When I lived in zone 7, I had a heated bird bath (we called it the bird spa). The heat and dry air cause the water to evaporate quickly so it had to be filled daily at least. I finally put a timer on it so that it cut off about 9:00 in the morning when the temp was usually above freezing.

I also put out chunky peanut butter, in a suet feeder, which they all LOVED. My Florida birds won't touch it.

My birds appreciate several brushpiles. They hang out in them in inclement weather & use them to escape hawks. A birdbath with a heater is also useful. Cedar trees are probably the most useful for shelter. I let part of a field grow up into a cedar thicket & it's amazing the birds that roost there. Obviously I don't have a manicured type yard, it's very casual & wildlife friendly. There is sort of a trick to providing hiding places for the birds but not for stray cats-try to place feeders away from bushes that cats can hide in, but with upper leaves/branches for the birds to wait their turn & escape to. My most used feeder is in an ancient lilac that has no leaves near the bottom but plenty at the top-well it loses them in the winter. I have one feeder on a pulley as there are no branches low enough for me to reach. The coons tend to knock it down regularly but so far haven't taken it home-yet. Somewhere there are coon dens decorated with thoses wire suet holders as I must have lost dozens over the last 40 years.HTH
Susan

I agree with the heated bird bath. I live in Michigan and the birds flock to the bath 4 a drink. I also make homemade peanut butter suet ALL the birds love it. I have bluebirds that stay here in the winter and they will eat it as well. The birds will by-pass the store bought suet and eat the peanut butter suet. They really love it.

Karen

Thanks everybody!

I'm so glad to hear that the heated birdbath has worked for you - I picked up the easy-tilt heated birdbath for our railing.

We have a couple of small brushpiles, but I will make it a point to add some more around, we certainly have enough split wood and brush around here this time of year.

Karen, would you mind sharing the recipe for your suet?

Thanks again all -

Donna (chickadee melrose)

Also - I did pick up a large roosting box - as I mentioned before, we can get really cold temps and wind here (like many folks on this forum!) so I thought this would be a good idea. I haven't put it up yet though.

Has anyone else put up a roost box? Any tips?

I make a suet/pb mix that the birds love...

1/2 large jar chunky pb (I use JIF from Sam's)
1/2 tub shortening (I use local store brand with animal fat)
2 1/2 + c. oatmeal
ABT 1 c. cornmeal and 1 c. whole wheat flour
several c. of mixed seed (mostly sunflower)
raisins

I mix the pb and shortening first, then add the dry ingredients (no real measurements) until it's "thick" and hard to stir. Then add in the seed and raisins.

We fill the holes in our feeding logs (just chunks of limbs with holes drilled in them.. or we even take big old limbs and bury one end in the dirt near the brush piles to make a tree with holes and little sticks for perches... rather elaborate) with this mixture... and wipe it on the edges of the feeders or a nearby tree. Birds of all types, chickadees, titmice, nuthatches, wrens, woodpeckers, towhees, cardinals, bluejays, etc... everyone visits at some point during the day, even though the real regulars are those you would suspect.

Brushpiles and water are as important (if not moreso) than the food... Hope all goes well with you.

Forgot to say that this is not a "hard" suet block when done but something that can be smeared or stuffed into holes, so we store it in sandwich size TakeALongs in the fridge.

Bluebirds sometimes use their nestboxes for roosting. I once saw 12 come out of one box! One box was used by a Downy WP and another by flying squirrels. Grey squirrels took over a box put up for Kestrels.Homemade suet (my recipe calls it Marvel Meal) is always a big hit & can be just smeared on the trunks of trees
Susan

I have the easy tilt heated deck bath too. It has a thermostat but it rarley turns off with our winters. Water is the most important thing. I make the chunkey p-butter suit too. Placement of feeders is also important as Susan said, Hawks are hungry in the winter and with no chipmunks, snakes, etc. birds become a bigger part of their diet. Making sure they have cover to dash to is a must. I leave my nest boxes up and they all have little Downies roosting in the winter.

Winter is the most active bird-watching and feeding season for me. During the summer I drastically reduce the food in feeders. There is a lot of natural food here, plus this year I wanted to discourage the House Sparrows from hanging around because a Bluebird pair was nesting in a dead Pine snag in the backyard (it worked). I like to participate in bird counts and take more photos of birds during the winter too.

Here are some other winter things I can think of -

- I also make a home-made Suet/PB mixture that the birds love year-round! Last winter I had up to 7 Bluebirds eating suet. During the colder months, I add raw suet in a suet cage so there are 2 suet feeders.

- In the fall, I collect dried Echinacea seed heads and store them in the garage. Then every few weeks, I tape up a bunch to a bird-feeder pole for the Goldfinches - the Pine Siskins enjoyed them last year too.

- Similarly, leave up the dead stalks and seedheads of certain perennials in the garden, which the birds will nibble on over the winter.

- I throw the old Christmas tree, as well as any large evergreen brush, under the Yew trees near the feeders - a temporary brush pile, which gives the birds some thick cover on the ground. The rest of the ground under the Yews is clear, where I throw seed or tidbits for ground feeders and squirrels.

Gotta get a heated bird bath this year!

I know an elderly gentleman who has a hard time getting out in the winter for fear of falling. He feeds only suet, and swears by it. He tells me that the birds love it more than seed, and that it greatly reduces the trips outdoors. This might help you when you are recovering from surgery. Good luck! I hope it all goes well for you.

soycandle, it's great to think of suet as the standby no matter what option; like your friend, i will also be making as few trips outside as possible to the feeders in the winter, so I will spend some time indoors making the great recipes I have gotten for homemade suet.

I have repaired my upside down suet feeder (the one raccoons tore apart), so I am armed with a few ways to put suet to good use!

I have checked my nestboxes and cleaned them out(one old Carolina wren's nest, kind of neat) and I put grass clippings in the bottoms and filled the larger vent openings with foam so the nestboxes will be warmer places this winter (maybe our downies and others will take advantage of these).

Today my husband is going to help me set up the feeders for the winter, and maybe put up the roost box.

Also, something occurred to me - to move a birdbath to the part of our front yard that receives the most sun all day, and hopefully won't freeze up as often as they have out back.

I have appreciated all the tips from everyone. Thanks!

I have two birdbaths in regular use now - a copper one on a pedestal and a plastic plant saucer on the ground. The copper bath freezes very quickly and is basically unusable in the winter. The plastic saucer on the ground is slower to freeze and I can turn it over and stomp on it (carefully) to knock the ice out. It's cheap to replace if it breaks.

In the winter I have a heated birdbath on one side of the house and the plastic saucer on the other side. I refill the plastic saucer every day. I'm considering digging a shallow hole for the saucer to keep it ice-free longer.

Claire

I had hip surgery last winter. Ahead of time i coated the handrails down the back porch with a mix of enamel paint and texture plaster. It makes a better grip. I stood up a couple of pine rounds about three foot tall. A hand rake close by to clean off ice or snow. I baked corn bread with oats and chopped nuts in it and daily crumbled it on the stumps. I bribed my neice with homemade pies and she kept the snow cleaned up enough for me to walk to the feed area.
She fed the birds for me for a couple of weeks while i was still useing a walker but after that when it was icy or snowy had a pair of old football cleat shoes by the back door to wear. I had a homemade platform feeder with sides about 1 1/2 inches tall. hanging from a sturdy branch. It has a roof over it that keeps off most of the rain or snow.
It look sort of like a miniture gazebo. It is about shoulder high so i can dump seeds or nuts or crumbs into it. It hangs from a cable so far the squirrels or racoons have not got into it.