By Darial Weisman

What a strange winter we have had. When it comes to weather, nothing seems to be normal anymore. The one consistent has been the activity at our backyard bird feeders.

My husband and I like to keep our feeders clean and full of bird seed. However, with our platform bird feeders, we will often not fill them until the birds have pretty much cleaned everything up.

Even when snowy weather comes, the birds come to the feeders. They will eat at the platform feeder until the snow covers the seed to the point that they can’t dig through the snow. However, they can continue to come to the safflower feeder, sit on one of several perches and take out their safflower seeds. If the snow is driven by the wind, those openings will become packed in with snow, so we need to make sure we get them cleaned out.

One of our platform feeders has a roof, and that one becomes really crowded during snowfall or rainfall. This does become a war. The smaller birds like the house finches, nuthatches and chickadees will share the space. Our doves are not bullies, but they do take over the covered feeder and just plop right down in the middle of it and chow down.

However, when the “bullies” show up like the flickers and bluejays, it becomes a war. First, they chase off any of the smaller more timid birds and then they fight each other for squatting and eating rights. Yes, even in the bird world, there seems to be a pecking order. The funny thing is when the bullies fight and chase each other off, the little birds flit in and get their seed, ready to head out for safety when the bullies return. It takes a lot of trips, but that is the way they outfox the bullies.

Our cardinals are our real favorites. However, they are pretty much reclusive and only come to the feeders when there aren’t other birds around. So, they often come early morning and late afternoon. They love to sit on the platform feeder and give out their satisfied little peeps.

Although we do not intentionally feed the squirrels, they are our ground garbage collectors, eating a lot of the seeds that the birds drop on the ground. If they could, the squirrels would be up in the feeders. However, that is the last thing we want, so both of our feeding station poles have squirrel baffles that won’t let the squirrels get up the pole and into the feeders.

This past summer, though, one squirrel figured out how to jump from a nearby tree and land on the arms that hold the feeders, hang on and then it could go to any feeder it wanted. So, after watching it a few times, my husband moved the pole about two feet further away from the tree. Problem solved. That is unless the squirrel develops greater leaping ability.

When it comes to backyard bird feeding, every day is an adventure. Even if it includes the bullies or one of those pesky squirrels!