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From: dans@yang.earlham.edu
Newsgroups: rec.birds
Subject: Re: Bird feeding Station
Message-ID: <1991Apr21.142938.12830@yang.earlham.edu>
Date: 21 Apr 91 19:29:37 GMT
References: <1991Apr15.225115.3695@jpl-devvax.jpl.nasa.gov>
Lines: 35

In article <1991Apr15.225115.3695@jpl-devvax.jpl.nasa.gov>, hastings@jpl-devvax.jpl.nasa.gov (Sheri Hastings) writes:
> Sheri writes:
>  "Can anybody out there tell me the best things to include in a 
> bird feeding station and how to get the birds to notice that you
> have prepared a feast for them?"

	It is important to have good seed.  What type of seed you use 
should depend on the type of birds you wish to feed.  Most birds like 
black oil sunflower; the ones that don't (as much) are often the very 
birds you don't want to feed:  pigeons, doves, etc.  Make sure, however, 
that you get BLACK OIL SUNFLOWER, not striped sunflower.  Safflower is 
much beloved by cardinals, and not by starlings.  This is almost 
miraculous.  Beware of mixes.  Often the mix you get in the supermarket or 
hardware store contains seed that the birds don't eat.  It's there because 
it's cheap and adds to the weight of the package.  If you use a mix, try 
to make sure it contains seed the birds eat.  At the Audubon Naturalist 
Society in Chevy Chase, Maryland, we use (if I remember correctly) 50% 
black oil sunflower, 40% white proso millet, 5% red millet, an 5% split 
peanuts.
> 
> "Also, what is the best field guide for So. Calif (coast).  How do you use
> a field guide. Do you just keep flipping through it until you recognize 
> the bird you are trying to identify or is there some system?"

	I recomend the Peterson Field Guide to Western Birds, the new 
third edition.  It is organized by family, so you can generally find the 
right page quickly.  It contains little arrows that point to distinguishing 
features of the bird.  Also, the text and the pictures are on the same 
page, so you don't have to wait until the bird you have identified as a 
pine grossbeak has flown away before you find out that pine grossbeaks 
don't live in that part of the country.
> 
> 	Good luck!

			--Dan Schatz