Setting Up a Bird Feeding Station

I have already mentioned a few times in the past couple of months about our study of birds this year for science. I created a year long study of ornithology on somewhat of a high school level. Some of our lab or hands on experience will come from charting what birds are attracted to what seed as well as some bird watching and logging time. Today we set up are birding area. Luckily we live in a very wooded area. With all the tree cover we gets lots of birds and once the leaves fall will be able to see a lot more of them that are currently hiding in the trees. Birds we typically see at our feeders are blue jays, cardinals, nuthatches, black capped chickadees, crows, hawks, sparrows, woodpeckers, and finches. We went ahead and put out some thistle but I am pretty sure all the finches have hit the road for warmer pastures. I haven't seen one of my golden finches in a few weeks. Although we don't see those down here anyway, those are seen on the open road in the fields when I am walking. Also on walks we can see blue herons, blue birds, buntings, and barn swallows. So far the squirrels have already found the feeders. I was hoping the squirrels would be satisfied with the corn on the ground in the back yard for the chickens. That seems to be where they all hang out. We will keep everyone posted on what we actually get to attract and see. It will probably take anywhere from a few days to a couple of week for the birds to figure out it is there.