Wow, it worked! Inspired by Carrie, Diane, Manon, Scott and others, I put a mixture of regular peanut butter and peanut butter suet cake into the bark crevices in the tree trunk outside our window. I had seen brown creepers hunting on that tree trunk many times this winter, so I was hopeful. Trouble was, that someone, I think raccoons, licked most of it off at night. There was enough left deep in the crevices however to feed the downy woodpeckers, red-bellied woodpeckers, Carolina chickadees, titmice, white-breasted nuthatches and red-breasted nuthatches that I have seen working on it. Yesterday though, and again today, a brown creeper showed up to eat some of what was left! Hooray! I have never even seen one open its beak before. Neither do they usually stay still very long when you do get the rare chance to see one. It was great to watch one feeding so close and so still. No sapsuckers yet, though. (Haven't even seen one for many weeks, though I get nearby reports.) 

I've been thinking about how to continue this without feeding the raccoons so much. It is a bit labor intensive. I've done it twice now. I have to get up on a ladder to reach high enough for us to see that section of the trunk from the window, so I don't want to do it often.  I sure will be doing it again though now! When the nights are real cold, the raccoons don't seem to come out around here much, so maybe I have a respite until I can figure something else out. Of course, it would be great if the creeper figures out what those nearby suet feeders are for now. 

Thanks,

Bruce Lombardo
Rocky Fork Gorge
Highland County, between Hillsboro and Chillicothe

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