February 10, 2008
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of the greatest pleasures in the winter is to look out your window and see
birds at the feeders you have put out for them. I have 2 feeders at my cabin. I
have a suet feeder out on my 
porch
for the woodpeckers and other little birds who do not leave with the first snow
(and it gives my indoor cats something exciting to look out the window at during
the day) and in May, I put out a hummingbird feeder until late August. If you're
new to feeding birds, you might wonder what to offer. In short, offer seeds and
water. Many of the birds seen in winter are seed eaters. They have to be as
insects are hard to come by in areas that experience harsh winters. However, the
trees, grasses, and wild flowers have just finished their yearly production of
seeds, and this is the main kind of food that wintering birds live on.
By setting up a bird
feeding station, you're taking your cue from nature, offering the kind of
nourishment that the birds are adapted to. You provide a generous, reliable,
source of food, and the birds gladly come and help themselves, up close, where
it's convenient for you to watch them.
Do put your feeders
where you can see them, perhaps from your living room or dining room (or from
the kitchen sink - friends of mine have theirs there and they get to see flying
squirrels as well). Ideally put several feeders at varying heights to
accommodate the preferences of different birds. The simplest feeder is the
ground itself. Sparrows, juncos, doves, and bobwhites prefer to feed on the
ground, and all you have to do is scatter the seed there. A tree stump or a
knee-high table will do as well. I just hang mine on my porch.
The
hands-down favorite bird seed is sunflower. It attracts cardinals, woodpeckers,
blue jays, goldfinches, purple finches, chickadees, titmice, and nuthatches. Get
the black sunflower seeds, sometimes called oil seeds. Birds prefer them to the
grey-and-white-striped sunflower seeds sold off the candy rack for people,
because they're higher in oil content. They are softer shelled, hence easier to
crack open. They're also cheaper than the grey-and-white ones. Another important
seed is white millet, which is even cheaper than sunflower seed. You can buy
these seeds at feed stores, nurseries, supermarkets, and some hardware stores.
When starting up a
feeding program, be patient. It may take as long as several weeks before the
birds discover your feeders. While you wait, be sure to keep the feeders filled.
Eventually, the birds will come.
Sometimes conscientious
people are concerned about whether feeding the birds will harm the birds. Will
the birds become dependent on the handouts? And it's often advised that one
should only start feeding birds if certain that the feeding can continue
uninterrupted all winter. The evidence indicates that feeding is not likely to
be bad for birds. They don't just settle in and dine at just one place. I only
see birds every now and again at my suet feeder. I also note that the birds
often will get fat off the bones I give the sled dogs.
If you want to do
something even more significant to help the birds, something that will benefit
them whether you are home to fill the feeders or not, then you can enhance the
natural habitat in your yard. You have to have some plants in your yard anyway,
so why not choose plants that are useful to birds? The
berries of the hawthorn tree and Mountain Ash will attract birds through most of
the winter. Viburnums also are good landscaping shrubs, because they can provide
berries all winter.
How about planting a
patch of native flowers in the spring, such as coneflowers, and allowing them to
go to seed and stand through the winter? I did that with my oats and barley this
year. You may look out some snowy day and see a flock of birds on the seed
heads. Another bird-friendly tree is a dense evergreen that will provide chilled
birds with a refuge from cats or hawks and a place to get out of the wind.
Half the fun of feeding
birds is figuring out what their names are. When I was little, I used to know
everything about my local birds, including how many eggs they had in a nest and
what colours they would be. There are several excellent books available to help
you identify the birds. I preferred the Peterson's
Field Guide.
How to Make Suet
Although you can buy it, homemade suet is cheaper to make and will attract more
birds.
Suet is raw beef fat from around the kidneys and loins.
Suet is one of the best foods to attract nuthatches, woodpeckers, wrens,
titmice, creepers, kinglets, chickadees, thrashers, cardinals, bluebirds,
starlings and squirrels!
If the temperature outside is around 70 degrees Fahrenheit and warmer, beef fat
can turn rancid and melt. There are many commercial suet cakes that can be
purchased and some of these are called "no melt", "berry"
and "insect" cakes.
How to Render Suet:
You can trim excess fat off beef cuts and store in the freezer until enough fat
is achieved or you can purchase beef fat from the grocery store or your nearby
butcher.
- Grind the beef fat with a meat grinder or finely chop
the fat.
- Heat the fat over a low to medium flame until its
liquefied.
- Strain by pouring melted suet through a fine
cheesecloth.
- Let cool to harden.
- Repeat steps 2-3. If the fat is not rendered twice, the
suet will not cake properly.
- Let cool to harden and store in a covered container in
the freezer.
Household Items that can be
used to pour suet in:
- Baker's Tin Foil Bake Cups
- When you purchase a suet cake, reuse the container that
it came in
- When suet cools, roll in balls
- Small bread loaf pans lined with plastic wrap or foil
for easy removal.
- Margarine containers
- Any size baking/pie pans (when suet cools, cut into
squares)
- Pine Cones