Rain, Wind, Roses, and Bird Feeders

Its been rainy at the Rose Garden,  not much going on.  Normally, most of my Birding involves watching the Baltimore Orioles play ball on TV after work, but they were off today, so I got some things done out in the Rose Garden.

First I went and bought some bird seed.  I saw new brand at Kmart that I wanted to try.  The Stokes look nice and seem to know what they are doing and the prices in the store weren't bad.  You can find a retailer on there site: Stokes Select.

Yesterday, my camera was destroyed by rain.  I wanted to take some pictures of roses that are beginning to bloom so I got my old camera.  The camera is an Aiptek DZO-V50 that I bought on clearance years ago.  It has worked out well for videos and most pictures,  Can't say that these Rose pictures are the best, but better than nothing.

Mostly blurred Roses - I need a new Camera!

The bird feeders are pictured below,  The 2 twin green feeders are filled with mixed wild bird seed and the yellow tube feeder is for finches filled with thistle.  I also read that the coil around the tube feeder can be pulled out by smart squirrels, so I placed that aluminium tray over it to work as a baffler. I have been using it for almost 2 years and it seems to work.  Squirrels have stayed away from the feeders, but sometimes will work there way down to the suet cakes.  You can see the aluminium tray I added in the last picture below.  The 2 big green feeders are great because they hold a lot of seed and sometimes last a month before more seed needs to be added.

My twin bird towers - I have been offered $10 bucks for 1 of them .  I think they are only $10-$15 brand new.

See the aluminium tray on the Finch feeder. I hear a smart squirrel will pull out the coil and spill all of the seed. 

The next 2 feeders below are the birds favorite.  They just allow too much of the seed to flow out at a time.  Birds go for the red feeder first and then the green feeder.  I call it the Green Lantern.

The Green Lantern

I observed the following birds today at the rose garden:

Around 10 House Sparrow
4 Robins
4 Cardinals
1 Downy Woodpecker - Male

I did video some of the woodpecker.  You get to here me act like a jerk when disturbed.  Don't worry I called her right back and made nice.