For The Birds BETH GIRDLER
My, my! The guests have arrived for breakfast and I'm still in my p.j.'s.
The first thing I do every morning is throw on a coat, slip on my rubber boots, and stomp outside to a metal garbage can. I remove the raccoon-proof lid, fill an old juice can with my special mix of bird food, then top up my feeders for the day.
I wake the kids and we sit down to breakfast in front of our big kitchen window and watch the birds while we eat. I have a very discerning clientele at Chez Beth. After years of trying every kind of feed and feeder I have come up with a short list that I'd like to share.
As far as feeders go, there are really only two basic styles needed to attract the many bird species that spend the winter in our region. My all-time favorite is a platform-style feeder. This can be any flat structure, preferably with edges to hold the seeds in. An old serving tray or cookie sheet works well. This feeder should have no roof and can be suspended or mounted on a post, old stump, railing or windowsill.
My husband came up with a great design for one. He built a square wooden frame (you can use an old picture frame) and covered it with a piece of old window screen. He then nailed thin strips of wood on top of the frame to secure the screen. Wires run from each corner and join above the centre of the platform. The whole structure is then hung from our homemade feeder support (two pipes welded together to make a 6-foot high tee).
The screen is strong enough for the birds to stand on and provides excellent drainage so the seeds don't get soggy and sprout or go bad. I suppose you could consider this feeder labor intensive since you have to put out the food daily and occasionally have to clear away snow. The advantages, however, outweigh the effort.
Platform feeders can feed more than one bird at a time and even more than one species at a time. I have had so many goldfinches, pine siskins, and redpolls on my feeder that it looked like a high school cafeteria at high noon.
Groups of birds are fun to watch because of their fascinating social interplay but the open nature of this type of feeder also attracts wary birds such as cardinals, which prefer an unobstructed view while eating. This winter, luckily, I have two females and one male cardinal visiting my feeder.
The next type of feeder can be as simple as an old onion bag or wire mesh nailed to a board and filled with suet. Suet is hard white fat that you can buy in chunks for next to nothing from any butcher. Now for my bird-food combo -- if I could only put out one type of bird food, that food would be black oil seeds.
These are the black sunflower seeds used to make a light cooking oil. Black oil seeds attract a greater variety of birds than any other type of feed. I also hang suet because woodpeckers, nuthatches, and chickadees seek it out. I throw in a handful of millet for the mourning doves and a handful of peanuts for the blue jays.
Finches do like niger seeds, but will come to the feeder without it so I only buy it when I have extra cash. After I top up my platform feeder, I throw a handful of seeds below it for ground feeders and squirrels. Seeing birds arrive at my feeder never ceases to thrill and amaze me. The fact that a wild creature will come freely and take food from my feeder, even from my hand, is a daily confirmation that the best things in life are free.
If you have any nature questions or observations please contact me and I will be glad to share them with readers.
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