Bird feeding can provide you and your family with some cheerful relief on a cold wintry day when its too cold for you to be outdoors. It also provides a valuable safety net for our feathered friends, to help insure their survival over winter.
One of the neatest things you can do is just sit at a window for hours, and watch the antics of the birds as they feed and frolic. You will quickly take notice how some birds seem to dominate the feeder, thats their nature. Add in a couple of squirrels and some bluejays to the bird crowd and you are bound to have lots of activity and excitement.
The advanced birders are on the alert to identify any unusual birds that drop by for a quick snack. While the novice is happy if he or she can just identify one, two, or maybe three different species.
With the weather turning colder and the daylight hours decreasing, you should have a steady stream of customers at your bird feeders these days. When natural food sources are deplete or maybe covered by snow for extended periods of time, your bird feeding efforts are crucial to the survival of our feathered friends.
Your bird feeding station doesn't have to be anything fancy, it can simply be a spot on the ground where you sprinkle some birdseed...to one of those fancy new feeders that can dispense anywhere from 2-5 different kinds of seed mixtures, at the same time.
A good rule of thumb is that if you start feeding the birds, you should try to keep your feeders filled all winter long. The main reason for this is because the birds get used to coming there for food, and any sudden changes could leave them unable to find food, and possibly lead to starvation.
- finches..............millet and wheat--scratch grains
- chickadees........sunflower seeds and suet
- titmice...............suet and sunflower seeds
- woodpeckers......suet and sunflower seeds
- thrushes............apple chunks, rasins, oranges
- bluejays.............sunflower seeds and fruit slices
- nuthatches.........sunflower seeds and suet
- morning doves.....cracked corn and scratch grains
