Is It Possible For Birds To Be Snobbish?

Through out the last couple of months I’ve seen people posting so many pictures of birds. Marnie of Lilacs and Roses has so many wonderful photos, she inspired me to place more feeders with a larger variety of foods. I’ve never used suet cakes before, but I see people using lots of them and I know finches are supposed to like thistle seeds, so off to the local pet store Jamie and I head. The first thing I pick up is a new feeder to fill with thistle seed. I think to myself, oh this is a nice one; I could just use the sock that came with the seed… No this one is much more attractive so I’ll get it. I’ve seen birds sitting on the window ledge before, eating little critters that have gotten trapped in the screen, so I’m thinking if I hang it here surely they will come and we can see them thru the kitchen window.

Shopping around for Suet cakes I made certain to get a nice variety. Blueberry, Peanut butter and some other fruity one were my selections. At first, I hung one from the Jasmine arbor and placed the other two outside the computer room window. Since we spend a lot of time in that room, I thought that would be a good place to put them. Well, a week went by and not a sign of a single peck on the Suet. I figured since I’ve never fed birds in the front yard before they must not like the location. Jamie moved them around to the back yard and placed them by the bird bath. Could you have a more perfect spot? Wash up before dinner and a little water to chase the food down. He even got a nice little shepherd’s hook to hang them on… over two weeks later and still not a single peck on the cakes.

The only feeder that seems to be getting any action is the one on the back side of the garden. It’s filled with wild bird seed and all we ever have there are a dove or two and tons of those little town wrens. I even put one of the suet cages up by these feeders, still no takers. Do you see how much lower the seed is on the left hand side compared to the right? Now look in the neighbor’s yard at the large shrub.

All those little wrens that are eating the seed make a mad dash across the fence line to that one feeder then back to the bush again. The entire process takes about five seconds. If I didn’t know better I would think they are looking down their little beaks at our food. If they are going to eat our food the least they could do is hang around a little while in our yard, that‘s just rude. Our garden was once full of all kinds of birds, I wonder where they all went. After the first week and no birds, I took a little walk thru the neighborhood. I was checking the power lines and looking in bare trees for birds, the entire trip I was only able to spot one mocking bird. It’s as if they are all gone. Anyone have any suggestions?