"Little Birdie, Why Do You Fly Upside Down?"

I received a bird feeder last Christmas. It's a ten-inch tall, four-inch circumference standard model from Wild Birds Unlimited. I installed it on a ledge above my patio without expectation.
I filled it with "Christmas Blend", a chunky, high end seed that went on sale December 26.

It took until Valentine's Day, but I figured out that the birds were rejecting my feeder because "Christmas Blend," the whole peanut-y, whole cranberry-y, whole sunflower-y mix was too dense to flow freely out of my feeder and into the mouths of passing birds. My rejection was scientific, not personal - THANK GOD!

I promptly switched to smaller seed. I filled up with "Wild Mix," purchased from the hardware store and immediately saw some visitors, sometimes four cardinals in one day! I moved on to "Dove Blend" from the pet store, then plain old "Seed" from a discount store. The East Texas flight path started embracing my feeder! (And me!)

Like a divorced parent, I indulged my "children" by filling and refilling the ten-inch cyliner four and five times a week. Often, the feeder was full in the morning when I left for work, and empty by the time I came home for lunch at 1pm. The birds were obese, and I was the overpermissive parent.

Tough love was in order; I started filling only on Sundays. No angry words, no confrontation - just a maternal notion of what was best.

I still think my birds are too fat; how do they get off the ground and sustain flight? Not my problem.

I'm a feeder and a watcher.