😅 😅 😅 the beautiful Baltimore Oriole are here.......I quit feeding them, when we'd put out the grape

[a kennedy]

jelly, we’d get the orioles, BUT WE GET THE ROBINS AS WELL. 😳 Robins eating grape jelly you say??? Oh yah, our Robins would line up their babies and give them grape jelly for their dessert. It was then I decided to not feed the orioles anymore. So now, they’re trying to feed on our hummingbird feeders. They finally do realize they don’t have the skinny curved beaks that fit into the hummingbird feeders.

[Donkees]

1. Catbirds like fruit too ... they seem to especially enjoy chopped canned peaches :)

[Marthe48]

2. I put oranges, apples, berries and grapes out

Sometimes, I can get a discount bag of oranges, or some of the other fruit. I share with the birds. If I can get peaches, I'll give some to the birds, too.

There's a strawberry farm right next to my neighborhood. Got to pick Friday for the first time this year. I figure the birds might pick too

[Donkees]

3. The birds are usually first in line when my strawberry plants ripen ...

I plan to cover them this year

[Marthe48]

4. I saw netting on the berries at the farm.

They have a fine mesh over the blueberry plants, and pull them away the day the row is open for human picking.

I have to come up with a way to be sure most of the fruit goes to the birds. There is a groudhog living in my yard that eats everything! And there are stray or wandering cats now, so I have to work around them, too.

[Donkees]

5. Cayenne pepper stopped rabbits from chewing-up ornamental plants here ...

maybe cayenne sprinkled on rags and stuffed in the den entrances would help evict the groundhog. Ammonia on rags worked too. Wire mesh fencing always kept the groundhog out of the vegetable garden, but it seems he's disappeared this year.

[Marthe48]

6. I dumped dry Epsom Salts down the hole it was digging

right by the house foundation. It left that, and didn't come back to it. I see it pop out from under my shed, and also from under the neighbor's shed. Except for the bird food, I don't care that it's in the yard. There were 4 in the yard last year, probably a litter. Only one right now. People moved in one over in the back. They have 3 yappy little dogs, so maybe the groundhog will leave.

Thanks for the tips. My friend put ammonia rags under her porch last year, and the groundhog moved on.