Backyard banquet is for the birds

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By BOB REEVES/Lincoln Journal Star

Home gardeners, who already are pursuing the nation’s most popular hobby, may want to try the nation’s second most-popular hobby: backyard bird feeding.

“It’s a good family activity,” said Soni Cochran, pest and wildlife expert with the Lancaster County Extension of the University of Nebraska. “It’s also a very inexpensive hobby — it’s up to you how much money you want to spend.”

Bird feeding is a year-round hobby, but feathered friends especially appreciate it during the cold months, she said.

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A white-breasted nuthatch takes advantage of a heated birdbath in Jan Vollmar's backyard. During the winter, many of the natural sources of water for birds are frozen, making heated birdbaths an important resource for birds. (ERIC GREGORY/Lincoln Journal Star)

Birds that don’t go south for the winter must rely on a more restricted diet than they do the rest of the year — usually consisting mainly of fruits and seeds that remain on trees, bushes or flower stalks. Getting a serving of their favorite seeds from a feeder can be a big boost to their health and happiness.

Many kinds of seeds are available, but what attracts the widest variety of birds is black oil sunflower seeds, Cochran said. Black oil seeds have thinner shells and are easier for many birds to crack than the larger striped sunflower seeds. They’re also very nutritious. If there’s a mixture of seeds in a feeder, many species will go for the sunflower seeds first and leave the others.

“If you don’t want the waste of hulls under the feeder, you can buy sunflower seeds that are already hulled,” she said. “But the birds will really go through them fast.”

Cardinals and grosbeaks enjoy sunflower seeds, and many also like safflower seeds. Blackbirds like cracked corn, and doves prefer corn, milo and millet. Finches like thistles.

But if you buy a wild bird seed mixture at a supermarket or discount store, you may find that it has a lot of non-preferred seeds — such as milo or buckwheat — that birds will throw on the ground without eating, leaving them to grow up as weeds next spring.

To attract the best variety of birds, you should have several different kinds of feeders. Some birds prefer ground feeders while others like platform feeders several feet in the air.

Small finches and chickadees like the small-tube feeders hanging from a tree limb. Woodpeckers and nuthatches like suet feeders, which provide a mixture of hard-fat meat suet and cornmeal or seeds, often in a hanging block or log.

Another form of feeder that attracts many small birds is a mass of seeds stuck together and formed into a shape, such as a bell, which can be hung from a tree or pole.

Dried fruits, such as raisins or currants, are also good additions to a bird feeding station. You can also include squash or pumpkin seeds from your own kitchen — be sure you dry them well so they don’t mold.

Cochran has been feeding birds all her life. Her family moved to a farm near Denton when she was 12, and they always had lots of bird feeders up all year round. Her parents, Glen and Jan Vollmar, still live on the farm, and they still feed birds.

They have several different styles of feeders right outside their sunroom, where they — and their cats — can watch them all day long.

A continual parade of birds visits throughout the year. About three years ago, Jan Vollmar took part in a two-day winter bird count sponsored by Cornell University, and counted 22 different varieties of birds at her feeders.

“Instead of flowers, I ask people to give me birdseed,” she said. “ I don’t care what they bring. When I put mixed seed out, some of the birds will kick out the millet and milo, but then ground feeders like cardinals and junkos will eat it.”

The spilled seed causes some weeds in the spring, but they’re easy to pull up, she said.

The Vollmars especially enjoy the small woodpeckers that come to munch on sunflower seeds and suet blocks in the winter. They have red-headed, downy and hairy woodpeckers, as well as nuthatches.

“One bird we don’t like is the Cooper’s hawk,” Jan Vollmar said. “If one comes up, the little birds absolutely freeze. It’s important to have some bushes nearby where the birds can escape.”

She knows the same cardinal has been coming to the feeder all year because “he always fights with his reflection in our big window.”

They tie ribbons around the window to keep birds from flying against it. They have found that keeping the feeders close to the window helps prevent collisions, because when they start to fly they tend to go away from the house rather than toward it.

Having the feeders close also makes it more fun for all the family bird-watchers. “Our three cats sit and talk to the birds, and lick their chops, but the birds know they can’t get them,” she said.

One reason to feed birds year-round, she said, is that birds need extra food while they’re raising their young — and then they bring their babies to the feeder for an extra-cute display. “If I can help make their life a little bit better, that’s great,” she said.

For Christmas, Cochran said she always brings her mom a big bag of birdseed.

Cochran lives in Wilber, on a city lot with lots of trees and bushes. Besides bird feeders, many plants provide fruits and seeds for wildlife throughout the year — including pin oaks (with acorns for squirrels), hackberries, crab apples, serviceberries, amur honeysuckle (with red berries) and Nanking cherries. She also leaves the seedheads of sunflowers, coneflowers and other seed pods in the garden throughout the winter, to provide extra food for birds.

Instead of discarding a live Christmas tree, after the holidays she ties it up in the garden to provide winter shelter for birds.

Some people feed squirrels with special feeders that hold a cob of corn or a tray of nuts. To keep squirrels out of bird feeders, you can add baffles to the post or an umbrella-like cover over the top to discourage furry friends from stealing the seed. Squirrel-proof feeders, made of metal so they can’t be chewed, designed so the squirrel’s weight will close the feeder opening, are also available.

Cochran makes her own suet logs for woodpeckers, stuffing a suet-and-peanut butter mixture into feeding holes drilled into a wooden log. “I keep a log hanging in my laundry room — just stuff it with suet and hang it out,” she said.

It’s very important to clean feeders regularly, she said, to make them more attractive to birds and help prevent the spread of diseases. They should be cleaned once every two weeks, or more often during times of heavy use.

Scrub feeders with soap and water, then dip in a solution of one part bleach and nine parts water. Rinse well and allow to dry thoroughly before refilling them with seed.

It’s also important to be sure birds have plenty of water in the winter. A birdbath, especially one with a heater to keep it from freezing, gives birds a place to drink as well as to bathe.

For more tips on feeding birds — including instructions on how to make your own suet mixture — visit www.lancaster.unl.edu/pest and click on “birds.”

Wintertime tips for backyard wildlife

Make the holiday season happy for backyard wildlife with some suggestions from The Humane Society of the United States.

“Although wild animals are able to adapt to survive cold winter temperatures and food limitations, there are small things that people can do to help them this time of year,” said Laura Simon, field director of the Humane Society’s urban wildlife program. “We suggest several ‘gifts’ that can give our backyard neighbors a warm boost during the holidays:” 

-- Keep bird feeders full in the winter since food availability is very limited for non-migratory birds.

-- Fill large pine cones with peanut butter and roll them in sunflower seeds. Attach a string to the top and hang from trees for birds.

-- Invest in a heated birdbath and keep it filled all winter long. Birds need the water at this time of year when most natural sources may be frozen. 

-- Put decorative snowflakes four inches apart on any windows where birds might hit, or have hit in the past. 

-- Put a cover over any window wells around your house to prevent animals from becoming stuck. Animals that have poor climbing abilities, such as skunks, commonly fall into window wells. 

-- Use only environmentally friendly sidewalk salt for melting ice, such as Safe Paws Ice Melter. Regular sidewalk salts pollute the environment and can irritate the paws of cats and dogs. 

-- Get to know your backyard wild neighbors by going on an adventure around your own yard in the snow. Try to identify different species by looking at tracks and other signs they leave behind, such as partial remains of food like cracked nuts or twigs. Buy a good wildlife tracking guide — or give one as a gift — to learn more and to better appreciate these animals.

Reach Bob Reeves at 473-7212 or breeves@journalstar.com.