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Health & Fitness

Winter Is For The Birds!

When everything else looks tired and dreary outside, here's a way to bring beauty into your landscape! After all, winter is for the birds!

Winter. It's the season that your landscape rests for the upcoming spring. However, while your gardens might be resting, our feathered friends certainly aren't. In fact, this is the season where you'll get the best view of them. Thus, 'winter is for the birds'!

In spring, summer and fall, you may not notice the amount of birds you have in your landscape simply because they are feeding on the natural brush, leaves and berries in your gardens or those of your neighbor, but in winter, when the shrubs and trees have gone dormant, the birds are looking for your help to keep them in flight.

While you're planning your landscape for this upcoming spring, you may want to include some berry bearing plants and trees such as:

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  •  Hollies
  •  Beauty berry
  •  Winter King Hawthorne
  •  Crabapple
  •  Chinese Dogwood
  •  Fringe Tree
  •  Spice Bush
  •  Northern Bayberry
  •  Pyracantha
  •  Rugosa Rose
  •  Viburnum

Not only will these trees and shrubs provide beauty in your landscape, they will definitely attract beautiful birds naturally to your gardens.

In the meantime however, there are many ways you can attract birds to your landscape this winter! Bird feeders of all shapes, sizes, colors and types are readily available as well as suet and suet feeders.  What is the number one favorite type of birdseed you wonder? Black Oil Sunflower is indeed a birds first choice of seed.

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When shopping for bird seed, you should be on the lookout for a good quality seed that does not contain a lot of fillers such as redmillet which may look to be inviting, but rather the birds will more than likely turn their beaks away from this selection. Look for seed that has a good amount of sunflower, safflower, white millet, nyjer, fruit and nuts.

Suet is an important staple in a birds diet, especially during winter as the fat helps keep them warm. Watch what happens when you offer a suet cake! You'll be surprised to see the amount of Downy Woodpeckers that visit immediately. If you're a real birding enthusiast, you can also make your own homemade suet. It's very easy to do and requires no special ingredients other than items you probably have in your cupboards right now. A good recipe for suet starts with lard, then you simply melt it down, and add any or all of the following ingredients:

  • Peanut Butter
  • Bird seed
  • Stale crackers
  • Cornmeal
  • Dried fruit of your choice
  • Peanuts

You'll want to mix the ingredients with the melted lard until everything sticks together. Using disposable gloves, form the mix into squares about 1" thick and 3" x 3" wide. Wrap in waxed paper and store in your freezer until you want to offer it.

Peanut butter is a beak magnet! Save the grape jelly until spring for the Catbirds and American Robins!

If you don't have a suet feeder, you can simply mix peanut butter and bird seed together then spread it on a tree.

Do you have a lot of peanuts hanging around? Put them in a wire feeder, shelled or unshelled and you'll be making a birds day!

If you have squirrels, and let's face it, most of us do. I've always gone by the saying, "If you can't beat them - join them". While there are squirrel-proof feeders, there are other ways you can help deter squirrels from feasting on your feeders. You can add hot pepper flakes, or hot pepper oils to your bird seed. Would you be surprised to learn that birds can't taste the heat, yet, squirrels will turn their heads away from it! Yes, it's true! Birds are not the least affected by hot pepper! Another way to help deter squirrels from your feeders is to offer corn cobs, inexpensive food, stale bread and chips in a remote area far away from your feeders. By doing so, the squirrels will get accustomed to the fact that they have their own area to enjoy.

Don't have a bird feeder? No problem! Do you have an old dish, or an old plant saucer, then you have a bird feeder as a lot of birds are what we call, "Ground Feeders". Naturally when we think of birds and feeders we imagine birds gracefully hanging on a feeder, yet, there are a lot of larger and smaller birds that find pleasure on eating with their two legs on the ground rather than a suspended feeder. Sprinkle bird seed on a dish and watch what happens.

Have you ever tried meal worms? As disgusting as they may look, believe it or not, meal worms are a great, high protein treat for common and uncommon birds. Makes sense that they would enjoy them as most birds are insect eaters. Bluebirds, Carolina wrens, the tufted titmouse, robins, blue jays, sparrows, cardinals, woodpeckers, chickadees, and nuthatches are just some of the northern birds that will enjoy your offer of meal worms! Your local pet shop, or any online birding website will have them and many offer great buys for bulk purchases. While there are special feeders for meal worms, they are not completely necessary as placing them on a dish will delight just as well. Try adding them to your homemade suet too!

Why no birds? Have you just recently entered the wonderful world of birding and there's no birds dining on your feeders? It's like a newly opened restaurant, and you're the head chef. Where are your patrons? Give it time, once the news is out and the birds trust your feeders they will come! Typically, it will take a bird up to a week to trust the new feeder! Window feeders can take much longer, if not months for a bird to trust it.

Now it's your job to keep them fed. There's nothing worse than having a constant flutter of activity at your feeders only to wake up and realize your feathered friends have flown the coop. Perhaps you've forgotten to refill your feeders? No problem, just refill and the birds will come back. If you have a steady stream of guests, you may want to get in the habit of refilling your feeders in the mornings around the same time every day. Don't be surprised if you have some friends waiting in the wings on nearby branches ready to perch on your feeder. If you're lucky, your birds may get so used to your routine that they may fly on your hand as your filling your feeder. Believe me, it's startling at first, but in time, you'll learn to appreciate and look forward to it!

Has it been raining a couple days? Just like all the other routines you have once it stops raining, you'll want to add another chore to your list. Check your feeders. There are times that bird seed will get wet and start to mold, clump or even sprout in the feeders. Once this happens, it's like shutting the door to your diner and hanging the "CLOSED" sign. Not to mention that it's unhealthy to offer tainted seed. Discard the seed as wasteful as that may seem, and wash your feeder in hot water mixed with 1 part bleach. Your birds will thank you for it!

Are you ready for a winter filled with the beauty of birds? Start with one feeder and watch your interest grow!

Until next time,

Leslie

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