Innovative Florida Bird Feeder

I was frustrated with all the bird feeders, as the birds seemed to be having a difficult time enjoying their snacks because the perches are all inadequate.  All of the feeders in the big box stores come from China.  I can only imagine that whoever designed and manufactured those bird feeders had little experience with actually feeding birds.  Rather their goal is to make money.

My new design is a ring of wood, suspended by 3 nylon ropes and a bowl of food placed in the middle of the wooden ring.  I'm calling it a "feeder ring" for now.  The wood is about 3" wide allowing the birds plenty of space to perch while eating.  The smaller birds like the rope.  The larger birds are quite comfortable standing on the wooden platform.

Above a Red-bellied Woodpecker (Melanerpes carolinus) and a Blue Jay (Cyanocitta cristata) enjoying the new perch.

Above:  A woodpecker sitting in the food while a Tufted Titmouse (Baeolophus bicolor) waits his turn.  The Titmouses like the rope to hang on before descending to the platform for food.

Above:  Another Tufted Titmouse hanging on the nylon rope.  The disk is made out of T-111 siding that was left over from some home repairs.  The rope I found lying on the side of a road and the bowl was a hand-me-down.

Above:  Another woodpecker visiting the feeder disk.

In a few minutes this afternoon I photographed just about every species of bird that is frequently seen in Florida.  The larger birds were relegated to picking up the scraps on the ground as the Blue Jays and Mockingbirds (Mimus polyglottos) dive-bombed them every time they came near the feeder.  Above:  A Red-Winged Blackbird (Agelaius phoeniceus).

 Above:  A pair of Barn Swallows (Hirundo rustica).  The smallest and least aggressive of the birds stayed on the fences and only visited the feeder ring when the others had gone.

A full-size view of the feeder ring.  I hung it from a Golden Raintree that is not sturdy enough for opossums or raccoons to climb.  I didn't see any squirrels making the trek down the ropes either.  Squirrels, opossums, and raccoons love to tear apart the mass manufactured bird feeders.

 Above:  another view of the prototype feeder ring, hanging in the dusty front yard.  Now that I know this design works well I intend to make more of these feeders.  It took all of about 15 minutes to cut the wood, drill holes for the rope, string it, and hang it.

A Blue Jay takes his turn.

A male Northern Cardinal (Cardinalis cardinalis).

 Above:  A close-up of the underside of the feeder ring.  The grooves in the wood are part of the house siding pattern.

RAINS CONTINUE TO ELUDE 

EAST CENTRAL FLORIDA

 Above:  While there are plenty of predictions of rain for Central Florida we've yet to see any of it on the east side of the peninsula.  This is a very wide shot of our dry lake.  The once-700-acre Lake Theresa is virtually dry.  In my many years on this lake I've never experienced anything like this extreme drought.  It will take months to years of rain to refill the dry lakes in east Central Florida.  Yesterday I mowed down a big swatch of the lake so that when/if the water returns it will be easier to get my boat out.  The boat sits in the middle of the image about a mile from any puddle of water.

Above:  We've taken to watering the driveways because the sports cars get stuck in the sugar-like sands.  The driveway on the southwest side of the property is particularly problematic.  We put some 8-foot timbers down in the sand to help the BMW get traction to get across this spot.  We've put rocks, clay. . . all manner of debris here . . . with little success.  The sand becomes quicksand-like when it is very dry and everything sinks therein.  The soil becomes something more like a liquid than solid ground.  Water helps, and thus the daily sprinkling of the driveway.

The huge pile of debris in the distance is growing daily.  We're under a complete burn ban so the fire pit has seen no activity for some time.