what a season for hopper bird feeders!

Busy feeders this season… that would be an understatement! Oh how I wish we were in the birdseed business because it’s been an amazingly active season for seed feeders.

Now there’s a pretty good smorgasbord going on in our yard, with suet, peanuts, mealworms, even the squirrels get theirs as all bird feeders have baffles to keep them at bay. But sunflower hearts, cardinal and finch mix? Omg… going through this seed like water, and spending more on seed than groceries!

Winter’s been a bit longer and colder than last year, but this is supposed to be spring right? Wrong – central IL just saw 5 inches of the white stuff today. Bluebirds who have started laying eggs will loose the clutch if incubation has not yet begun.

Large Hopper Bird Feeders are being filled at the rate of ridiculousness, and positively, squirrels aren’t raiding them! Big double hoppers like this are being emptied twice a week, we’ve never seen birds so ravenous. Raging hormones and gearing up for nesting couldn’t possibly be the cause? More birds? Maybe they’ve told all their friends of a great new restaurant? But it’s not just our yard, reports from our local feed store say it’s been a fantastic seed-selling season, more so than any other they can recall.

This kind of seed’s not cheap either. Past droughts and fuel costs have caused most birdseed to skyrocket in cost. While searching Craigslist recently a person was bartering with food stamps. Hmmm… wonder if anyone would take food stamps as payment for bird seed?

The good news is migratory birds are on their way, nectar costs just pennies to make (so easy too), and well, fruit and jelly are nothing compared to the money being spent on on seed 🙂