I love feeding the birds. I have suet and seed feeders spaced out across my back yard. Standing at the kitchen window, or sitting on the porch, watching the feeding birds brings me joy…until this past month. Within a matter of a week my yard was overtaken with “bully” birds. Large grackles, still feeding their adult-sized babies, descended upon my feeders. Now at times, I must admit, I did enjoy the exuberant cackling chatter of the grackles, but as the days progressed, more grackles arrived, and soon my beautiful songbirds moved on to areas less consumed by the flocks of big birds.
I remedied the situation by removing all feeders for a few days. I’ve recently put up a very small, squirrel proof feeder again, and it has been visited by the birds I desire. Yesterday, I once again saw a goldfinch, and even a hummingbird felt safe to visit my gardens. Grackles can be fun for a few moments, a bit like a wild and raucous party, but for my yard, I choose the soft soothing sounds of the songbirds.
MINDING MY P'S WITH Q 
So far the birds at our feeders get along with the biggest nuisance being squirrels stealing seeds and ants invading the hummingbird nectar.
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I also have squirrels, and they are not too bad. You are right…they just like to steal seeds. The flocks of birds are what put an end to the feeders that hold the black oil sunflowers. I’ll keep up the small one until Autumn when the grackles fly back to warmer climates. Thanks for the comment. I am just about to put up a hummingbird feeder…what do you do about the ants?
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Gorgeous color! 🙂
I rarely see a grackle. I think I have too many squirrels?
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(Not that I miss them.) lol
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😀
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The squirrels seemed to find better yards too when I cut back on the sunflower seeds.
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wonderful!
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Thanks!
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