There’s frost in the forecast for tonight. Many of you may have already had your first frost of the season, and some areas have even had their first snows. For those of us who live in a climate with cold winters, there are a few things we have consider for keeping our backyard birds healthy and comfortable and safe.
I don’t know about you, but am grateful that so many of our fine feathered friends have decided to hang around for the winter. When I heard the forecast, the first thing that came to mind was the bird baths. I am not fortunate enough to have a running stream through my back yard, or a pond. Water in the bird baths is subject to freezing if I don’t take steps to prevent it. The birds are no different from you and me. They need good clean water for drinking and bathing, and that means in the winter too.
So under a cool but blue and cloudless sky, I set up my heated birdbaths. I have 2, though one would probably suffice. One sits on the ground near the patio door. (It helps to keep my indoor cats amused when I provide entertainment for them near their favorite sliding door). The heating technology of the ground bird bath will withstand the coldest climate. This means in sub-zero temperatures this birdbath will be totally ice free. The other is an auto refill bird bath that sits on a pedestal base.
Call me l lazy, but this keeps me from having to plow through the cold snow to fill it once the snow comes. You will want to either put your concrete bird baths away for the winter or make sure they have a heater in them to keep the water from freezing or the frozen water is apt to crack them and they are much too costly to allow that to happen when it is easily preventable.
Once the bathing stations were out, clean and filled with water, I heading to the storage room to get the suet holders . Suet and fats are essential to our cold blooded feathered friends. They had decided to delight us with their presence through the winter. Suet will keep happy and hanging around a lot. And, lazy old me, I use the double cake suet holder so I don’t have to trudge out too frequently to refill it.
There is no reason to spend a lot on suet cakes. The birds will flock to the least expensive ones you can find. I purchase them by the case to keep the cost down too.
I increase the Black oil sunflower seeds in the winter and keep the finches happy with the thistle or Nygier seed all winter long. And finally, since I like to keep my cats and grandchildren thrilled with the birds and their shenanigans, I added a window feeder too.
You can attract birds to your back yard all year long. Let them thrill you with their parties in the bird baths and their free and fancy flights from baths to feeders and suet cakes
I don’t know about you, but am grateful that so many of our fine feathered friends have decided to hang around for the winter. When I heard the forecast, the first thing that came to mind was the bird baths. I am not fortunate enough to have a running stream through my back yard, or a pond. Water in the bird baths is subject to freezing if I don’t take steps to prevent it. The birds are no different from you and me. They need good clean water for drinking and bathing, and that means in the winter too.
So under a cool but blue and cloudless sky, I set up my heated birdbaths. I have 2, though one would probably suffice. One sits on the ground near the patio door. (It helps to keep my indoor cats amused when I provide entertainment for them near their favorite sliding door). The heating technology of the ground bird bath will withstand the coldest climate. This means in sub-zero temperatures this birdbath will be totally ice free. The other is an auto refill bird bath that sits on a pedestal base.
Call me l lazy, but this keeps me from having to plow through the cold snow to fill it once the snow comes. You will want to either put your concrete bird baths away for the winter or make sure they have a heater in them to keep the water from freezing or the frozen water is apt to crack them and they are much too costly to allow that to happen when it is easily preventable.
Once the bathing stations were out, clean and filled with water, I heading to the storage room to get the suet holders . Suet and fats are essential to our cold blooded feathered friends. They had decided to delight us with their presence through the winter. Suet will keep happy and hanging around a lot. And, lazy old me, I use the double cake suet holder so I don’t have to trudge out too frequently to refill it.
There is no reason to spend a lot on suet cakes. The birds will flock to the least expensive ones you can find. I purchase them by the case to keep the cost down too.
I increase the Black oil sunflower seeds in the winter and keep the finches happy with the thistle or Nygier seed all winter long. And finally, since I like to keep my cats and grandchildren thrilled with the birds and their shenanigans, I added a window feeder too.
You can attract birds to your back yard all year long. Let them thrill you with their parties in the bird baths and their free and fancy flights from baths to feeders and suet cakes
1 comment:
Hi Judy, Very nice topic. Just as we put up food for the winter, get out our gloves and hats, winterize our cars, we get ready for winter accomadations for our winter friends.
We put away the birdbaths today at the local park as we don't want them damaged by the freeze and thaw. We activated the bird feeders as we don't feed them in the summer.
Happy bird watching everyone.
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