Suet Feeder
Materials: Crisco, flour, cornmeal, birdseed, Peanut
butter (optional)
Mesh bag (like the ones oranges and onions come
in) OR
drill 1-inch holes in a small log
Combine
one part Crisco, one part peanut butter, one part flour, and one part birdseed
with three parts corn meal. Children love mixing this with their hands. Roll
the mixture into a ball and put it in an orange or onion mesh bag to hang. You
can also drill 1-inch holes in a small log, fill the holes with suet, and hang
the log in a tree. You can even put the suet on pinecones.
·
In
our workshop we increased the amount of Crisco (or peanut butter) to help the
dry products hold together better.
·
If
you’re concerned about peanut allergies, leave out the peanut butter and use
two parts Crisco.
Bird Feeding Tips
·
Place your bird feeders in
places that aren’t too windy, have good cover nearby, and minimize other
hazards.
·
Fill your birdfeeders with the
amount of food that can be eaten in 2-3 days.
·
Keep your feeders and feeding
area clean by raking up spilled seed under them and wiping off permanent
feeders.
·
Provide water at your feeding
area. Place a clay saucer that’s at
least 24 inches on a low stump or ground, and fill it with about 1½ inches of
water. Refill it every few days.
Feeder Location
In deciding where to hang your feeder, think
about things like avoiding competition and accommodating various feeding styles
and preferences. You also want to think of possible hazards to the birds, such
as window collisions, prowling cats, and thieving squirrels. Follow these tips
to provide an ideal environment in your backyard.
·
Locate feeders at different
levels. Sparrows, juncos, and towhees usually feed on the ground,
while finches and cardinals feed in shrubs, and chickadees, titmice, and woodpeckers
feed in trees. To avoid crowding and attract the greatest variety of species,
provide table-like feeders for ground feeding birds, hopper or tube feeders for
shrub and treetop feeders, and suet feeders well off the ground for
woodpeckers, nuthatches, and chickadees.
·
Protect birds from window
collisions. Protect birds from collisions
by placing feeders within three feet of windows, if possible. Mobiles and
opaque decorations hanging outside windows help to prevent bird strikes, or
attach fruit tree netting outside windows to deflect birds from the glass.
·
Place
feeders away from cats. Keep cats indoors or put a bell
on their collar. Another precaution is
to put feeders in a location hard for cats to get to without alerting the birds
feeding.
The above
information can be found by going to the Audubon website:
|
Please also visit The Cornell Lab of Ornithology http://www.birds.cornell.edu/citsci/ to learn about birds and projects related to helping birds. The Cornell lab has an extensive web site
offering links to bird identification, videos and educational materials.
Cornell’s Citizen Science offers several programs such as “The Great Back Yard
Bird Count” in February, “Yard Map”, and “Celebrate Urban Birds”.
|
No comments:
Post a Comment