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When I did my observations of birds that lived here in Vancouver during the winter season (February 2003), it was pretty difficult at first. The difficulty was that the birds would come very early in the morning, earlier than when I would get up normally, which would be at around 7:45 am on weekdays, and at around 9:30 am on weekends. The reason that I know birds have been to my bird house is because, I can see EVIDENCE of their coming.
I can see that there are holes on the smooth surface of seeds, not exactly holes but gaps where there should've been seeds. Those gaps I know weren't caused by wind because the gaps were all over the place. Also another piece of evidence that I did find was the shell of the seeds all over the place. For example, there would be seeds on all four sides of the feeder. I'd put the feeder on top of a large board of wood. The biggest clue that prompted me to realize that there'd been birds are the droppings. All around the seeds I'd find droppings that might've been the birds and might not have. I did suspect that they weren't the bird dropping but squirrel, or rats droppings. I suspected that they weren't bird droppings because they were little pellets not the thick globs of liquid that you see on car windows. Those I know after a little research that they couldn't be bird droppings, because the birds that we have in Vancouver mainly have the 'wet' kind of 'waste' that is exerted every so often. So I concluded that the kinds of droppings were of rats. Wow, then the rats sure can jump, because they probably can't climb on plastic.
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The way I found out finally that birds had been present, was because of the droppings that appeared to be the thick globs of liquid, that are the wastes of a bird. Those globs of 'waste' were on the roof of my bird house, so now I needed to clean it all off. YUCK. Now not only did I have to clean out all the rat droppings, I had to clean off all the bird disposals too. Well that was fun, I thought I was finished with the cleaning. But no I wasn't, not only were there lots of the droppings, they appeared EVERYDAY! UH OH.
Well I started to observe the birds coming whenever I could, which was mainly in the morning. Not only did I have to get up every weekend to observe my birds, I had to clean up EVERYTHING they left behind.
When I got up bright and early to observe the birds that came to my feeder,that had been pearched upon a recycling bin, there weren't as many different types as I'd thought. Mainly there were crows, and chickadees. At least I think they were chickadees, I wasn't sure enough, whenever I went to check, they always flew away. Also I was surprised to see a squirrel eat alongside some of the birds, without fighting. It was like they had made a truce or something. I know that what I'm saying here sounds like hogus bogus, but it's true. While I was watching the birds, some interesting things happened. For example, the squirrel seemed to eat on one side and the birds on another. Since my feeder had four sides, the squirrel ate on the side that were longer and the birds ate on the sides that were shorter. In case you haven't figured out by now, my feeder is rectangular in shape.
I only saw a rat come once. And when the rat came, everything 'ran away'. Literally, the birds and squirrel all flew and scurried away. I don't know if that happens all the time, or just this time. This rat was HUGE, it was at least a foot and a quarter in length, including the tail. Even if the measurement, included the tail, the rat would still be HUMONGOUS. As I watched in shock, the rat ate for about a minute, then left. It scurried out into my garden and disappeared. When I went out to check how the rat left, I saw a semicircle where my fence was supposed to touch the ground the size of my palm. I quickly covered the gap with dirt and put a rock on top.
After a couple days of observations, I concluded that all the birds that the only birds that came were crows and chickadees. From what I remember, only a certain number of birds live in Vancouver during the winter season. Only two of that certain number came to my birdfeeder. I think it depends on where you live to have different kinds of birds come to eat at your birdfeeder. If you live close to the False Creek area you will see pigeons and sea gulls. I think one of the reasons that I only got two types of birds is because, the area which I live in doesn't contain a lot of trees, just a lot of houses. Yes there are trees everywhere, but not enough to have many bird nests around.
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