Spring Things for Birdlings

Okay, I know it's spring and the weather's warming up and all the flowers are beginning to bloom. Birds are flocking north and beginning to pick out likely looking nest sites. And right now, when they need it most, a lot of people are packing up the old bird feeder for the season. Unfortunatly this is the time of year when birds are most in need of human support.

Winter berries are gone. The bugs haven't all hatched out yet. Flowers are lovely, but they don't provide any food for most birds. Trees aren't fully leafed out. And the birds are spending a lot of their time trying to find a suitable bird-ette to shack up with for some billing and cooing and a round of nestlings.

There are a few nice things you can do for the birds during spring time -- and the first one is "Don't stop feeding the birds!" They still need seed, water, and protein sources like suet to help them through this leanest time of the year. Many of the bug eating birds switch to a diet of fruit during this part of the year. Apples, woodpeckers, sapsuckers, robins, starlings, and mockingbirds seem to like red apples while catbirds, wrens, and thrashers (among others) love to have plump raisins to munch on. Birds who winter in the tropics will also swoop down to feast on oranges, cherries, peaches, banannas, and berries -- if you can pry them out of the hands of your own family!

The second thing to offer birds is a supply of nesting materials. Nests are usually a fairly complex construction; not an assemblage of sticks. You can lure some new birds to your yard by putting out nesting material for the next few months. Popular choices are twine, yarn, string, and long weeds (or dead vine tendrils) as well as small sticks. This is also a good chance to recycle that dead underwear -- you know; the ones that are more holes than cloth? Birds have absolutly no sense of smell. They'll never know where that strip of striped cloth came from.

A third treat to offer birds during this time of year is ground eggshells. Bake them in an oven until they turn slightly brownish, then crush them up and place them outside on a flat surface. Adult female birds need calcium sources for strong eggs and your discarded eggshells will be most welcome for them.

So as you're getting ready for that big Easter/passover/Spring feast, don't forget your feathered friends. Leave them a few treats in your yard. You'll enjoy their simple pleasure at these gifts.

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