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Had a feeder setup talk with my neighbor and it stuck with me
I was out last Tuesday at 5:30am refilling my tube feeder and this older guy across the fence started waving me over. He said "you're scaring off the goldfinches with that thing" and pointed at my cheap plastic feeder. He was kinda gruff about it but he showed me his platform feeder with this special mesh bottom he made himself. He said he gets 30+ finches every morning because the seed doesn't get wet and moldy. I thought about it all day and swapped my feeder the next week. My count went from like 5 finches to maybe 15 on a good morning. Has anyone else had a random neighbor change how they do things with a quick comment?
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emery_flores3mo ago
That feeder swap story reminds me of the time my aunt told me I was "overthinking" my birdseed mix and just to get the cheap stuff. She was right and it hurt my pride a little bit. Guess I owe her an apology and a bag of sunflower seeds now.
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the_jennifer3mo ago
That advice about the cheap stuff is actually a little tricky though. Higher quality mixes don't have as much filler like milo or red millet that birds just push aside and waste. You end up with less mess on the ground under the feeder and the birds don't get picky... they just eat everything you put out. Might be worth testing a half bag of the better mix alongside the cheap one to see what happens.
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drew_reed623mo ago
Totally feel you on this one. It's wild how much we can overthink something as simple as birdseed and then feel kinda dumb when the obvious solution works. I've been there too, spent way too much time reading forums and comparing protein percentages in mixes like I'm shopping for workout supplements or something. The cheap stuff really does get the job done, and the birds dont seem to care about the brand name. Props for owning up to it, that takes guts.
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