Badminton for the birds.

During the many years I played badminton it never occurred to me that I would one day turn two racquets into  a bird feeder.

Thing is, the peanut bird feeder on the left has been in use for a long time and attracts daily (hourly!) chickadees,  nuthatches, sparrows, the occasional woodpecker,  sometimes a hopeful squirrel. 

I got to noticing that the birds peck so diligently at it but the size of the mesh seems to allow them only tiny bites.  And the cylinder shape is not a great design.

A search of the local lumber store came up with mesh the same as that feeder with the next size too big to hold the peanuts in. I planned to wrap mesh around a frame of  1 x 1's and thus get a flat feeder that would offer a single layer of peanuts.  But the mesh wouldn't work in that size.

Next thought was to cover a suet feeder with a mesh laundry bag:  those holes were too  small.  

Crochet or knit a mesh bag?  Nah.

Church thrift stores are opening again after a summer break and I checked here for baskets or screens or  ????   Nothing presented.

Then this morning's garage sales;   the last one on my way home;  two badminton racquets; light bulb over head. 

I put them together,  wondered how to hold them like that so peanuts could be contained, thought about doing two lines of crochet around the edges of each and then attaching these.  It was getting to the stage where the sellers might have charged me a rental fee if I didn't buy them so I did.  It was for a charity. Got both for $4.

Well I was over-thinking the construction of the feeder.  I put one racquet on the counter,  spread peanuts on it,  put the other one over it,  tied it in three spots with some rope,  attached a hanging rope. Hung it on the deck.  Dah dah.

The chickadee who I had disturbed at the round feeder while hanging the new one was back in a minute.  It eyed the racquet one but did not investigate.  

When the nuthatches show up for their afternoon snack I imagine they will immediately check it out.  They are venturesome.