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 I started feeding the birds for my husbands benefit.

 He is a professional artist, and wanted to get up close and personal with the birds.  He also has high blood pressure (and multiple health problems), and was told to find ways to relax more.

 He built the first feeder for me, hung it on a tree, and the next thing I knew we not only had a nice flock of birds, but squirrels, raccoons, groundhogs, possum, and assorted other critters.

 And you know what? Bird feeders are just like the proverbial pair of coathangers in a dark, empty closet: they multiply. I now have a total of 6 seed feeders, 2 hummingbird feeders, 1 oriel feeder, and 3 suet baskets.

 Oh. And the relaxation thingie? Hubby is now on only half the blood pressure medicine he was on.

 So what's YOUR story?

Dove  very good, Quail even better but pheasant, ummmm, nothing like pheasant. Under glass over glass but on the BBQ spit the best.

ODIN says ...

Dove hunting is pretty relaxing, and if cooked right and with enough beer, quite a treat.

Shotgun shells tend to multipy from season to season, I always have more than expected when I open my closet.

Corn and Baiting....productive feeding, and good for the grill too....

Oh. And BTW.................. for those of you who hunt:

 Thank you. You are providing a valuable service when you hunt. You are part of badly needed population control for some species.  I could never hunt (unless hungry enough), but I take my hat off to those of you who do.

The trick to hunting (I hear) is to act like you're not hunting.

If you act like you're hunting, the critters know it. (Since they're smarter than we are)  

If you don't act like you're hunting, they'll come out of the woodwork, and then BAM! you got 'em! 

(If this tip really DOES work, I get an invite to the cook out!  )

Not familiar with what you get up there. Do you get any woodpeckers? If so which ones? What birds have you had at your feeders?  What critters besides bear?Any Pics?

You can get some great bird identification books at the used book stores, and thhere are sites online for the same thing. I know they helped me a bunch!

 For the swallows, try a swallow house or two, and find out what all they'll eat.

(For the mosquitos, you can also try putting up a bat house.)

You need a reason to feed the birds?  hehe... because they're there.  And we've been in drought for so long there's not a lot of seed in the fall, so we feed heavy in the cold months.  We don't usually feed during the summer, except for the humming birds.

We don't have squirrels and the raccoons are only occasional visitors.  (They know how to get the top off of the feeder.)  There are a couple of cats that come through from time-to-time, but our dog pretty well keeps them run off.

We have several wide work-type benches on the front porch were we feed.   We have 1 "5-pound" feeder and one humming bird feeder on the benches.  We also keep water there too.  We put seed out in various containers and just on the benches as well as in the feeder and sometimes we'll put a big stash on the porch floor.  And we have a second humming bird feeder in a tree a little ways out in the yard.

I guess it was the winter before last we had a big round flat plastic tray that I'd fill with a layer of thistle seed.  One time I counted 145 gold finches in that one pan at the same time!  We've had well over 150 white wing doves on the porch at one time, too.  (We just now put out a bird trap for the Parks & Wildlife folks to catch white wings for banding purposes.  They'll start trapping and banding a week from Monday.)

Lesseee. We get Cardinals, 3 species of doves, sparrows, titmice, gold finches, house finches, painted buntings, and nasty old cowbirds.  This spring, for the first time, we had grackles....grrr.  and me with no birdshot in the 12 guage.  We've had some meadow larks and quail in the past too.  There are turkeys in the area, but haven't come to the feeders.  When the redbud tree died, the woodpeckers when crazy on it...turned it into a swiss cheeze tree.  We have had several nesting pairs of Great Horned Owls in the area and a pair of road runners one summer.  Ruby throat and Black chin hummers (about 6 pairs) and the occasional cactus wren.

Oh. And on the "nasty old cowbirds"............just for grins and giggles, check out the heads of the males in different light. Goes anywhere from brown, to bronze, to gold, to shades inbetween.  And check out the vocalizations. One of their calls sounds like water running through a downspout. Kind of a unique little watery/liquidy sound. My 20yr old daughter has nicknamed them her "water birds"! Lol!

 Yes, grackles can be a pain, but if you ever stop to really watch them, they can be amusing, too. (The name alone makes me giggle! GrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrACKle! Tee hee hee!)

 And a quick word on European Starlings:

 Check them out with a pair of binoculars during their mating time. Neat little flurescent circles and dots on their feathers. Really kind of cool!