole-mounted with a baffle. Each one defeats squirrels by physics rather than gadgetry. Here's how each works, what they cost, and which fits your garden.
In winter the equation flips - birds need high-fat, high-calorie foods, not cheap mixed seed. The four winter staples are black-oil sunflower, suet, peanut butter, and high-fat peanut pieces. Here's what each one does and which species it pulls.
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№ 425 Four DIY winter feeder builds we've actually tested - drilled hardwood log, pine cone with peanut butter, half-orange shell, and mesh stocking for sunflower hearts. Cheap, work, and the kids can help.
Bread is the wrong answer. Cracked corn, frozen peas, oats, and chopped greens are the four foods that actually feed ducks and geese without harming them. Here's the per-food breakdown and how much to bring.
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№ 423 Feeder placement decides how many birds you get and how many die hitting your windows. The right spot follows five rules: distance from glass, distance from cover, height, sun and wind, and squirrel jump radius. Get them right and the same feeder pulls three times the traffic.
You can't buy or build a hummingbird nest - they make their own from spider silk and lichen, and they choose the site. What you CAN place is the feeder. Here's where to hang it for maximum traffic and minimum aggression.
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№ 421 Red-breasted Nuthatches are conifer specialists - they want spruce or pine within sight of your feeder, sunflower hearts or suet, and a pitch-rimmed nest cavity. Get those three and you'll have one of the most charming small birds in North America working your trees upside-down.
Raising ducklings is mostly about three things: warm dry brooder, niacin in the feed, and patience with the water. The mistakes that kill ducklings are predictable, and so is the timeline. Here's the four-week schedule we use.
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№ 419 Most wild-bird mix on the supermarket shelf is filler. Here's the seven seeds that actually work, the species each one brings, and the two bags we'd buy if we were starting from nothing.
Flickers are the odd woodpecker - they feed on the ground, eat ants by the hundred, and ignore most standard feeders. Here's the suet + lawn + nest-box combination that pulls them in.
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№ 417 Chickadees are the most willing-to-trust songbird in North America. A sunflower-seed feeder, a small nest box, and a dense shrub will give you a resident pair you can feed from your hand inside a season.
A working backyard bird station is five feeder types and three plant layers. Here's the per-feeder species mapping (who eats what), the seed inventory, and the cleaning rhythm that keeps the whole thing healthy.
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