Jack Antinore of Holley, a retired social worker from Lakeside Beikirch Care Center, enjoys watching and feeding the birds, especially in winter. Of this season’s experience he writes: The 2’ by 3’ platform feeder I built, along with the standard feeder attached in the middle has been a true boon to bird feeding and watching. I won the Blue Jays’ hearts long ago with my raw, in-the-shell peanuts. I’m on my third 25lb. bag for this season (I order 50lbs. at a time from Richmond, Virginia). I added raw shelled peanuts and striped sunflower seed to attract the Cardinals and that is very successful.
I have at least two male cardinals and four females loving those two food additions. I have both Red-Bellied and Downy Woodpeckers enjoying the several suet feeders on and near the platform feeder. The few European Starlings seem to favor the suet as well. I have many of the smaller birds coming — Sparrows, Finches and the like. I’m on my fourth 40lb. bag of a quality blended wild bird food, used about half of a 50lb. bag of black oil sunflower seed, 10lbs. of raw shelled peanuts (just started them recently for the Cardinals) and about 15lbs. of striped sunflower seed. I’ve also gone through about 25 suet cakes but I can’t get to all my suet cages as the snow is too high now. I am having a ball watching the birds and helping them through a very tough winter. I even have some American Crows hitting the suet and grabbing both kinds of peanuts. I won’t even start about the squirrels …
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