Florentine, I buy the roasted peanuts in the shell and don't shell them.  The squirrels and blue jays are just fine with that.  When you buy the peanuts be sure to get the ones that are not salted.  Just throw a handful out on your deck or in your yard where you can watch the fun.  My adopted cat, Basel, sits by the french door that opens to my deck and watches for hours.  It's sort of his version of 'cat tv'.

I stopped using a bird bath several years ago because of mosquito larvae & black mold.  I wasn't interested in going out everyday and cleaning it out and couldn't come up with anything to keep it clean that wouldn't kill birds.

I have the downy, hairy & red-bellied woodpeckers visit on a regular basis. The one woodbecker I've never seen around any time of year is the red headed and would go crazy if one ever showed up and I got a photo of it.  We have tons of cardinals this year, many more than I've ever seen during winter months.  And the one lonely robin that sits outside my window chirping away, perhaps calling its mate.  Last weekend there were several robins sitting up in a tree in the front yard.  They nest every year in a neighbor's arborvitae and last summer those robins were becoming a big nuisance because of their numbers.  This time of year those piggish grackles show up and I keep chasing them away.  If I don't they can clean out a suet block in two days and I can't replace them because of the deep snow.

Interesting.  I put pieces of cut up orange out last week and not one bird has touched any.  I can remember seeing birds carry off fruit pieces and thought some would like the fruit.   

Does anyone have the problem of bird feed waste. I always try to buy mixed bird seed without millet because none of my birds seem to eat it. Recently I bought a 40 pound bag of mixed bird seed at Sam's Club which looked like it had very little millet in it (there was a clear see-through window in the bag). When I got it home and opened it, it had much more millet than expected. I usually buy bird seed that has only one kind of seed in a bag. I try to buy different varieties and mix it myself or put it out in separate places. I recently bought a bag of safflower seed, thinking it would be a good and different treat, but unfortunately, the birds do not seem to like that either. The black sunflower seed seems to be one of the most popular seeds for the largest variety of my birds followed by cracked corn.