They're starting to return

[downylover]

Ugh. Yesterday about a dozen grackles appeared. Now they'll be coming by in small groups then the groups get larger and larger until the masses of them pass through. Then I'll have a bunch here every single day until November eating all the food. <---- Me, when I saw them.

[hazelrunmama]

LOL The annual Grackle Panic!   Around here, it's a winter Siskin Panic!  
 

Do cage feeders work, or are the openings big enough to allow grackles to hog those feeders, too? How about tube feeders with short perches?

[downylover]

I tried a cage feeder to see if the others would go in and the cardinals would not. They also don't seem to care for the tubes with the short perches. I am not willing to give up my cardinals. I had one downy fly down right at a grackle who was hanging off the log feeder. I need her to come back, she scared one off her feeder.

Last summer was one of the more tolerable, less of them than usual. I'm hoping that once the masses pass through it will be like that again.

Upside: the catbirds aren't too far behind the grackles in returning and I love them.

[BarbK]

I always had a problem with Grackles during spring and summer. This year was entirely different. For some reason they hardly came around at all. However, they were replaced by House Sparrows, which I've rarely seen in the past. And they aren't here in droves like the Grackles used to be.

Cage feeder didn't work, either.

I love the Catbirds, too. They're so friendly and get so close

[downylover]

Yesterday afternoon I barely had any birds because this was sitting in the tree picking at its feathers for an hour.
Dumb & Dumber did fly down to the pole. I had to walk right near them to shoo them back to the trees so they wouldn't become lunch.

[hazelrunmama]

I think we must've had a hawk and/or a shrike around today--our feeders were pretty slow! And it wasn't just the birds--the squirrels were nervous, too! You're so lucky to see your hawk, downylover! I'd love to see what's spooking our birds...

Dumb and Dumber!  LOL  You crack me up!