Feeding Birds - First Steps
Backyard Bird Shop, but I know that many backyard bird watchers make their own suet. Here's a recipe that I've located:
1 cup freshly ground suet (obtain from your butcher, ask for "short" or kidney suet) 1 cup peanut butter 3 cups yellow cornmeal 1/2 cup whole wheat flour
Melt the suet in a sauce pan, then add the peanut butter and stir until melted and blended. Mix the dry ingredients together in a separate container. Once the melted suet/peanut butter has cooled and started to thicken, add the dry ingredients. Once hardened, you can cut into cakes for your suet feeder, or use the mixture to spread onto pinecones or into the crevices of tree bark for a more "natural" suet feeder. In the hot months, keep your suet feeder in a place that will be shady for all or most of the day, otherwise the suet will melt to the ground and attract bugs.
Different species of birds like to feed at different types of feeding sites. Lots of small birds like tube feeders hung between 5-8 feet high, either from a branch or from a metal garden pole. Group several feeders of varying heights together. That way there will be room for the bird or two which will try to chase all the others away from its chosen feeder.
Some birds will prefer to feed on the ground, especially sparrows, so either purchase or make a table which will allow you to feed birds at ground level, or simply spread the seed on the ground. Yes, the ground feeders are at risk for prowling cats, but unless the cat is really sneaky the birds which are feeding from tube feeders in the tree will spot the cat and fly away, alerting those on the ground to fly as well.
Finally, remember to keep a fresh source of water available. A bird bath with a "drip" system (which can be as simple as a gallon plastic jug of water with a pinhole in it, hung above your bird bath) will attract far more birds than any special food you could put out for them.
If you have a bird feeding tip or any other backyard bird watcher stories, or if you have a topic you'd like to see covered in this column, please e-mail me directly at timurray@teleport.com. See you next time!
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