Attracting these little backyard visitors is as easy as one, two, FEED! Seriously, when it comes to the Downy Woodpecker, if you supply them with the right feed, they will be return visitors all year round. Try Black Oil Sunflower Seed, Sunflower Chips, or Peanut Splits. But the most popular menu item for the Downy is suet! Suet comes in a variety of flavors, and the best part is they are really economical!

In winter Downy Woodpeckers are frequent members of mixed species flocks. Advantages of flocking include having to spend less time watching out for predators and better luck finding food from having other birds around. An often acrobatic forager, this black-and-white woodpecker is at home on tiny branches or balancing on slender plant galls, sycamore seed balls, and suet feeders. Downies and their larger lookalike, the Hairy Woodpecker, are one of the first identification challenges that beginning bird watchers master.

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Love them or hate them, you’re bound to see them this month! But come to think about it, what a festive time of year to see such creatures. Don’t they just remind you of some other “special deer”, that perhaps can fly and help bring presents to little ones? Join in the spirit of the season and stop and smile when you see a deer this month.

LOVE ‘EM:
If you love deer and don’t mind them as backyard visitors, or simply feel sorry for the fact that their homes were recently destroyed by mankind, here are a few things to consider. Offer loose feed such as Shelled Corn, Cracked Corn or our special Deer Mix Feed! You can place this feed in a Manger, Platform Feeder or even on the ground! Want something that will last a bit longer? Try salt block! There are large blocks as well as smaller blocks. Stop in to check out our selection!

Shelled or Cracked Corn 50 lb = $16.99
Shelled or Cracked Corn 25 lb = $9.99
Shelled or Cracked Corn 10 lb = $4.49
Deer Mix 50 lb = $19.99
Deer Mix 25 lb = $11.99
Wildlife Manger Feeder = $45.99
(not pictured -stop in to see it!)

Salt Block 50 lb = $12.99
Corn-lix Deer Block = $12.99
Salt and Feed Pan = $10.99
Buck Lickers Salt Blocks = $4.99
(any flavor -acorn, apple or wild persimmon)
Small Salt block holder = $6.99

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HATE ‘EM:
If you don’t want deer in your backyard deter them with these simple solutions. Use a deer repellent. The Rock Pile offers a number of different animal repellents to suit your needs. Quite often homeowners will find better results if they switch up their repellents every once and a while. So if your trusty repellent doesn’t repel as well as it used to, switch it up. Deer getting into your bird feeders? Try Feed with Hot Pepper Flavor or add Flaming Squirrel Sauce to your feed. Mammals cannot tolerate the taste of hot pepper but birds can, so you birds will still enjoy their feed while deer and other mammals will go searching for a drink of water! So can also place Deer Netting up to prevent deer from entering your yard or going near certain vegetation. Have a great deer prevention solution? Let us know what it is!

Plantskydd RTU quart = $22.99
Plantskydd Concentrate = $24.99
Liquid Fence Granular 2 lb = $16.99
Liquid Fence Granular 5 lb = $27.99
Shake Away for Deer = $18.99
Deer Off = $21.99
All Season Deer Repellent = $24.99
All Out Deer & Rabbit Repellent = $18.99
Deer Netting = $24.99 – 36.99 (vary in size)

With an ever-growing to-do list, the Effort-Less Birdfeeder makes one task simple and painless. Built to withstand every type of weather, the Effort-Less is a unique birdfeeding system designed to last. “The Effort-Less Birdfeeder features a free-standing base, allowing it to be placed virtually anywhere – on patios or decks, in gardens or grass. When filled with 30 pounds of dry sand, the base is designed to keep the feeder stable and straight in all kinds of weather.” Good news for our Ohio winters!

Did you catch the phrase “free-standing base”? That means you can plant this baby right on your deck! That opens up a whole realm of possibilities. Does Grandma have a lovely patio right outside her breakfast window? I bet she’d love this bird feeder.

The Effort-Less Birdfeeder makes a wonderful gift for any bird enthusiast, from the beginner to the pro!

White-throated Sparrows are brown and gray with a striking head pattern. The black-and-white-striped head is accented by a bright white throat and yellow between the eye and the bill. White-throated Sparrows stay near the ground, scratching through leaves in search of food, often in flocks. White-throated Sparrows sing their distinctive songs frequently, even in winter. Look for White-throated Sparrows in woods, at forest edges, at pond edges, and near treelines. In winter you can find these birds in thickets, overgrown fields, parks, and woodsy suburbs. They readily come to backyards for birdseed. Since they are ground feeding birds, try putting out a platform or tray feeder that rests on the ground. Or you can simply clear an area off your patio and place the feed directly on the ground!

INTERESTING FACT: Although they look nothing alike and aren’t particularly closely related, the White-throated Sparrow and the Dark-eyed Junco occasionally mate and produce hybrids. The resulting offspring look like grayish, dully marked White-throated Sparrows with white outer tail feathers.

Click below to hear the White-throated Sparrow.

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What a treat to find the Cedar Waxwing in your backyard!  This bird is a silky, shiny collection of brown, gray, and lemon-yellow, accented with a subdued crest, and brilliant-red wax droplets on the wing feathers. And how appropriate for this Halloween month, the Cedar Waxwing sports a bandit-like black mask!  In fall these birds gather by the hundreds to eat berries, filling the air with their high, thin, whistles. Look for Cedar Waxwings in woodlands of all kinds, and at farms, orchards, and suburban gardens where there are fruiting trees or shrubs.  The Cedar Waxwing is one of the few North American birds that specializes in eating fruit. It can survive on fruit alone for several months.  Many birds that eat a lot of fruit separate out the seeds and regurgitate them, but the Cedar Waxwing lets them pass right through.

So try attacking these beautiful year-round Ohio birds to your backyard.  Plant a berry bush or set out a fruit feeder at your feeding station.

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If you are out on a nature hike or enjoying some quiet inlet of Lake Erie you may catch a glimpse of the Great Blue Heron. One of the most common herons, it often barks like a dog when startled. Seen stalking small fish in shallow water, it will also strike at mice, squirrels and just about anything else it might come across.

Found along calm freshwater and seacoasts. Usually nests in trees near water, but colonies can be found away from water. The nest is usually a large platform of sticks, lined with pine needles, moss, reeds, dry grass, or twigs, placed high in trees, occasionally on ground.

You can see this bird flying holding his neck in an “S” shape with its long legs trailing straight out behind him. This month, see if you can catch the Great Blue Heron in action!

Click on the play button below to hear the Great Blue Heron.

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If you’re convinced you’ll never be able to learn bird calls, start with the Gray Catbird. Once you’ve heard its catty mew you won’t forget it. Follow the sound into thickets and vine tangles and you’ll be rewarded by a somber gray bird with a black cap and bright rusty feathers under the tail. The Gray Catbird belongs to the genus , which means “small thicket.” And that’s exactly where you should go look for this little skulker. In summer, Gray Catbirds eat mainly ants, beetles, grasshoppers, midges, caterpillars, and moths. When fruits are available they also eat holly berries, cherries, elderberries, poison ivy, green-brier, bay, and blackberries.

Click here to go to the Cornell Lab of Ornithology to hear the Catbird’s call