Avian Testimonials

Early this week, with the ground dry and parched and the temperature plunging like an elevator in free-fall, the birds at our feeders were ravenous. It seemed like a good time to mix up some suet.

Suet is easy to make. Here's my recipe:

1 cup lard
1 cup crunchy peanut butter
1 cup oatmeal
2 cups unsalted sunflower seeds, shelled
1 cup flaxseed meal or yellow cornmeal
1/2 cup raisins

Melt the lard and peanut butter in a large saucepan, and mix in the other ingredients. Spoon into molds (I used the bottom 2 inches of plastic cups), press the mix together, and freeze. Sometimes, I also press the mix into pinecones.

When the suet was frozen and out of the molds, I made a hole with a skinny nail through the center of each one, then threaded a thin wire through the hole, and hung them in a tree near our feeder, where the birds were sure to notice them.

It's always nice when your cooking is appreciated. 

When the food is devoured and they come back for more, it's better than 5 stars on the internet.

Consider these photos visual testimonials.

Of course, there's Winterberry for desert.

Linking with Wild Bird Wednesday

and Saturday's Critters

Downy Woodpecker

Linking with Wild Bird Wednesday

and Saturday's Critters

Early Birds

It was still dark on a recent morning when Don stepped out on the front porch on his way to feed the creatures, as he does early every day.  Even before he glanced up, he could sense something watching him.  On the top of a rock pillar about 12 feet away stood a screech owl, still as a statue, peering down.

Don backed slowly into the house and woke me up to tell me about it.  Suddenly wide awake, I stepped into my slippers and grabbed my camera.  I flashed one shot from the doorway, took a few steps, and flashed another.  As I moved closer, the beleaguered bird granted just one more portrait photo before flying silently into the darkness.

Our visitor a few days earlier had not been so quiet.  The rat-a-tat-tat of a woodpecker had called me to investigate. At close range it sounded like a jackhammer on the front porch.   To my relief, I found a downy woodpecker snatching goodies from a mud dauber's nest that we should have cleaned off after the first frost.

In the summer, mud daubers, a kind of wasp, build nests of mud and lay their eggs, then stuff the chambers with spiders that they have paralyzed.  When the eggs hatch, the larva find their Big Macs already packaged and ready to eat.  This time, however, the woodpecker had beaten them to the take-out window.

Meanwhile, from the stands, 

a normally noisy bluejay watched silently
and was probably wishing he had called in his own order.

Oh well, an acorn would have to do.

Linking with Wild Bird Wednesday

Spring Gold

After a colorless winter,

 the earth heaves a sigh of relief;

  its breath rustles feathers, spins wildflowers into a dance, and stirs the dogwoods.

A chickadee examines a home in the dogwood tree;

  What could be nicer than a curtain of lacy white?

Gold finches, so drab in the winter,

have put their down jackets in mothballs,

 and now bid for attention as the males molt into their breeding colors...

and animate the forest with their brilliance.

There is gold in these hills,

not the kind of gold that many seek,

but warm and animated.

Who could ask for more?






Linking with Weekly Top Shot

Stripes and Polka Dots

Woodpeckers are always a welcome sight around here.

At first light, this yellow-shafted flicker visited the birdbath...

and drank its fill.

From a nearby tree, 

the diminutive downy woodpecker looked up from its perch...

and flew off into the blue.

Linking with Wild Bird Wednesday
and Weekly Top Shot