Winter Care of the Birds.
If you wish to attract birds about the house during the winter, do not wait until the ground is covered with snow, but begin in the Fall to scatter hayseed from the barn or stable floor, on the bare ground about the yard.
Millet or any bird seed will do as well. Hang some pieces of suet or beef-trimmings on the branches of the trees beyond the reach of cats and dogs. If at first these pieces are widely scattered at points radiating from the house as a center, your success should be assured. Your lures will keep best at this season if tied on the shade side of a tree trunk; but later in the winter they should be put on the sunny side. They should be well wound to limbs with twine, or covered with wire netting, so that neither jays or crows can carry them off bodily.
They are now ready to attract and hold birds that might otherwise pass on to the south. The birds may not find the food at once, but usually they will find it sooner or later. When the chickadees have discovered it we are ready for the next move.
Fresh meat or suet is now put up on the trees nearest the house, to accustom the birds to coming there.
Many types of feeders can be made, varying the plain wood shelf, to the artistic food shelters of natural limbs and bark. Some feeders can be placed on movable pivots on poles with extended vanes in front so that the wind will always cause them to be in a sheltered position. This type of feeding shelf, Fig.4, and others are shown on Plate20.
Birdhouses Made at Rochester, N. Y.
Birdhouses Made at Rochester, N. Y.
Birdhouses Made at Rochester, N. Y.
The window shelf shown on Plate20, Fig.1, is convenient and can be easily watched and tended. Fig.2shows a feeding stick. Melted suet is poured into the holes and allowed to cool and the birds eat from the outside.
The cocoanut larder is inexpensive and easily set up. One end of a cocoanut is broken in as shown and the birds have access to the meat. Fig.4is one type of rustic feeder which has proven popular.
The following birds have been attracted about local feeders: Chickadees, Fig.3, nuthatches, woodpeckers, juncos, and even the wary jay, Fig.13. Figure14shows a simple form of feeding shelf with sides of glass. A hairy woodpecker can be seen just below the upper box.
Corn, suet, scraps of meat, crumbs from the table, pieces of doughnut, nuts, sunflower seed, frozen milk and many other food materials may be utilized, if one wishes to experiment.
These methods of attracting and domesticating the birds will be found full of interest, and in some cases our efforts will be rewarded by having some little feathered ball jump fearlessly on our fingers for a choice titbit.
The birds will furnish instruction and amusement to the household throughout the year and a vast amount of good may be accomplished in this manner, adding greatly to the comfort and happiness of our wild bird friends.