Ground Feeding

First, I would like to look back at last weeks column about decrease in birds at feeders; I noticed last Wednesday, during the storm the birds arrived in good (not great) numbers. The following morning the feeders were quite active until later in the day when the snow blew off the trees and I assume the birds, especially finch species, returned to the natural seeds. Many of you stopped by the Market to tell me a similar scenario played out in their yards as well.

I mention ground feed in passing in quite a few columns, often as a byproduct of feeding mixed seed, in most cases ground feeding is coming across as a bad thing because of the unwanted birds and rodents it attracts. Also, when you rely on the birds on the feeders to spread your ground feed, you loose control of how much gets spread.

The problem with the mixes, they often contain ingredients that are eaten by nothing but Pigeons and rats. (I have a dilemma here, if I don’t draw a comparison between Pigeons and rats, the birding “purists” and the rednecks will be contacting me to ask me “What’s the difference?” or “Pigeons are just rats with wings” or, my favourite, “We call Pigeons, Sky-Rats ‘round here”. If I do draw a comparison the Pigeon lovers, and you guys are much more vocal, will be contacting me to ask me “Why do you hate Pigeons?” or “I love all birds” and “Pigeons have to eat too”. So in the interest of time I’m not going to mention any similarities.)

The usual ratio of sunflower to ground feed, in New Brunswick anyway, is about 10:1 to 5:1, that is for every 50 pounds of sunflower you’ll likely have about 5 or 10 pounds of millet eaten. Since millet is a cheaper ingredient, it’s usually the major part of cheap mixed seed and it tends to accumulate under the feeders. I speak to a lot of people who don’t even think birds will eat millet, but it’s more that the birds that do eat it, don’t eat from tube feeders as readily as say a Chickadee or Goldfinch.

The best thing about millet is that it’s very water proof, sometimes when the Junco and Sparrow are in high numbers, I will throw a couple scoops of millet on top of the snow. This works best if the snow is crusty, but you can stomp down an area or feed some on the edge of the driveway as well (avoid the sidewalk as it will stick to your boots). If it gets covered with snow, I’ll throw some more out. This works great since in the spring when the Sparrows and Junco return in large numbers the millet will continuously emerge as the snow melts. The tough waxy coating on the seed protects it and the seed is perfectly safe. Sometimes in spring, the Junco and Sparrow number a few hundred in our yard, it can get so loud outside, I don’t hear the trill of my cordless phone over the song. About the only thing that does happen to ruin millet is the sprouting. When I first started feeding, I used plywood platform to offer millet, if it was warm and the seed stayed wet long enough I would remove a “mat” of sprouted and tangled seed. Now I use well drained platforms and don’t offer too much at once when it’s warm. If some does grow, I try to mow around as many of the plants as I can, the birds really go for the fresh millet on the stem.

Here’s a few more tips on feeding millet that I haven’t seen in any books:

One day, while spreading a scoop of millet, my aim was off and I discovered that millet will stick in the needles of the really thick spruce trees. I noticed the resident sparrows were going crazy in the tree, it took a while for me to remember the misplaced throw and figure out what they were doing in the spruce in such large numbers. Now I do this all the time, especially when the branches are wet or have sticky snow.

For years I have been feeding millet under our deck, the deck has lattice around it so it’s automatically a small bird only, covered platform feeder. We have a small window in the basement that looks out under the deck so you are often at eye level just a couple feet away from the sparrows, and some of these guys (and girls) are beautiful. If you don’t have a viewing opportunity under your deck, you’ll still get to see them as they come and go or perch in the sun for a while. Not to exclude the larger Mourning Dove I also feed millet under the shop deck (no lattice), the only down side is when you step out onto the deck the sound of 30 or so Dove taking off still startles me.

Since my van seldom moves all week there is usually a bare patch under it all winter. Most of the birds scratch around there for grit anyway, so I sprinkle a bit of millet, yet another covered platform.

A warning though, at first I used to feed all seeds under the deck and our vehicles, the problem is the sunflower was attracting squirrels, when they started checking out around my basement sills and one started hiding seed in the floor vent intake of my old truck, I quickly stopped the sunflower and the squirrels stay away.

A last word on millet, there are 2 kinds, red and white. White millet is the definite favourite and this is a good thing because it’s cheaper. Red millet will be reluctantly eaten after all the white is gone.

Another popular ground feed is cracked corn, it’s a good seed, it’s even cheaper that millet and it does attract different birds. However corn does not belong in a tube feeder, it’s dusty, (some brands more than others) and since it’s “cracked” all the natural water proofing on the seed is gone. Corn and mixes that contain corn usually end up in a moldy lump in the bottom of feeders. So, corn is best fed sparingly on the ground or in a well drained platform. Most of the ground feeding birds will eat corn, Sparrows going for the smaller pieces, Ducks, Pheasants, Doves and Jays the larger ones. The biggest disadvantage to corn instead of millet is the black birds all like it, you’ll be getting Crows, Starlings, Grackles and others that don’t eat millet. So if you do feed corn, don’t mix it in with the millet, this gives the smaller guys a quiet place to eat.

written by Dwayne Biggar at The Bird Garden