Birdwatching at the DC

A month or so ago, when my mom gave me a shepperd's hook that mounts to deck, I hung a bird feeder right in front of the front window of the playroom at the day care.  It seemed like it took forever for the birds to find my offerings.  I almost got discouraged thinking the feeder was too close to the house.  But finally I spied a few House Finches had begun to frequent and then a few Juncos, a few Chickadees and today we had a Red Bellied Woodpecker.  I was so very excited.  I called the kids over to watch as he took seeds from the feeder and flew to the Dogwood tree in the front yard to crack them open.  His red head really caught their eye.

To my delight the kids have begun to take an interest in our feathered visitors.  I even caught one of the boys at the front window with the play binoculars and I asked "what are you looking at" and he replied "I'm looking at the birds."  It just tickled me.  I wanted to make some sort of a log of the birds we've seen. I pulled out a felt board (that won't lay flat since the day I made it) and printed pictures of each of the birds we have seen so far.  I glued them to more felt along with the name of their breed, not specifics, and cut them out to go on the felt board.  It hangs next to the window where we bird watch.  It will help them recognize birds that frequent by picture.  I will add more birds as they come along and plan to offer a different selection of food for them this winter. 

I can't wait until tomorrow when I bust out the homemade suet I made yesterday. Boy is that woodpecker going to be jolly!

Feedin' The Birdies

Hi Y'all and a very good morning too you! Last weekend... not this past one.. the one before, I did a lot of fun stuff I was just too busy at work to blog about it so I'm passing it on this week. For one of my birthday presents this year my dear sweet Mama sent me a subscription to Birds & Blooms magazine. I had a subscription years ago and wound up cancelling for one reason or another but certainly not because I didn't like the magazine. Well I received my first of I think twelve issues and I am once again loving it! I have poured over this issue more than a dozen times.

Last Sunday I decided to try my hand at making my own suet to feed the birds with. I have a couple of bird food recipe books but haven't tried much in them. This issue had several recipes that I was more than willing to give a try. Now you know that I will never pass on a recipe that I haven't tried myself. This recipe is on page 37 of the October/November issue of Birds & Blooms magazine. I'm not one to really go looking for links but I'm sure there is one to the magazine and maybe even this recipe but you'll have to look it up yourself and I hope I don't get in trouble for passing it on. With that said... here is what I did.

Tried and True Suet

2 cups lard
1 cup peanut butter
2 cups cornmeal


Melt lard and peanut butter in a sauce pan and add cornmeal. Pour into a 9x13 inch cake pan and put into the freezer. I also added 1/4 cup birdseed and 1/4 cup crushed cereal that had been opened for a little too long in my opinion but the birds don't care. Add your extras such as raisins, crackers crumbs, crushed cereal, nuts or oatmeal before pouring into pan. Now if you finish reading this you will find out what to do next.

I have to tell on myself. After I made this suet and put it into the freezer I got to reading other recipes. Almost all of them had something to say about lining the pan which I did not do. I just rolled my eyes. Before this I had poured a small amount into a little bowl and put it into the refrigerator because I was just so excited. Well it stuck.. big time. Needless to say I waited four days, dreading the event of digging my suet out of my cake pan. Now I'm not certain to say that it was because I used a metal cake pan but this may just be the cause. I retrieved my suet on Thursday and to my delight if I had turned the pan over it would have fallen right out! What a relief! I cut the frozen suet into six squares, stored five of them in separate sandwich freezer bags and put one right outside into my suet feeder cage.

So far so good the birds seem to love it. It may just be the time of year, but it has lasted for about five days now. I estimate using one a week until winter gets here and then we'll see. There is another recipe that I intend on trying once I've gotten up enough leftover bacon fat so I'll report back when I try it. It will eliminate buying lard. And Hey if you want me to make you some I surely will let you buy some! Making it sure beats buying it especially when you can get rid of some of the older things in your pantry. The enjoyment of watching the birds slowly devour my product just tickles me too.