First time

[Rally]

How do you folks keep bears and coon out of that jelly?

 

[Winelover]

We have black bears in our area but, I've never seen one or any sign. Coons and possum can be troublesome. In my first post, you can see a funnel shaped squirrel baffle, on the shepherd hook support. Does a pretty good job at defeating most varmints. When that fails, I trap them with a paw trap, designed for coons. Then it's a 22 LR head shot, to end the raiding.

BTW, haven't seen the orioles, for the last three days. Moved on to greener pastures.

 

[Mike W1]

No bears in Iowa. Finally licked the coon problems by fastening a length of stove pipe around the poles that our feeders are hung on. Took care of the squirrels getting into the seed feeders the same way.

 

[Winelover]

I have tried 4" diameter and 4-5' long stovepipe..........it works pretty well, for the coons. Not so much for the grey squirrels. They can scamper right up it. Probably should have use 6" diameter. What foils them is the weight adjustable feeders. Shuts off the supply of sunflower seeds when they step on it.

 

[Winelover]

Not rare but not very common, either. Paid us a visit while we were having lunch.



Red headed woodpecker

 

[Mike W1]

We had 2 winter with us this year. Not every year as the book says they're partial migrants. (Were it me I'd go a little further south than NE Iowa) And they definitely rule the roost at the feeders. Young ones have dark heads tills they mature. The Downies, Hairy's and Red Bellied stay with us year round.
We're down to the normal numbers of Orioles now. Orchard and Baltimores. Qt of grape a day now. For about 3-4 days it was 4 Qt's which was getting a mite costly but was a riot watching that many. The Redheads also get into the grape jelly as do the Grosbeaks but not quite to the degree of the Orioles.

 

[Winelover]

The Red Bellied Wood Pecker runs the Red Head's off the feeders, in my back yard. The Pileated Wood pecker is the largest and most dominate at the suet feeders.