We started out on the 3 1/2-hour drive to our cabin in northern Wisconsin at 7:00am on New Year’s Eve Day. It had snowed the night before and so the roads were snow packed and icy. If that wasn’t bad enough it was very cold. It was so cold that after being on the road for around two hours Jack looked at the outside temperate gauge which was at -9°F. and then said to me, “It’s really warming up.” When we started out it was -17°F.
House Finches at a thistle feeder.
I’m often amazed that our little feathered friends can survive these extremely cold temperatures but they somehow do. I’ve decided to help them out a little by feeding them. I fill a thistle seed feeder for the Finches and Redpolls, put out black oilers (black sunflower seeds) for the Chickadees and Blue Jays and make some homemade suet for the Woodpeckers and Nuthatches. Then we sit back and watch the fun begin. Jack gave me a new zoom lens for Christmas and I could hardly wait to try it out.
Chickadee at the black sunflower seed feeder.
Redpoll at the "gourmet seed" feeder.
Andi’s Suet
1 cup peanut butter
1 cup lard
2 cups yellow cornmeal
1 cup flour
1/3 cup flour
Optional ingredients: raisins, sunflower seeds, birdseed, oats, dried fruit or dried meal worms
Line a 13x9-inch pan with foil.
In 3-quart saucepan, combine peanut butter and lard. Cook over medium heat, stirring often, until lard is melted. Stir in remaining ingredients and any optional ingredients that you choose. (I usually add dried meal worms because I ordered thousands of them online last spring for our returning Eastern Bluebirds but they would eat only live meal worms.) Pour mixture into foil-lined pan.
Refrigerate for an hour or so until hardened; break into pieces that will fit in a suet feeder. I wasn't quick enough to catch the Nuthatch with my camera at the suet feeder, but I'll keep trying.
Good references for feeding the birds are:
Birds & Blooms magazine
For the Birds: A Month-By-Month Guide to Attracting Birds to Your Backyard by Anne Schmauss, Mary Schmauss and Geni Krolick