Wild Bird Wednesday on Tuesday – Spring Snow Storm

I know what you are thinking. Why is she posting Wild Bird Wednesday on Tuesday? Well the Wild Bird Wednesday blog hop is hosted in Australia so if I wait to post on Wednesday the blog hop is at least half over by the time my post goes up so here it is.

Well earlier this week I showed you how our Bluebirds and Blue jay fared during our most recent snow storm. Here is a look at a few of our other visitors to our meal worm feeder this past Sunday. The weather might not be very spring like but the bird activity indicates that spring is in the air.

Mr. Cardinal waits his turn and then feeds his mate.

The cardinals are exhibiting common pair bonding behavior by having the male feed the female. I love watching them do this and hope to catch it on video someday too.

An American Robin samples the worms.

This is the second year we have ever had robins using the meal worm feeder. These (there are two of them) are early arrivals and seemed to have staked a claim to our yard. With the ground covered with snow there isn’t much for them to feed on so they welcome the meal worms too. Once their usual feeding supplies become available the robins stop using the dried meal worms.

Who put this snow drift on our feeder?

One of my favorite birds in our yard is the tufted titmouse. They are so fast that it can be a challenge to catch them in a picture.

For those of you that are curious, we have been feeding dried meal worms for many years with great success. Some people will tell you that bluebirds won’t use them but ours love them and later in the season bring their young to the feeding platform. As you can see we have many other species of birds using the feeder too.

If you are interested in getting some we purchase ours from DriedInsects.com. You can’t beat the price of the 11 pound bag especially if you order more than one (there is usually free shipping too). Most local stores only sell small bags that cost much more per pound. You might go that route if you wanted to give it a try but if you think you will be using them for the entire feeding season I would recommend the large bag. We go through two to three 11 pound bags per feeding season which runs from March to September.

I hope you have enjoyed this edition of Wild Bird Wednesday and will take some time to stop by the blog hop host too.

Note: the pictures above were all taken through a window so the quality isn’t quite up to par. Even with a long lens I can’t get this close without spooking most of the birds away nor did I want to sit out in the cold to get these. 😉

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