David Stiltner wrote "Hello I am relatively new to bird watching. After reading some of your posts I definitely feel amateurish.I live in withiamsville Ohio and have a feeding station in my wooded back yard and have counted at least 12 different species of birds. Including 3 blue jays which I have been unable to get them to do little more than a fly by. Grape jelly not working gonna try mealworms next. Any suggestions? Additionally, I have two pleated wood peckers both over twelve inches, sound like machine guns when feeding, that I would like to keep interested. Again any suggestions? Last and equally important European Starlings are running off smaller species of wood peckers that I enjoy watching including a red belled male that is a good 9 plus inches" David, Welcome to the list. Please do not feel Amateurish - we all must start somewhere! And believe me, there are more like you and ME than those "pros"! You are lucky to have a "wooded lot"! I live in the corner of what used to be a field, so there is little cover for the birds. I always say the birds that come to our feeders are Country Birds! They are not sophisticated enough to know or want some of the "special" feed others say works. I recently purchased Millet and Safflower seeds but my Country Birds don't know what to do with it except to spill it all over the ground! Twelve species is GREAT! Our Blue Jays like sunflower seeds. To keep the starlings from our suet, we modify a wire suet feeder by placing a second wire (fashioned from a wire coat hanger) so the feeder hands horizontally - not vertically. We also leave the suet in the plastic having only the tear-off cover side open. All the birds BUT the starlings know how to hang upside down to get at the suet. Sparrows don't bother it either! Enjoy watching your birds and continue to post. We all enjoy reading one another's notes. Jill Bowers Auglaize County ______________________________________________________________________ Ohio-birds mailing list, a service of the Ohio Ornithological Society. Our thanks to Miami University for hosting this mailing list. Additional discussions can be found in our forums, at www.ohiobirds.org/forum/. You can join or leave the list, or change your options, at: http://listserv.muohio.edu/scripts/wa.exe?LIST=OHIO-BIRDS Send questions or comments about the list to: [log in to unmask]