The birds keep her hopping, even in retirement

Published 12:09 pm Friday, December 4, 2015

Phyllis Cooper has 10 Christmas balls hanging from one of her windows, hardly a surprise in December. The neighbors might notice that they’ll still be there in April.

The Everett resident put them up in self-defense, or at least in defense for a downy woodpecker who has, wasted considerable energy flapping its wings and pecking at an interloper in the window — its own reflection.

So Cooper hung 10 Christmas balls from suction cups on the inside of the window. For now, her solution is working.

“I was getting really concerned that he would hurt himself,” she said.

Birds provide Cooper with all-day entertainment during her retirement. Among her yard’s attractions are six suet feeders. She’s used various suet blocks with berries, nuts or sunflower seeds in them.

Recently she noticed a suet block with hot pepper sold at Fred Meyer.

“I said, ‘That’s odd’ and bought it. I put it up and they fight over it. I put two or three out and the rest are regular ones but the hot pepper ones are the first to go,” she said.

She also buys two 35-pound bags of peanuts to distribute to crows, blue jays and squirrels.

“The crows start cawing at me even when I’m going out with the garbage,” she said. “They’re lined up on the roof waiting for me.”

Cooper has five bird baths that iced over during recent freezing nights. She chipped the ice off.

Cooper is retired but certainly not sedentary. It takes time every day to make all the rounds, distributing seed, peanuts and suet.

The entertainment is worth it.

Faking out hummingbirds: An Everett man has three trees in front of his balcony and live and artificial plants on the balcony.

“I’ve never seen hummingbirds here before but now four or five come regularly. They’re trying to feed off the fake plants,” Gary said.

Hummingbirds are attracted to color, thus the interest in his artificial plants.

Next spring, if you’d like to see hummingbirds, your best chance is to buy plants with long, tubular flowers. A local nursery is a good source of information.

Vinegar, or not? In the column on cleaning feeders, I included one source’s recommendation to go the extra mile by emptying the dirty bleached water and refilling the bucket, adding four cups of vinegar, and soaking the feeder for one hour.

Rick Pfeifer emailed to ask when going the “extra mile,” do you fill it with water no matter how large the bucket is and add four cups vinegar?

Rick, I was not able to find a specific number of gallons to use because feeders are different sizes. Some birders use a five-gallon bucket because that is the best fit for their larger feeders. And that’s what I’d use.

But if you have smaller buckets, it will take an executive decision on how much vinegar to use. You’re not going to kill the birds or make them sick because the bird feeders will be totally dry when they’re returned to the hook.

There’s no way to determine how effective the “extra mile” is without a research grant. If the feeder was simply filthy, vinegar might indeed be worth it.

Or not.

The cleaning instructions also go for suet feeders.

Columnist Sharon Wootton can be reached at 360-468-3964 or www.songandword.com.