Winter Bird Feeding- What's On the Menu Today
8 years ago
I only feed the birds in the winter. After consulting with a naturalist I have been reassured that feeding the birds in my area during this time will help and not harm them. So today's menu (zero degrees) is black oil sunflower seeds, cracked corn, peanuts as well as two suet mixes. One for the suet feeders and one for under the pine ground feeding (with a mix of black oiled sunflower seeds, cracked corn and peanuts.). The mix in the Tupperware is beef lard, hulled sunflower seeds, peanuts, canary seed and millet. This I just toss under the pine tree with the other bird food. The suet feeder cake is beef suet, peanuts, cracked corn and meal worms.
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8 years agoRelated Discussions
happy november, what did you feed your loving cp today?
Comments (42)Finally had the chance today to do some more work on the pile containing the very old bucket of fish. It still smells rather horrid, but whether it's the fish, the rotting pumpkins or something else - who knows. In fact, much of the fish is rotting, with just the bones and fins evident. Anyway, today I added to the pile: --four paper grocery store bags of shredded or cut up paper napkins, plates, cups, torn up boxes that had contained teas, bandaids, and etc. + many many many many tissues and such. --the paper bags. --one very large plastic bag of Starbucks espresso grounds and two smallish silver Starbucks bags of coffee grounds, with filters. --about 12 pumpkins, squashes, and gourds, already rotting. --contents of compost bucket, mostly veg and fruit stuff, tea bags, coffee grounds from our French press, but also shrimp shells and the paper the shrimp came wrapped in. --coffee from a large bag of coffee in a cardboard box, can't recall which place it came from; this stuff's intended for parties and such --medium-sized bag of leaves, mostly maple, that someone conveniently left next to their garbage can. Naturally, I liberated it. :)...See MoreWinter birds & feeding
Comments (9)Yes, it's reasonable that house finches and pine siskins are around your area, and that they spend the winter. My sister has had house finches at their place in the Saskatoon area, year-round, for the last 15(?) years, likely more (and breeding records a few years after they started showing up). For the first time, we've had house finches here for a sustained period and they nested successfully in our neighborhood - will have to keep an eye out to see if they winter. Regardless of the mixed opinions the birding world has of their spread, it sure is nice to have colorful birds around that sing year-round, not just in the courting season. Pine siskins kind of come and go - they are around all summer and most winters here, but we didn't notice any last winter. Chickadees are always reliable! You didn't mention them, but I'm sure you have them. You can also expect redpolls at some time during the winter, especially if there is a lot of snow in the north, and they are pushed south to feed - keep an eye out for hoary redpolls among them (extremely short-billed, "frosty" birds). When a flock of redpolls shows up, you'll go broke keeping the niger feeders full, LOL! Siskins also tend to favor niger, so I'm surprised they're not pigging out. Also, evening grosbeaks - they seem to be especially attracted to lilac seeds (lots of lilac hedges in small towns in Sask!), and will eat sunflower. Other likely possibilities are pine grosbeaks, red crossbills, white-winged crossbills, particularly if there are any groves of spruce around - these tend to be roaming, and will come and go. Re. other regulars at your feeders, you can probably expect to see white-breasted or red-breasted nuthatches or both, and downy and hairy woodpeckers are a given. The odd flicker that winters over (quite common here) may also show up. They all like suet and peanut/peanut butter feeders. Blue jays also like peanuts...and if you put out unroasted peanuts, will bury them all over (no big deal and which we actually found kind of fun - it caused me to learn what peanut plants look like, LOL!) We haven't really had great success with putting fruit out in winter - though my sister finds it to be wildly popular in spring with the migrating songbirds when late storms hit. (She's also have had great results with fresh fruit and melon through the summer for orioles, robins, cedar waxwings, catbirds, warblers.) By the way, most of these "nonmigratory" birds don't have distinctly different plumages between adults and immatures (unlike, say, warblers and some of the other summer migrants) - so identification will be a little easier for a while. Female and immature house sparrows can always be distinguished by their, shall I say, lack of distinguishing characteristics? They are large, have that distinctive conical bill shape, and otherwise are just kind of...grey-brown. With more observation, I'm sure you'll be able to pick them out of any......See MoreAnyone else feeding Anna Hummingbirds in winter?
Comments (11)I'm on the other side of the country and was under the impression that there weren't any around this area for winter but saw one Thursday. It visited every flower on a large Camellia shrub, then buzzed by my head, chittering, having a great time! I don't know them well enough to know what kind it was but it was definitely some kind of hummingbird. I reported the sighting to this site and received this reply: "It may come as a shock to you, but your hummingbird could easily be one of a dozen species that we now know live in Alabama in winter. We are fortunate to have in our banding/research studies, Mr. Fred Bassett of Montgomery who does a lot of research work in your part of the state. If you do not have a hummingbird feeder at your home, please hang a feeder now. Mix your sugar water solution 4 parts water to 1 part sugar if you will. With your permission, if the hummer starts coming to your feeder, he would like to come to your yard and try to capture, band/document and identify your uncommon wintering hummer. The most important people in our study of these tiny birds are folks like you who discover them in winter and then contact us."...See MoreWhat do you feed your (wild) birds?
Comments (34)I feed Safflower seed (squirrels don't like it, but most songbirds do) and homemade suet (lard, peanut butter, wheat flour, cornmeal and oatmeal) pretty much all year round. This recipe usually won't melt unless the temps get into the 90's. Sometimes I buy the fruit/nut seed mix to give the birds a treat. I take breaks on the suet to discourage the Starlings which love to hang on my "starling-proof" suet feeder. I have several very large hummingbird feeders which I keep full all summer long. I kept track of how much sugar I used last year... 128 lbs! Speaking of holes in the trees, we have one Oak which is hollow inside and just this week I noticed there are about 6 large holes almost in a straight line going up from the base of the tree. I need to get a picture of it. My husband cut part of the top off last year, but I asked him to leave the trunk for the birds. Everyone's photos are great!...See More
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ZachS. z5 Platteville, Colorado