Winter Bird Feeding- What's On the Menu Today
7 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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7 years agoRelated Discussions
What have you feed your compost pile today? October
Comments (64)I spread about 3/4 of a garbage bin of UCG from a local coffee shop on the lasagna bed. There were over 200 paper coffee filters which I picked up and put in my regular compost bin and a few in my new compost/mulch BOX. Didn't want those filters blowing away in the wind. Besides all those many paper filters my poor deprived compost BIN just gets the same old, same old (salad trimmings, coffee grounds and filter, egg shells, tea bags) every day altho it's getting more tea bags since the cold weather started cause we drink more hot tea. Wish I could scrounge goodies like so many of you but there is sometimes a limit what I'll do for my garden. And our groundhogs and squirrels are way too fast for me to catch. Our bears had left 4 piles on the lawn last week but I told DH to throw it out beyond the house yard fence so they hopefully get the idea to only do their business out there and stay out of MY yard. If he had put it in the compost they might get the idea that's theirs and tough but I have first dibs. I also spread all of my compost/mulch PILE on the garden today which was 4 ATV trailer loads plus a couple of wheelbarrow loads....See Morehappy 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 MoreAnyone have any luck feeding your yard birds suet?
Comments (12)Tony, I'm with you. I have never had any luck with suet of any type or recipe in Florida. I DO think you are more likely to succeed with it in cooler weather because the birds need a much higher energy type food then. And also because many types of suet cakes and mixtures spoil quickly in the heat. But even in winter, my woodpeckers prefer to eat sunflower seeds directly from the tray feeder, and they ALL ignore the suet. I do buy the big SEED cakes (BirdOla, etc) that just look like lots of seeds, peanuts and fruit somehow molded into a large square. You probably know what I mean...there's no suet that you can see, just the seeds & fruit bits. I put that in a wire holder designed just for it, and the goldfinches will eat from that, until it gets too small for their short beaks to reach it through the wire. They still drop shells and a little bit of seed under the feeder, but they can't fling it all over while looking for something they like, so it's much less messy. My goldfinches finally showed up about 3 weeks ago, and I've had as many as 30 in the yard at once. There are at least 4 that are almost completely yellow and black now. Just gorgeous. I haven't seen any buntings or grosbeaks this year, though. And the chipping sparrows left right when the goldfinches showed up. But I'm happy...I have my cardinals back, my white-winged doves are here, and my goldfinches. My seed-eating catbird and my seed-eating Myrtle warbler both left, after stuffing themselves for several weeks. (They obviously didn't get the memo telling them they prefer insects and fruit.) I'm really happy now that the squirrels can't seem to reach the feeders any more. (Still knocking wood, though.) Try one of the big seed cakes and see if you like it! Marcia...See Morebirds galore today - feeding on seeds in the garden
Comments (5)My first thought was to say blackbirds, but I don't think there are any blackbirds, even immature ones, with very distinctive spots like that. Could they be starlings? Check out the link below. There's good info on the Identification and the Life History tabs. If it's either blackbirds or starlings, they're both nuisance birds. Will eat you out of house and home--and seed, and very "dirty" birds---a/k/a: poop all over the place! I haven't seen any starlings around here, but for the last couple weeks I've had a HUGE herd of brewer's blackbirds around. Couldn't keep 'em chased away no matter what I did! They'd fly up into the trees and sit up there laughing at me till I came back inside! Had to finally let the feeders "big birds" can access get empty and just stay that way! In the last couple days they seem to have disappeared again. The one possible problem I see with yours being a starling is that they have yellow beaks and in the pic it looks like yours has a black beak. Maybe that's just the pic! The "top" bird on the birdbath looks like a robin to me--right shape and has its head up like they do when they're drinking, but the pic is too dark to be sure of anything. Here's a link to the brewers blackbird so you can do some checking if/when they come back. These two pages also link to other "similar species." If you don't have a bird book--or two, Cornell All About Birds is a great site to look them up! http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Brewers_Blackbird/id Hope this helps you, Skybird Here is a link that might be useful: European Starling - All About Birds...See More
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ZachS. z5 Platteville, Colorado