We have, as you can see, a large suet feeder. It's attached to a tree near the house, facing windows through which I can take photos. I've been doing that the past few days to catch the visits of a crow family, adult and juvenile, and two Pileated Woodpeckers, an adult and a juvenile. These birds come to the feeder with or without the kids, as do Downy, Hairy, and Red-bellied woodpeckers. They eat a lot of suet, particularly the crows. It's like crows live on suet.
The young crow here, atop the feeder, begs with a loud, annoying nasal whine. We've entertained on occasion an entire crow family of two adults and three juveniles. They all whine.
The young Pileated makes its hunger known by rapping on the feeder top with its bill.
I buy suet from a meat market west of here that butchers its own cattle. The market sells suet for a dollar per pound. It I had to pay supermarket prices we would not be doing this. The feeder is large simply because I need to fill it less frequently.
Pileateds announce their arrival with a series of the usual call. You know the crows are here when the juveniles begin their whining.
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There was one odd event this morning. We are pestered by Red Squirrels. I saw one climbing on one of the 2x6 posts that hold our deck. It had a mouthful of sticks, twigs really, all about four inches long. What in the world? And then a House Wren took a dive at the squirrel, following it with another attack or two until the mammal disappeared into a bed of hosta. We have nesting boxes that wrens use, but all are built to bluebird specifications, the entry hole, I think, too small for squirrels. Maybe not. Now we need to watch the boxes to see what might happen next. And what was the squirrel going to do with the sticks?
The young Pileated Woodpecker is atop the feeder, waiting to be fed. Dirtto the crow.
