Concise guide to attracting birds: Suet. Beef suet is the fat found around the kidneys, and is available, usually free, from the butcher at the supermarket. Suet is a high calorie food and is favored by normally insect eating birds, particularly woodpeckers. It can be put out just as it comes. It can be packed into holes drilled in a small log and hung up from a branch or attached to the seed feeder with hardware cloth.
Birds expected: Downy Woodpecker, Red-bellied Woodpecker, Hairy
Woodpecker, Carolina Chickadees, Tufted Titmouse, White and Red-breasted
Nuthatches, Mockingbird and Starlings. Starlings can be a nuisance running off the
other birds. To discourage
the Starling there is a feeder shown below that offers the suet upside down. Starlings are
unable to hang upside down for long.
Concise guide to attracting birds: Magic Mix.
In addition to suet, many people prefer a concoction known as "Magic
Mix". Ellen Stern posted a query to the Arbird list about favorite recipes
for Magic Mix. The suggestions submitted were compiled by Ellen and are shown
below.
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Ellen Stern's Magic Mix:
The base is about 2 parts lard, bacon grease or other grease drippings to 1 part
peanut butter, melted and mixed together. Chop fine and add old [unsalted, raw]
nuts, raisins, craisins or other dried fruit--the older and harder the fruit is
the better it'll chop in a coffee grinder or small processor/chopper. Then add
as much corn meal [I use yellow] as needed to make the mix thick but still soft
enough to smooth with firm pressure from the back of a spoon. My mama said it
should be about right when your arm feels like it's gonna fall off.
P.S. A couple of things I've discovered: 1.) grits make it set up like concrete;
and, 2.) red pepper is initially irritating to squirrels but once they get used
to it they expect you to provide the beer, too.
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From Evelyn Ford: Below is a link to a lot of recipes for feeding birds: http://birding.about.com/library/weekly/aa031300a.htm.
When a recipe calls for flour, I use whole wheat flour. Sometimes I'll save my
eggs shells...I bake them in a 250deg. oven first, for 20 min, to guard against
salmonella...then I place them in a baggie and crush them using a rolling pin,
then add them to my recipe. It's calcium & "grit" for the birds.
I'll also use leftover cereal, like Total or Bran Flakes (crushed up) or
Oatmeal. They seem to like whatever I feed them....wish I could say the same for
my family ;-)
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Another great link came from Toni Davidson:
"The Baltimore Bird Club page at http://bcpl.net/~tross/by/backyard.html
has a section called Birdfeeding which has a Suet page, and other treat
recipes."
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Jean Williams wrote:
"Oats/Oatmeal is another good addition."
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Mary Alice Beer sent this pseudo suet recipe:
1/2 c. crunchy peanut butter
1 1/2 c. lard
1/3 c. sugar
1 c. flour
3 c. cornmeal ( I like yellow - the birds don't care)
1 c. quick cook oats
Melt p'nut butter and lard in microwave - about 1 1/2 minute. Add to dry
ingredients which have been WELL mixed. Mixture will seem a bit soft but will
set when it cools completely. ====================================
UP | Water guide | Seed Guide | Suet Guide | Attracting hummingbirds | Planting for Birds | Project Feederwatch by Cornell University's Lab. of Ornithology.|
