Full Circle

Bird Wars

We cut the bottoms out of some pears and apples and poked them on the ends of branches for our fruit-eating birds.



We never suspected we'd start a food fight. Here's this little guy, happily pecking away at his apple...

Aaack! Who's this?


Attack!!

The photos are taken through the window, so you can see some reflection on them, but I was excited to get all this drama on "film". They ate the fruit so much, it all eventually fell to the ground where they continued to eat until they could pick up the cores and fly away with them!

For The Birds

 

Being National Bird Feeding Month and all, the kids and I thought we'd make something special for the birds visiting our backyard. We seem to have so many more this year than we usually do.

I used a utility knife and cut out letters from cardboard to spell the word "WELCOME". I also poked holes in the top of the letters for stringing. Then, we spread peanut butter on both sides and coated it well with bird seed.





The letters are surprisingly heavy after you're finished. We strung twine through the letters to make a garland, then hung them in the trees.


It wasn't too long before the word got out!


If you want to make some similar at home, I have a couple of suggestions...

This is a very Messy project (note capital M). Protect your surface and your floor if you need to. We went through a jar of peanut butter to finish all the letters. You'll definitely get bird seed in your peanut butter jar, so, if you have any left, reserve it for later projects, not for eating ;)

I used thick cardboard cut from boxes for the letters. It needs to be thick to hold up to the peanut butter and seed.

Use a good heavy twine, light-weight rope or something similar for the garland. I thought our twine might not be strong enough to hold all the letters and the birds that would land on it, but so far, so good.

We've had a LOT of birds already, sometimes I'll look out the window and see it covered up with customers. Makes me feel like spring isn't too far away!

Nesting

As a follow up to our book the other day, we thought it would be fun to make some nests of our own. We gathered some materials: Sculpey clay, feathers, twigs, beads and a variety of string and thread. We also used some hay from our guinea pig.

We shaped the Sculpey then added beads and string before putting it in the oven to bake.

Afterwards, we let the nest cool then glued on feathers, hay, twigs, etc.

Looks cozy, don't you think? ;)

Did you know February is National Bird Feeding Month?

Click here to learn how to make your backyard a sanctuary for birds.

And So They Build

I'm always drawn to books with beautiful illustrations especially if the pictures are from nature, so when I saw this book a while ago at the book store, it's no surprise it ended up on my bookshelf at home. And So They Build is written and illustrated by the award-winning artist Bert Kitchen and can be enjoyed by any age. Don't be deceived by the cover, this book contains information about a variety of fascinating animals that build intricate and complex nests for their young, not just birds. The bird on the cover is the Satin Bowerbird and we thought it was one of the most interesting animals in the book. We did some research and found this video clip hosted by David Attenborough. Take a moment and click through, you won't regret it! Here are a few photos from the book to give you an idea how exquisite the artwork is.

Male Satin Bowerbird

Cubitermes Termites

Harvest Mouse

Swallows

 

Pinecone Bird Feeders

A little late posting, but this is one of the things we did to celebrate Earth Day. First, we collected a lot of pine cones, not hard to do in our area!

Then, we smeared the cones with peanut butter and rolled them in bird seed.

We made little slip knots and "roped" the pine cones with twine to hang in the trees.

It's helpful to have a sink full of soapy water ready-to-go for messy hands.

I was concerned about using peanut butter for the birds, seems like I had read somewhere it wasn't good for them, but I did a search and couldn't find anything to substantiate the rumor. I found this article that says it's not a problem.

Aren't they pretty? We made a dozen and hung them all around the yard. Now, we're hoping we get some hungry customers!

Early Birds

Lucky us! A flock of Cedar-Wax Wings descended upon one of our crab apples and proceeded to strip it of all berries throughout the day today. We spied on them off and on, watching as one would land, then another and they'd hang out for a while, grabbing a berry here and there, then fly away. We could see them all chatting together in a much larger Aspen tree. Then, in a mad, first-come-first-served rush, they'd ALL mob our little crab apple and pluck berries in a gobbling frenzy. They'd be back in the big Aspen as quickly as they came. I managed to get a few good photos of these smart-looking little fellas.

I also caught a photo of an American Robin.

I tried to get a picture of some Black-Capped Chickadees, but they were too fast for this photographer! We could hear their distinctive "fee bee" call however and it gave the kids a clever idea. We opened our Bird Songs book and pushed the button to hear the Chickadee call. Sure enough, the bird outside answered our "book's" bird call! He went back and forth whistling to our book as the kids repeatedly pushed the button. We were all enchanted! To hear the Black-Capped Chickadee song and others, visit this website.

No Exotic Bird Names Here

I spied these beautiful birds as we were out for a drive today and zipped over to get a closer look. I took some pictures and was so excited thinking I couldn't wait to get home to look them up in my Birds of Idaho book. I kept thinking they must have some really neat exotic name because they were such striking birds. As I looked at the pictures in the book, I was saying to myself, "OK, they were black birds with yellow heads, black with yellow heads," and, Voila! There they were, the photo was exactly as I'd seen them with the very un-exotic name... "Yellow-Headed Blackbird". Oh well, certainly there must be a Williamson's Sapsucker or Cordilleran Flycatcher somewhere in the future!