Positioning Your Bird Food To Maximum Effect: Guest Post

Do you have bird feeders but no birds?  This is a great guest post by John Harris that can give you some insight on why and how to fix.

Many homeowners enjoy having wild birds in their garden.  Seeing our feathered friends darting from hedge to hedge and feeding their young is a real joy.  Having the birds in the garden can also be a welcome distraction to our children and grandchildren, whilst providing the opportunity to develop their appreciation of nature.  Buying wild bird food is a great way to increase the number of birds that you have visiting your garden.  However, it isn’t as straightforward as simply buying some seed or nuts and then hanging it or scattering it anywhere.  In order to maximise the impact of your wild bird food you must carefully consider where you place it.
Preferred feeding style
Not all bird varieties like to use the same style of feeding.  For example, you will never see a blackbird hanging from a bird feeder in the same way you will a blue tit.  They much prefer to do their feeding off the ground.  In fact, most songbirds like to be at ground level when eating.  Smaller and more brightly coloured birds, such as finches and the already mentioned tits, are more nimble and lighter, meaning they can hang without any problems.  So make sure that you position your wild bird food accordingly, dependant on the kinds of birds you are looking to attract.  If you are keen to listen to the songbirds, whilst watching the pretty smaller birds; consider placing some food on bird tables and the floor in addition to utilising hanging feeders. 
Bird safety
We humans are lucky in that we don’t have to worry about our own safety whilst we are tucking into our meals.  The exact opposite is true for birds; who are never more vulnerable than when feeding.  To help keep them as safe from predators as possible you should position their food carefully.  Hanging bird feeders must be placed as far away as possible from walls and flat roofs - which are of course great places for cats to lie in wait.  Ideally there will also be a hedge or some other form of vegetation near to the feeder, providing a place for the birds to retreat should a predator show its face.  When positioning food on the floor for ground feeders, be sure to place it out in the open.  This allows the birds a clear view of their surroundings on all sides and reduces the likelihood of a predator catching them unawares.
During cold weather
When the temperature drops many insects die off; this leads to a shortage of food for birds.  As such you may find an increase of bird traffic in your garden as they search out alternative food sources.  However, it may be that even though the birds are present in your garden, they still aren’t using the feeders or eating the wild bird food that you have scattered on the ground.  In both instances this may be because the food is positioned in an area where the wind is quite strong.  If possible try to place the food in an area of the garden that is better protected from the wind.  It is also a good idea to put the food that you place on the floor on feeding trays, so you can bring it in on an evening and prevent it from freezing.

If you are a  homeowner looking to attract birds to your garden then John Harris recommends Peckish wild bird food. 

{Pinterest Inspired}: Bird Feeders

I got the idea and instructions for these here via Pinterest. I doubted the process.  I guess that I forgot how sticky gelatine really is.  This worked great.  We doubled the recipe and made 4 big feeders.

Thursday was National Bird Day.  At least it was according to Holiday Insights.  So - last night, Taft and I worked on a few gifts for the birds in our neighborhood.  We even had all the ingredients already.

Here is what you need:

• 3/4 cup birdseed
• 1/4 cup water
• 1 small envelope of Knox gelatin
• twine or string
• cookie cutters, molds or mason jar lids
• wax paper

You need to put the water and the gelatin in a sauce pan.  Heat to a simmer and stir constantly until the gelatin is dissolved.  Remove from and the heat and let it cool a minute.  Then add in the birdseed.  It says to add a little extra seed if there is liquid left in the bottom of the pan.
Lay your cookie cutters (or anything that you are using as a mold) onto the waxed paper.  Fill them half full of birdseed mixture.  Add your twine or ribbon.  Then finish filling the mold with the birdseed.  (This makes the ribbon or twine sandwiched into the mold.)  Press down on the birdseed until the mold is full and it is packed tight.
Let them dry overnight and removed from the molds.  Then we hung on trees in the front yard.

Pets, Pets, Pets

Taft has a new techer at preschool and she has asked for a little help with coming up with crafts for the kids.  Each week they have a shape, color, and theme.  This week at Taft's preschool, the theme is pets. The first project that came to mind was a pet collage. I happened to be fortunate enough to have a HUGE supply of outdated magazines. I work in a office where we take the old ones out of the waiting room and I have been collecting them. I guess I somehow knew that they would one day come in handy.

I cut out every dog, cat, bird, fish, and hamster that I could find.  Mostly pet food ads.  I love all the different animals that I found.  I bagged them all up with a sheet of off white paper for each child.  I can't wait to see what animals Taft picks to go on his collage. 

The next pet project was a bird. When I think about pet birds, I think about little blue and yellow canaries. I just started with a simple coloring sheet that you can get here. I printed them on white cardstoock and made a BIG bag of yellow and blue tissue squares for the children to glue on the birds as feathers. I think they would be really cute if the birds were cut out afterwards and hung around a room.
I found it easiest to cut the tissue with a paper cuter. I use a Caterpillar. It made even neat cuts which is not easy with tissue. You can get a big pack of pastel tissue at Dollar Tree so it makes for a very inexpensive craft.

 I also did a fish bowl. I found the idea here. I loved the simple bowl and the fish but Taft is only 2 and his class is not working on numbers. I used the fish as a template to cut out orange and yellow fish for the children to glue in their bowl. I am hoping they will color their water blue.

I also had to make a change to the bowl. I scanned it in to the computer and enlarged it. It was then printed on cardstock.
Here are some links to some other cute projects and coloring sheets for animals/pets:
Fish Paper Plate Craft
Fish Themed Coloring Sheets
Cat Themed Coloring Sheets
Dog Toilet Paper Roll Craft
Turtle Craft