Data Demonstrate Power of Suet

My suet baskets are the workhorse of our feeder station. I’ve just concluded an analysis of BirdCam logbook data for the period of January 2008 through February 2009, a period when 30% of all of my BirdCam pictures were taken at the suet feeders – some 9,766 photographs in all! The data told me an interesting story.

Overall: Over half of the photos were taken in the period of February through May 2008. In May alone I took over a fifth of all my photos! On average I took 106 photos at a suet basket per day (on 92 different days). The monthly average was highest in May (435) and lowest in October (10). Species-wise, I did best in April (19 different species) and worst in September (only 2). And in the fourteen months I recorded 21 species at the suet baskets.

Visitors: The top visitors were Red Bellied Woodpeckers (the only species recorded at least once every month) with 59 days, Carolina Wrens (45), Downy Woodpeckers (44), Eastern Bluebirds (37), and American Robins (34). The summer months are predictably duller, but in June through September I did record 17 different species at suet, led by the RBWs, Wrens, Downys, but also Catbirds.

All this argues for keeping the suet up during the summer even if in that time I essentially lose the Bluebirds, Pine Warblers, and Nuthatches. An amazingly effective attractant! And well deserving of attention by my BirdCam.