Backyard Birding

There are a number of specialty suet feeders on the market which make feeding your birds suet very convenient, especially if you purchase it. There are rectangular cages to drop in suet cakes and wooden tubes to insert suet plugs into. Some are quite decorative and others are very plain.

This is not a necessary purchase, however, if you want to offer suet to your birds. These also work for homemade suet substitutes like the recipe I shared last week.

1. Smear it right on a tree. Many of the birds which are attracted by suet are woodpeckers and they naturally spend a great deal of time searching under pieces of bark looking for hiding insects.

2. Drill a hole in a large branch or small log. Fill this with suet. If you drill the whole one inch in diameter, you will also be able to use commercially prepared suet plugs.

3. Put some in a used mesh bag. After eating all your oranges, onions, etc., wash the mesh bag in warm soapy water, rinse and fill with suet. This is great for smaller birds such as chickadees, titmice and nuthatches. When the squirrels get to it, they will chew right through, but that is not nearly as frustrating as when they chew through a nice hopper feeder.

4. Fill pine cones. Spread suet in the open leaves of a pine cone and hang them. This, too, is fr the smaller birds. I love watching the agile nuthatches as they hang upside down, swaying and spinning in the wind while they eat.

5. Freeze in muffin tins. Place a length of cord in each cup of a muffin tin, pack with suet and freeze. Hang them outside when it is freezing.

6. Fill used tuna cans. This I thought interesting. Wash out your old tuna cans and fill them with bacon drippings, beef drippings, etc. When it cools, it will solidify. (You can do this with rendered suet as well.) Drill a hole in the side if the can and hang it.

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Suet is a much loved treat for insect eating birds. It provides them with the protein they need and helps insect eating birds such as woodpeckers through the winter when insects are scarce. Suet is actually the fat from around the kidney and can be served as is (although it will turn rancid) or rendered. You can also purchase it in pre-made blocks or plugs which will frequently be flavored and mixed with fruits, seeds and nuts.

You can also make your own suet substitute. Here is the basic recipe we use:

1 cup peanut butter (The cheaper the better. Cheaper peanut butters have higher oil contents.)
1 cup shortening or lard.
1 cup whole wheat flour.
1 cup whole oats
2 cups mixed fruits, nuts and seeds (approximate)

For the fruit mixture, I dice raisins, nuts, coconut, and frozen or dried apple pieces together with some mixed birdseed. Feel free to substitute what you have on hand.

Stir this all together until it is the consistency of a really stiff cookie dough. It should stick together, but not be doughy.

I generally only feed this to our birds in the colder months for fear of spoilage, but the birds seem to really like it. We have attracted: white-breasted nuthatches, red-breasted nuthatches, flickers, red-bellied woodpeckers, red-headed woodpeckers, downy woodpeckers, hairy woodpeckers and orioles with this mixture. Sparrows and grackles will eat it as well…and of course the squirrels devour it when they get the chance.

We usually offer this to the birds in our homemade suet feeder.

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Night time temperatures have been dipping a bit in my area of the country, leaving an icy reminder of the coming winter on the edges of my bird bath. Water will soon become a much coveted resource as available sources begin to freeze. Before we got our bird bath heater, I would watch the Robins peck holes in the ice to get to the water underneath. When they were finished, the finches and sparrows would flock to the free water to drink and bathe. After we purchased the heater, we had a small flock of Eastern Bluebirds hang out in the yard for a few days in December as they were getting ready to migrate.

Birds need water as much in the winter as they do in the heat of summer. Temperatures may be cooler, but their ability to stay warm is dependent on clean feathers. Since most shallow water freezes, there is almost no water available. Many birds will eat snow to remain hydrated, but this cools their bodies.

There are a variety of bird bath heaters which will keep your bath free of ice. They can be a little expensive to purchase, but are not very expensive to run. I recommend saving and getting one of at least medium quality. A little extra investment now will save you from making a repeat purchase next year. The nicer ones also generally shut off if your bird bath goes dry which is a nice feature to have. The one we purchased was $30.

If that is not in your budget, you can still offer water to your birds. Before we got our heater, I poured fresh, hot water in the bath twice a day. I went out at the same time each morning and afternoon and it did not take long for the birds to learn the schedule. They would gather in the bushes and chatter noisily while I filled the bath and checked to make sure I hadn’t made it too hot before going inside.

If you do not have a bird bath, I posted an entry some time ago about selecting bird baths. Some places may have them on sale currently, but it is not an item that needs to be stored away until Spring! Cleaning your bird bath is also still important.

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