It’s For the Birds
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By Sandra Ebeling
I’m sure many of you have started feeding your feathered friends already.
With this dreary weather, there are almost no birds in my front yard.
As I mentioned before, I have a small flock of house sparrows, and quite a few immature Starlings in the yard. If we do end up with some bad winter weather, it is also hard for the birds to find food during those times.
With the snow cover, and ice at times, there is practically nothing for them to forage on. You can grab an old loaf of bread and tear it up, keep suet cakes out, bacon grease, and make other homemade goodies for them.
I find that much of that stuff draws the Startlings to the feeders.
If I do feed it, I place it out away from from my main feeder and let them have it.
If you have the opportunity here fairly soon, you can erect a lean to to keep the feeding station covered. Make sure and scatter some on the ground for those ground feeders. It is no fun to think about this kind of weather, in my opinion, at all. I don’t what God has in store for us this winter season, and definitely don’t want what we had last winter.
I have placed some pine needles in my bird houses around the yard, and I think the birds are roosting in them.
Many birds go to roost and stand all night on a tree limb. Boy, I would hate to stand all night. I think they do hunker down a bit, and crowd together for trapping the heat.
Cedar and pine trees are great for roosting and evergreen shrubs too. Anything dense will help them roost and keep them warm at night.
Today is such a drab, dull day, there is no action outside as to feathered friends. I hope that you have all of your houses cleaned out and some lined with pine needles, seed placed in tins, and suet cakes in the fridge. You will be ready to feed those hungry guys on a cold winter day.
Until next time, good birdwatching.