Peanut Butter and Downies

We recently were introduced to another use for peanut butter. A neighbor had been successful in attracting a wider variety of birds to his feeders by placing a peanut butter feeder alongside of his seed feeder. Especially woodpeckers love peanut butter, perhaps even more than they love suet cakes. Moreover, our favorite bird, the eastern bluebird, also like the woodpecker mostly a meat eater, enjoys the peanut butter.

Enticed by the chance of attracting bluebirds to our feeders, we asked Bruce to make a peanut butter feeder for our deck. For some weeks nothing happened. Then one downy woodpecker found it and sampled the peanut butter. Within days some five testy downies were contesting for a place at table. This morning, a hairy woodpecker, almost twice the size of a downy, took over shortly after M refreshed the feeder. This wary downy awaited his turn and snacked while keeping a sharp lookout for hawks.

No bluebirds at the feeder yet, although they are about to set up housekeeping in one of our bluebird boxes.