Today was one of the fun days to have my job. The bird store is sponsoring two feeding stations at the Minnesota Landscape Arboretum and I had to install them today. The arboretum is beautiful and while I was putting together feeders and screwing in brackets I was serenaded by ruby-crowned kinglets. I really enjoy doing this, it's kind of artistic putting different feeders together. Below I tried to go with a natural/wood theme.

I put raccoon baffles on both setups so I shuldn't have to worry about unwanted critters.

I'm worried that I may have gone overboard with the decorative feeder area (below). But I really wanted to show that feeders don't have to look traditional and that there are some really beautiful and sturdy feeders that with proper placement from raccoons and squirrels work very well.

Now, let's keep our fingers crossed that blackbirds won't take these over. That's going to be a challenge. I figured the arboretum didn't want birdseed growing all over the place so I used shelled sunflower mixes in the feeders. I'd like to avoid using safflower if I can.