Spring
2013 - Welcome to the first day of Spring! It's
3 degrees outside this morning, the coldest first day of
spring here in 40 years. Believe it or not, our
hummingbirds are on their way back up north. Track their
progress at this great site:
www.hummingbirds.net
Enjoy the changing
seasons, and as always, enjoy feeding your backyard
friends!
Be
sure to LIKE us
to follow the continuing homemade bird food
saga!
Winter
2012 - Winter, and
it's cold, have arrived to the upper midwest. Your backyard
birds sure could use a helping hand. Now is
a great time to
provide them with high energy
foods, including those with ingredients such as peanut butter,
nuts, pumpkin or squash
seeds, or the
always
favorite suet. Check out our many
recipes!
Enjoy the changing seasons,
and as always, enjoy feeding your backyard
friends!
Fall 2012 - It's that time of year when you start thinking of
fall migration. Hearing a flock of Canadian geese flying
overhead or sitting in your backyard wondering where your
Baltimore Orioles have gone, tells us that fall is in the air.
As you
know, not all birds migrate south. Some, like the Northern
Cardinal, stay in their primary locations year-round. Some,
like the American Robin, may travel a few hundred miles. In
fact, if you live in Missouri, you may begin to see a whole
new population of Robins. The Robins you've seen all summer
may, during their migration, head south to Texas, while the
Robins you see during the winter may have
nested in Canada.
Then there is the Ruby-Throated Hummingbird, which will travel
thousands of miles and winter between southern Mexico and
northern Panama!
Enjoy feeding your
backyard birds!
Summer
2012
- Now that we
are in the dog days of summer, many of our birds have taken to
many native foods, including
insects,
ants and berries.
Now is the time to entice your birds to
either continue eating at your feeders or to come on back!
Try
these favorites, proven to work;
Nectar ,Jelly
,
Bread
, and the always
dependable
Sunflowers
.
Enjoy feeding
your backyard birds!
Spring 2012 - Spring has
arrived! Many of our birds that left us over the winter are on
their way back up north. We are
sure to soon be enjoying
our Orioles, Hummingbirds, Bluebirds and many others. That
means a whole new variety of bird
foods to prepare,
including those with fruits and nuts and the always popular NECTAR.
It's
also time to clean out those bluebird houses from last year's
nests. We like to keep our bluebird houses open until we
see the bluebirds nearby. That will help keep sparrows and
wrens out of them until the bluebirds have a chance to make
them their home for the spring and summer.
If you enjoy this site and the
information it provides, please pass it onto your family and
friends. Thanks.
Enjoy feeding your backyard friends!
Winter 2011-12
- Winter, and it's cold, have
arrived to the upper midwest. Your backyard birds sure
could use a helping
hand. Now is a great time to
provide them with high energy
foods, including those with ingredients such as peanut butter,
nuts,
pumpkin or squash seeds, or the
always
favorite suet.
Enjoy the changing seasons,
and as always, enjoy feeding your backyard
friends!
Fall 2011
- Fall is in the air! Feeling the cool
mornings or seeing a flock of
Canadian Geese gathering
in our nearby pond preparing for the winter migration,
can only mean that our winter backyard bird feeding season is
just around the corner.
This month we received an interesting submission
from a reader. She describes how to train Chickadees for
hand feeding.
Check it
out!
Enjoy the changing seasons,
and as always, enjoy feeding your backyard
friends!
August 2011 - We get many
questions posted to us at MakeYourOwnBirdFood.com. One
frequent question deals with suet and
the summer
heat. Can you still offer your birds suet this time of
year? The short answer is YES. However, there are
a few things to keep in mind. First, you need to follow
a recipe, like ours, that hardens the suet. This goes a long ways
towards keeping it from becoming a melted pool of bird
pudding! Secondly, there are some helpful tips that can
assist you in your suet preservation and
presentation. Check them out
here
Enjoy the summer, and as
always, enjoy feeding your backyard friends!
June 2011
- School is almost out for most
families! That's a great time to spend extra time
with the kids and grandkids. How about
spending time with them feeding your backyard birds? Try a
couple of the recipes listed below. Be sure to let us know how
they worked out for you!
If you enjoy this site and the information it
provides, please pass it onto your family and friends.
Thanks.
Enjoy feeding your backyard friends!
May 2011 - May is
the start of the gardening and planting season for many of us.
Here's an idea. Did you know that the
sunflower seed is perhaps the most popular backyard bird
food. Hundreds of species of birds love them, they are
easy to find in the store, and easy to fill your feeders
with. But how about growing your own! Check out
just how easy it is to grow and harvest your own
sunflower
seeds. Now you are really 'Making Your Own
Bird Food'!!!
If you enjoy this site and the information it
provides, please pass it onto your family and friends.
Thanks.
Enjoy feeding your backyard friends!
April 2011 - Spring has
arrived! Many of our birds that left us over the winter
are on their way back up north. We are sure to soon be
enjoying our Orioles, Hummingbirds, Bluebirds and many
others. That means a whole new variety of bird foods to
prepare, including
those with fruits and nuts and the
always popular NECTAR.
It's
also time to clean out those bluebird houses from last year's
nests. We like to keep our bluebird houses open until we see
the bluebirds nearby. That will help keep sparrows and wrens
out of them until the bluebirds have a chance to make them
their home for the spring and summer.
If you enjoy this site and the
information it provides, please pass it onto your family and
friends. Thanks.
Enjoy feeding your backyard friends!
March 2011
- It's onto March! Let's hope
the 'In like a Lion, out like a Lamb' comes true!
Believe it or
not, March is the start of the
migration north for many
birds. You may see many different species for short
periods of time, as they move through your area,
then
continue on their northern path.
Here are a couple of neat
ideas you may want to consider throughout the
month. First, try putting out fruit. Apple
halves, browning
bananas, even overly ripe grapes will all
work. Fruits are not typically found outdoors in March (at
least in the upper midwest), so the early arriving tanagers,
grosbeaks, and orioles will
find them a great treat.
Secondly, here's an interesting tip we
have learned. Take an old cupcake baking pan and attach
it to your deck rail or other feeding
platform.
Either nail or screw it in place, or better yet, wrap it with
small bungy cords to secure it in
place. Next, place different foods in
each cupcake
bowl. Then watch the activity! You should see which
bowls get emptied the quickest and which birds enjoy each
treat.
You may just discover that a ripe grape is preferred
over a brown banana or that a piece of an old donut beats any
fruit.
If you enjoy this site and the
information it provides, please pass it onto your family and
friends. Thanks.
Stay Warm and Enjoy your backyard
birds!
February 2011 - Hopefully
you and your backyard birds survived January. For the
upper Midwest, January brought snow, cold, wind, and more
SNOW! All this snow has to be making it hard for the
birds to find natural food sources. Let's be sure to keep
those feeders full!! Let me take a little space to talk about UN-natural
foods. Specifically, the Fruit Cake! Yes, the infamous
white elephant present.
It seems people either like them (a
small minority I'm sure), or they dread them. If you are
in that minority, then perhaps you still have
one sitting
on your kitchen counter from the holidays. If so, and you don't intend to
partake of it yourself, then consider feeding
your birds
with it. If you really think about it, the fruit cake
provides many nutrients for many different birds. There
are nuts for nut eating birds like
the appropriately named nuthatch, fruits for fruit preferring
birds like the chickadee and cardinal, and bread for
bread
eating birds like the brown thrasher, robin, and
titmice. Just be sure to break that loaf up into small
pieces and place a handful out in your feeder at a time to see
how the birds take to it before you place more out.
Putting the whole loaf out in one block would likely be
intimidating to the birds, as it is not a natural
occurrence in your backyard. And if
you do feed your birds with that fruit cake and they enjoy it,
let us know! We wont tell those who gave it to you
as a gift!
If you enjoy this site and the
information it provides, please pass it onto your family and
friends. Thanks.
Stay Warm and Enjoy your backyard
birds.
January 2011
- Winter is here! The
upper midwest has SNOW! Boy do we have snow.
Before December 21st, the official start of winter, we had
already received 2/3 of our normal annual snow fall. And as is
usually the case, after the snow comes the cold
temperatures. It's quite a sight to watch our backyard
birds as they just try to survive. It seems that
they know to 'hunker down' when
the weather is especially
rough, but as soon as it breaks, they hit the feeders and hit
them hard. High energy treats can really help them
out. Check out our recipes which feature ingredients
like peanut butter, lard, or nuts.
And don't forget your ground feeding
birds, like the mourning dove. With all the snow, it has
become very hard if not impossible for
them to find natural
foods on the ground. Try sprinkling a few seeds on the
ground near your feeders to help them out.
We received a few new bird feeders as
gifts over the holidays. Some are good, some not so. One
in particular, a collapsible wire feeder, seems to allow many
whole seeds to fall to the ground. Personally, I don't
mind that, as again, it helps our ground feeding friends
through these challenging times.
If you enjoy this site and the
information it provides, please pass it onto your family and
friends. Thanks.
Stay Warm and Enjoy your backyard
birds.
December
2010 - Winter, and
it's cold have arrived to the upper midwest. Your
backyard birds sure could use a helping hand. Now is
a great time to provide them with high energy foods, including those with ingredients
such as peanut butter, nuts, pumpkin or squash seeds, or the
always
favorite suet.
Just in
time for the holidays, check out our Pine Cone holiday treat. It can be a
great family project!
November
2010 -
Nowadays we see dozens of flocks of geese fly over every
day. Although most are flocks of Canadian
geese, we
do see the occasional flock of snow geese. This is a bit
unusual for us, as we are not normally in their southern
flight pattern. It is always a pleasant
surprise, but another sign that winter is just around the
corner. Another
sign, the
Chickadees, Nuthatches, Cardinals and Blue Jays
are frequent visitors to the feeders. We are sure they
know what
season is just around the corner, and are
building up their strength early!
Make Your Own Bird Food.com
is coming up on it's 2 year anniversary. Please complete
this 30 second
survey to help us continue to
provide the
site you are looking for. Thanks!
October
2010 - Fall is now most
definitely in the air in Minnesota! Our hummingbirds and
orioles have left our feeders. Now it's
time to harvest
our pumpkins and squash. Better save those seeds and
treat our many cardinals, grosbeaks and grackles (any bird
with a hardy bill to crack open these tough
seeds).
Check out those recipes throughout our site.
Enjoy!
September 2010
- It's that time of year when
you start thinking of fall migration. Hearing a flock of
Canadian geese flying
overhead or sitting in your backyard
wondering where your Baltimore Orioles have gone, tells us
that fall is in the air.
As you know, not all
birds migrate south. Some, like the Northern Cardinal,
stay in their primary locations year-round.
Some, like the
American Robin, may travel a few hundred miles. In fact,
if you live in Missouri, you may begin to see a whole
new
population of Robins. The Robins you've seen all summer
may, during their migration, head south to Texas, while
the
Robins you see during the winter may have nested in
Canada. Then there is the Ruby-Throated Hummingbird,
which
can travel thousands of miles and winter between
southern Mexico and northern Panama!
Want to learn more about
migrations? Check out our featured book on Amazon in the
center of our home page.
Enjoy feeding your
backyard birds!
August 2010
- If you
had to pick one food to feed backyard birds, the likely choice
would be sunflower seeds. They are
nutritional, easy to fill the feeder with, and easy to
get. Although we
like to grow our own, we also buy some occasionally.
But oh
the mess they make on the ground. The seed hulls can really
pile up. Fortunately,
many ground feeding birds will eat any good seeds that do
fall.
It is important to keep the area under a feeder
clean. A clean
area helps to maintain the health of your birds, keeps your
area
looking clean and neat, and helps your grass to grow,
if your feeders are over your lawn. There are a few tips
to keeping the
mess down. We rake the area under
our feeders regularly.
Others put a tray or homemade wooden box underneath
the
feeder to help catch the hulls. All these methods help
in bringing your backyard birds back to enjoy their next
meal!
You may see a drop in feeder visits during these
dog days of summer.
We know folks who take their feeders down during the
summer months, as the birds can find ample food on their
own during the summer. We keep our feeders up all year. We enjoy
our birds
that much, and they just keep coming back. Regardless, now would
be a good time to clean out the area under your
feeders.
Enjoy feeding your backyard
birds!
July 2010 - We get many
questions posted to us at MakeYourOwnBirdFood.com. One
frequent question deals with suet and
the summer
heat. Can you still offer your birds suet this time of
year? The simple answer is YES.
However, there are a few
things to keep in mind.
First, you need to follow a recipe, like
ours, that hardens the suet.
This goes a long ways to keeping it from
becoming a melted
pool of bird pudding! Secondly, there are some helpful
tips that can assist you in your suet preservation and
presentation. Check them out
here
Enjoy the summer, and as
always, enjoy feeding your backyard friends!
June 2010 - We are not in the dog days of summer yet, but our
birds have already taken to many native foods,
including
insects, ants and berries.
Now is the time to entice your birds to either
continue eating at your feeders or to come on back! Try
these
favorites, proven to work... Nectar,
Jelly,
Bread, and the always dependable Sunflowers.
Enjoy
feeding your backyard birds!
May 2010 - Our Hummingbirds
are back! These birds are definitely one of our favorites.
Time to make a fresh batch of NECTAR.
The
northern migration of hummingbirds is nearing completion, but
we wanted to share with you all one of our favorite birding
web sites. Check out this site, which allows you all to
help monitor the
Spring 2010 Migration of the
Ruby-throatedHummingbird. Bookmark this site for future
years!
Enjoy
feeding your backyard birds!
April 2010 - Spring has
arrived! Many of our birds that left us over
the winter are on their way back up north. We are sure to soon
be enjoying our Orioles, Hummingbirds, Bluebirds and many
others. That means a whole new variety of bird foods to
prepare, including those with fruits and nuts and the very
popular NECTAR.
It's
also time to clean out those bluebird houses from last year's
nests. We like to keep our bluebird houses open until
we
see the bluebirds nearby. That will help keep sparrows and
wrens out of them until the bluebirds have a chance to
make
them their home for the spring and summer.
Enjoy
feeding your backyard friends!
March
2010 - The beginning of
March has brought a nice thaw. The snow is melting, and the
birds are very active. Keeping our feeders full has become a
nearly daily chore.
Our homemade SUET
recipe still seems to be the bird's favorite, especially
for our Nuthatches and
Woodpeckers.
Bring on
Spring!
February
2010 - Well we made it through January!
We are now having a heck of a time trying to keep
the squirrels out of our bird feeders.
It's not that
we are anti-squirrel, we are just pro-wild birds.
Squirrels can be relentless. The other day we counted 6 trying
to get at
the sunflower seeds and homemade treats in our
various feeders.
If
you are having the same experiences, check out our
TIPS for
keeping these guys at bay and out of your bird
food.
