Must be frustrating.

[MN Shutterbug]

It's a battle of the wits between me and the grackles. They don't give up and neither do I. I put 1" X 2" welded wire around the one feeder and it definitely keeps them out and I have seen a couple small birds in there. They'd sure love to be able to get to the seed. I hack sawed the perches off the tube feeder. Some can still hang on for a second or two but they're lucky to get one seed for their trouble. I don't understand why they don't go to other feeders in town that would be easier to get into. Stupid birds.

[Paul]

Love It. Looks like a cool idea. I may steal it from you.

[MN Shutterbug]

Go ahead Paul. I haven't had time to patent it.

It was fun watching a chipping sparrow in there enjoying a meal without getting bothered by grackles.

[Hawg]

Pellet guns are a great deterant.

[MN Shutterbug]

Pellet guns are a great deterant.

Just like flies, kill 1 and 5 come to the funeral.

[eyeguy 54]

easy pickins when they stare at one laying upside down on the ground.

[half-dutch]

My mother beat the grackles by switching feeds. She got something the really works from Wild Bird Connection in Sioux Falls. IIRC it is heavy on the safflower seed. The grackles just don't come around anymore, but all kinds of other birds from wrens to bluejays and crows (also rabbits, squirrels, deer and an occasional falcon and goldfinches all year around) come around all summer. She has tons of goldfinches and they get their own feeder area full of thistle seed. Don't forget the jam and the oranges either, orioles are just around the corner. Changing the feed was like throwing a light switch. The grackles just went away and didn't come back.

[MN Shutterbug]

Thanks for the tip half, but that wouldn't totally work here. Even yards that don't have bird feeders are full of Grackles. Even with no food out that they eat, they still show up to pick thru the grass. I think they like this area due to all the evergreens in the neighbor's yards. They seem to prefer them for nesting sites.

[eyeguy 54]

they will move on in a month.

[MN Shutterbug]

One month? I'd be happy if they'd leave in 2 months. It's usually mid July before they've cleared out of this area.

[eyeguy 54]

you need a better pellet gun.

[leech~~]

Poor little Grackles! Now there is even Racism at the bird feeders!

I have a dream today!

I have a dream that one day right here in Minnesota that little black birds and white birds will be able to join claws with little yellow birds and red birds as sisters and brothers at the feeder of Shutterbug.

I have a dream today!

[eyeguy 54]

what about the squirrels?

[leech~~]

what about the squirrels?

Which color?

[MN Shutterbug]

Poor little Grackles! Now there is even Racism at the bird feeders!

I have a dream today!

I have a dream that one day right here in Minnesota that little black birds and white birds will be able to join claws with little yellow birds and red birds as sisters and brothers at the feeder of Shutterbug.

I have a dream today!

Glad I could give you something to do today.

[leech~~]

Glad I could give you something to do today.

Thanks, as I couldn't go outside and play today in the rain!

[half-dutch]

Mom's yard had been edged by a set of fully developed, all the way to the ground spruces, also on a neighbor's property. Trimming them up a ways from the bottom may have helped, but it wasn't until she changed the seed that the grackles finally went away and pretty much have stayed away now for quite a few years. Clearing out the grackles opened her feeders up for a big increase in the types of birds she gets. Her biggest freeloaders these days are deer.

[MN Shutterbug]

Once I got a grackle proof feeder and put out only safflower seed in my platform feeder along with thistle seed in my sock feeders, I don't get the numbers of grackles anymore. A few still show up daily with their hopes up.