Happy New Year! The RSPB is having their annual Big Garden Bird Count on the weekend of January 26/27 in the UK. You can see more information about it and sign up for free here. It only takes an hour of your time to see which birds you can spot in your garden at some point over the weekend. To attract more birds to your garden, please try our Peanut-free Birdseed Cookies.
Speaking of time, I have taken a bit of a break and focused on my family over the holiday season. It was wonderful to be able to spend so much time with us all together. In addition, I have begun the (continuous) process of setting up new organisational structures around the house. I may delve into some of these in future posts. Now that the big celebratory meals are over for many (Chinese New Year will soon be upon us), and the weather here is cold and damp (and in North America there has been lots of snow and a few blizzards), it’s important that we do not forget about our feathered friends in the great outdoors.
During the winter, it is especially difficult to for birds to find enough food to keep their energy resources up. In Europe, the berry season last year wasn’t favourable, but that meant a great opportunity for us to see some waxwings in our back garden as they travelled further west to find prime dining facilities. They don’t usually travel this far west, so it was a real treat to see these beautiful birds. Once the bushes and trees were stripped of berries, they continued on their way, but we enjoyed them while they were here.
If snow is on the ground, it is even more difficult for birds to find food, so please place a feeder in your garden to help them out. You may be surprised at the varieties you see.
If you would like to be a little more creative with your little, or not-so-little ones, try this recipe for birdseed cookies, it is straightforward, and the birds really enjoy them!
Gather your birdseed cookie supplies together:
- ¾ C Flour
- ½ C Water
- 3 TBSP Corn Syrup/Golden syrup
- 4 C Birdseed
- Drinking straws, cut into roughly 1” pieces
- Tin foil
- Cookie cutters
- Cookie sheet
1) Line a cookie sheet with tin foil.
2) Mix the birdseed cookie ingredients together
3) Spoon the mixture into open-topped cookie cutters on the foiled cookie sheet and press down firmly
4) Push a drinking straw into the birdseed cookie mixture where you would like to place the string/ribbon for hanging
5) Leave the birdseed cookies to set overnight
6) If you are short on cookie-cutters and need to use them more than once, wait about 10 minutes and carefully remove the cutter, leaving the cookie behind on the foil
7) When the cookies have set, remove the straw pieces and put ribbon or string through the hole and tie the ends together into a knot or a pretty bow
8) Hang the birdseed cookies in a tree for the birds to enjoy (or from a balcony, or anywhere that is suitable for you)
9) Keep watch to see which birds come for a snack.
If you’d like to hone up on your bird identification, check out our Bird watching from the Kitchen Window blog here. For more ideas, see our pages on Nature and Recipes For Play.
I’d love to hear about the birds you’ve seen in your garden this year.
