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We have a tradition of starting our winter bird feeding on or about Thanksgiving. Weather permitting it is normally on the day but a few years I was to lazy to fight the weather......

Keeping with this tradition I got a bag of seed, black oil sunflower our go to food for them. Now I don't know if it just the a fluke but the price has risen 47%. With prices going up in so many areas I guess I expected to pay a bit more this year but not that much.

So for now I going to with only one feeder rather then two. We will have to see how the rest of the season goes and seed prices but that is my plan for now. Less easy food means a lot more work for the birds but maybe that is not such a bad thing??

Next headline will be "Shortage of Birds in IL"

Ed

How much do you pay now? I have about 3/4 of a 40# bag from last year so I have not bought this year. Last year a 40# bag of black oil sunflower seeds was $26.42.

I have not shopped around but since I was at the store I picked up a 20# and it was running at about $1.10 per pound so 40# would be about $44. I hope to get it a little cheaper then that in larger bags but still a lot more then I paid last year. Will check some other stores after this week is over, maybe just the place I got it??? But I have purchased some there before.

Ed

reible wrote: ↑Mon Nov 22, 2021 7:03 pm We have a tradition of starting our winter bird feeding on or about Thanksgiving.
Ed

Interesting tradition. We do just about the same thing at our house, but we wait until whenever there is enough snow on the ground so we feel pretty sure the bears are asleep, which is generally one side or the other of Thanksgiving. We have plenty of black bear around here and this year we even have a grizzly bear. A neighbor about a mile further up the mountain had his beehives torn apart a couple of months ago and caught the action on his game camera. The culprit was a young grizzly bear with a tracking collar on. Fish and Game was notified and they said they had been tracking the bear's travels through the Cabinet Mountains and they decided that going for beehives did not make him a "trouble" bear, so they were not going to trap him but just let him continue to roam. Which makes me think I might wait a little longer this year before putting out the birdseed, even though the Stellers Jays have already been coming around and screaming at me. I think I will wait for at least one more snowstorm.

Those birds may have read my post and decide to boycott the feeder today..... Didn't see any, any way but I could have missed them. At any rate I did my part, now it up to them to find the seeds and enjoy, more then likely to happen tomorrow.

Ed

Still around $20 at the feed store where we buy. We feed all year. Consequently, some dropped seeds germinate and we usually get four or five sunflower plants. Then, in the fall, we harvest the seeds. In the winter, we set out a couple suet blocks, too. Mostly Mexican Doves, Jays and, Blue birds but, we do get some of migratory birds.

As expected the little birds have been busy at the feeder. This afternoon I spotted a hawk in the tree just over the feeder, no doubt just sight seeing...

I was going to get the camera and snap some pictures but it flew off moments later. Need less to say there were no small birds feeding for a while.

Ed

The birds will rejoice!
Ed

Boy I guess so. I have not bought a bag this year yet because the last bag I bought in April didn't get used until this fall. It was $26.42 with tax for 40#. Those seeds come from here in Utah 50 miles away.