7 Fun Fall Bird Feeding Tips

Birds start gathering food in the fall.
from Grandma Pearl

Did you know that your backyard birds like to start gathering food for winter during the autumn months?  If you don’t feed birds year round, fall is a great time to set up your bird feeding station.  Birds like Blue Jays stash seeds just as chipmunks and squirrels do.  Science has shown that they also have excellent memories, and have demonstrated their skill at locating their hidden treasures all winter long.  Nuthatches and woodpeckers are some of the many birds that hide food for later consumption.

Nuthatch is waiting its turn at the feeders.
by Grandma Pearl

1. Correct placement of your feeders will insure your birds do not crash into your windows.  Sadly, approximately one billion birds die in the U.S. each year from glass window and door collisions.  The best way to prevent fatal collisions is to place your feeders within 3 feet, or more than 30 feet, from windows. Placing your bird feeders that close to glass ensures birds do not have room to gain a lot of speed, greatly reducing the number of fatal collisions.

It also gives you a great view of their antics and interactions with other birds.  Besides being very entertaining, studies have shown that bird watching can reduce stress and lower blood pressure.  Next time you need a time out, try watching your backyard birds.  You will be amazed at the calming affects bird watching can produce.

2. Another great tip is to locate your feeder about 3 to 5 feet from a large shrub.  This gives your birds plenty of opportunity for perching while waiting their turn at the feeder.  Birds will also use the branches as leverage to help them open the seeds, which will not hurt the shrubs at all.  Bushes can be evergreen or deciduous, and they will provide shelter from winter winds and snow, as well as predators.  A feeder placed near a shrub helps birds feel more secure, and gives them a place to ‘hang out’ and socialize.
3. When the nights turn colder in the fall I begin hanging suet for my birds to enjoy.  It helps them to store fat for the upcoming winter months.  That extra layer of fat makes a great deal of difference in how well they survive frigid temperatures.  If your weather is still warm during the day, choose ‘no-melt’ suet cakes.
4. I like to use peanut butter combined with cornmeal to smear on pine cones.  Hang the cones on tree limbs and enjoy watching your birds savor this very helpful treat.  Besides helping birds stay warm, food sources that contain high fat concentrations also help maintain birds’ feathers in optimum condition for flying and evading possible predators.

Make a loop of wire around the top row of scales on the pine cone, then add peanut butter.
by Grandma Pearl

High-fat Food Sources Include:

• Peanut Butter
• Suet
• Black Oil Sunflower Seeds
• Peanuts
• Walnuts, broken into small pieces

5. When you are out shopping for pumpkins and gourds, remember your birds.  They enjoy gleaning the seeds from inside these vegetables.  To give them easy access to the seeds, use a sharp knife to cut a rectangular hole in the front and back of the pumpkin.  By the way, Northern Cardinals are nuts about pumpkin seeds!

Northern Cardinals Love Pumpkin Seeds!
by Grandma Pearl

Place on a flat platform feeder so your backyard visitors can enjoy all the pumpkin innards!  Once they have cleaned out the pumpkins seeds, you can remove any excess strings and add sunflower seeds, cracked corn and any other bird goodies you have to offer. 

6.  Gourds can be hung by drilling a hole in the neck of the gourd and inserting a piece of leather shoe lace or thin rope.  Cut a round hole in the front of the gourd, about 2” from the bottom of the vegetable, for birds to enter and find any meat and seeds.  Again, once the gourd is cleaned out, you can add sunflower seeds, dried fruit pieces or nutmeats. 
7. Be sure to have a camera on hand to snap some fun pictures of your feathered friends enjoying their autumn bounty.  It’s a great way to get your child or grandchild interested in a fun and educational hobby.  Start a scrapbook to include pictures they have taken, articles about birds, bird feathers they have gathered, and notes on their favorite bird or birds.

Young Goldfinches exchanging greetings?
by Grandma Pearl

Autumn is such a colorful and wonderful season.  Make sure your backyard birds are included in the fun, and you will be rewarded with their songs and visits all winter long.

Grandma Pearl

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A Walk in My Autumn Woods in New York State

12 Fun Ways to Get Your Kids Interested in Watching Birds

Leave Some Leaves For the Birds

 

Maple Leaves are just starting to change
Photo by Grandma Pearl

My leaves are changing colors, and there is a definite chill in the air.   I can smell that crisp autumn leaf aroma, which will become more pronounced as the next couple of weeks pass by.  With the leaves comes the inevitable task of raking and bagging.  They tell me raking leaves is good for the waistline, and for strengthening arm and back muscles.  I don’t know about that, but I do know that I end up with aches and pains, as well as calluses on my hands!

Nine times out of ten, the wind picks up my piles before I have a chance to bag them.  Why is it that the wind decides to gust just when you have finished your raking chores?  Here in the woods, I don’t have any neighbors whose leaf piles might blow into my yard, thank goodness.   Being surrounded by all kinds of hardwood trees, however, the task of raking is multiplied tenfold!

Leaves are changing already in late September
Photo by Grandma Pearl

Many thanks to the inventor of the leaf vacs and blowers that now populate the shelves at the neighborhood hardware store.  They do make short work of an otherwise overwhelming task.  My contraption is a combination of a vacuum and a blower.  So my first job is to blow the leaves into windrows.  From there I can convert to the vacuum and bagger, and proceed to turn those windrows into nutrient-rich mulch.

Most of my mulch I bag up and store for next spring’s plantings.  Another large bunch I use to cover my flower beds.  I like to make the depth about 8” to 12” because it will be weighed down by snow.  When the soil begins to warm again, the earthworms will efficiently incorporate that golden layer into the earth.  It’s a process that greatly enhances the health of the good microbial activity necessary to help your plant roots easily assimilate nutrients they need to flourish.

Insect Egg Mass cradled inside dead fallen leaf
Photo by Grandma Pearl

But I also save some leaves for my birds.  Ground forages especially love to sift through the dead foliage for tiny critters and their eggs.  Birds like juncos, sparrow, robins and catbirds especially enjoy the millions of insects to be found in the mulched leaves.   This ‘top dressing’ I save for under my shrubs and berry bushes.  A thick layer serves to protect the roots during the bitter cold of winter.

Before it does turn really cold, though, my backyard birds will benefit from the extra nutrition found in that leaf mulch buffet table I set out for them!  Some of my birds wait until later to leave on their migratory journeys southward.  For them, this leaf mulch is an extra food source to help them on their way.

So do your backyard birds a favor, and leave some leaves for them!

Grandma Pearl

Confessions from a Tree Hugger

A Walk in My Autumn Woods

 Juncos I Have Come to Know

Are Your Bird Houses Ready For Fall and Winter?