Outwitting a flock of Starlings

The snow storm swirled around Dogcorner for most of the day yesterday depositing really wet, as we call it 'heart attack' snow. As the wind blew and the snow fell, we had an invasion of Starlings. They were hungry, cold, aggressive and never willing to share. All of the smaller birds, and even the Blue Jays and Mourning Doves were driven from the feeders. But, most upsetting to me was the eviction of our newly settled in Bluebirds. The other birds are happy with the variety of the food we offer, but the Bluebirds only eat the dried mealworms. Those little dried worms were the first things gobbled up by the Starlings. Time after time I filled their feeder and it was emptied in moments by the beautiful, but overbearing Starlings.

So today I woke up with a determination to outwit them. We took a masked trip to our quiet little Wildbirds Unlimited shop and bought a large wire cage to place around the Bluebird feeder. With some minor modifications I installed it this afternoon. I began watching with my 300mm from the doorstep.

You can see the Starlings watching, high in a tree in my collage, and many attempts by the Bluebirds to find a way through the cage to the mealworms. A stray visiting Pine Warbler was successful, they noted her happily eating mealworms, believe me. 

I got a wire cutter, went out and snipped two wires, making two openings larger and sure enough, a male Bluebird flew in almost immediately. He filled his little bird tummy as others watched, including a Starling. Success! Hopefully more Bluebirds will find a way in tomorrow and enjoy their favorite food once more, uninterrupted.

The Starlings and Bluebirds were both happy with the new cylinder of suet, nuts and mealworms. All in all, excellent purchases.

For the Record, 
This day came in very cold with about 10 inches of extremely heavy snow. We're all plowed and dug out and our power stayed on.

All hands wary.