Wrong Direction on Suet

In past years, consumption of suet dropped off pretty rapidly in July, once all of the fledglings got established. But in 2011, something different seems to be going on. And what that is seems to be an intensification of consumption in the high part of summer. I put out more suet in the week ending 7/29 than in any previous week of the year---as much as the first nine weeks of the year! And our count for the year is a hefty 89 cakes. For you number crunchers, that's one every 2.4 days. Much of the springtime and early summer use is a function of frantic feeding of young and was expected. But...we have been seeing an awful lot of visitation by Common Grackles and Gray Catbirds, and to drive home that point my numbers exploded at the very time the Catbirds showed up (~April 21.) I'd freeze out suet for these pesky marauders except that the bluebirds are still in a position where the extra protein helps. But I'm thinking it may be time to start cutting down dramatically until we're into fall. (BTW the data at right are in ounces, in case you're curious. Figure 12oz per cake...)