[Tweeters] buying bird seed

[Gary Bletsch]

Dear Tweeters,
When I lived in Skagit County, I bought most of my bird seed at Fred Meyer. They'd have huge bags of black-oil sunflower at a price usually a bit lower than other stores. At times, they'd have it on sale for even less.
I must admit, the last time I shopped at my local Fred Meyer in Burlington, the service was so abysmally shoddy that I vowed never to go back. That was not too hard, since I knew that I was moving to NY State in a few weeks, anyway.
Sometimes I would splurge and get seed at Skagit Wild Bird Supply on Memorial Highway, just west of Mount Vernon. They had a mix called something like "Skagit Blend." It was good stuff, but often rather expensive. I could usually rationalize spending that extra bit, because they there was a good chance they would have a few interesting birds at their feeders, including American Goldfinches, which can be hard to find in wintertime in Skagit County.
The bird seed at Costco in Burlington seemed to vary. I had bought some there about 20 years ago, and it was very poor quality--not just white millet, but a lot of the useless red millet. A couple of years ago, I got some there on a whim, and it was much improved. There was either no red millet, or just a trace. I had chickens, so I didn't mind having a little seed that the wild birds didn't like. The chickens would take care of any leftovers. 
White millet is fine by me--juncos like it. It's not as good as black-oil sunflower, but I think it's a good bird seed for some species.
I had so many Red-winged Blackbirds at my feeders that it didn't really matter what sort of seed I got. They'd even eat the nyjer seed when I'd splurge on that. Quantity was more important than quality.
Another good spot for bird seed was Skagit Farm Supply. I would often buy seed at their Sedro-Woolley store, and sometimes at the Burlington one. They'd have suet on sale sometimes for a good price. 
Now I'm here in Chautauqua County, New York, and I buy virtually all of my seed at the Audubon Community Nature Center. Their Conewango Blend is quite good--not that you could get it anywhere near Washington State!
Happy New Year.
Yours truly,
Gary  Bletsch

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://mailman11.u.washington.edu/pipermail/tweeters/attachments/20230102/a8bd52c0/attachment.html>