V18 N30

Cape May Wicker
Two locations open seven days 9 to 5
1930 Route 9, Clermont | 609-624-3031
203 Sunset Boulevard, West Cape May | 609- 884-1849
Fall is Fire Table Season at Cape May Wicker!
Now is the time to set out your feeders
to attract wintering species.
The large number of Pine Siskins
moving through suggests this will
be a winter marked by large numbers
of winter finch like siskins and Purple
Finches. Evening Grosbeak? You should be
so lucky, but not impossible. Platform feeders
or large hopper feeders loaded with black-oil
sunflower seeds is the secret to attracting
this portly bulbous-billed finch. However, you
may not want swarms of grosbeaks at your
feeder. The “grospig” as it’s called in some
quarters can bankrupt your seed budget.
Pine Siskin’s can also break the bank.
Siskins and their close cousin the American
Gold Finch love thistle which is priced like a
prime cut of steak. You dispense it in special
tube feeders with small ports or mesh thistle
socks which the neighborhood gray squirrel
will chew to pieces, leaving your thistle seed
in a puddle on the ground. Many sparrow
species like the mixed-seed blends, especially
with millet. Avoid blends with corn as an
Bird Droppings
Dispatches from the nation’s birdwatching capital… by Seymore Thanu
ingredient. This inexpensive “filler seed” is
shunned by most songbirds and will end up
under the feeder, attracting rats or mice.
Another food offering to put out is suet.
These blocks of kidney fat are relished by
woodpeckers, nuthatches, jays, Carolina
Wrens and unfortunately, racoons. Bringing
your suet in at dusk will save you the trouble
of searching for it. As for that hummingbird
feeder, keep it up until a hard freeze. We still
have several species of western hummingbirds
that visit our feeder in late autumn.
What a treat to find a feisty Rufous or Allen’s
Hummingbird at your feeder. I hope you like
company — when word gets out, birders will
flock to your yard to see it.
Watching birds at feeders is a great way to
pass the time in this age of COVID isolation.
Place feeders away from windows or glass
doors but can still see them. If a bird-catching
hawk makes birds scatter, you don’t want to
have fleeing birds hitting your windows. Half
of all window strikes end in fatality.
Think of a hawk as another bird coming
to your feeder. By feeding birds, you are not
causing them to be killed. Hawks will feed
twice a day. Your feeding birds means the
hawk will catch dinner where you will see it.
Wild Kingdom, right in your own back yard.
For questions about bird feeding, the
folks at Cape May Bird Observatory have
answers. As for seed, Smeltzer and Sons in
Court House has a fine selection of quality
seed and suet blocks.
capemaywicker.net
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