Hello Old Friends!

Hello All!

Yes, we are still here with 22 nest boxes. Our trees seem more beautiful this time of year providing our extended avian family with a wonderful canopy. We have 4 pairs of nesting Elf Owls, an all time record with the owls surpassing the bluebirds and the flycatchers for the first time in 12 years. Life brings its series of challenges, but the birds always provide you with a reason to keep going. No matter what.

Enjoying our morning cup of the "elixir of the gods" (coffee!), we watched the Ladderback woodpecker family feeding on our homemade suet. Having learned the technique from their parents, they will know for themselves how to glean the nutritious snack. 

Birdland Ranch Suet:

2 cups cornmeal and uncooked oatmeal

1 cup peanut butter

2 cups lard/shortening or 1 cup leftover bacon grease or used cooking oil (you can use a combo of them all)

clean, cooked, crushed eggshells (Bake cleaned out eggshells in the oven, while baking something else and when you can smell them a bit they are done! Crush them with your rolling pin or in a small food processor)

Additional ingredients you can add:

stale bread (place bread in a plastic bag and then crush with your rolling pin )

dried raisins

cookie/cracker crumbs;avoid salty crackers

popcorn, no kernels

bird seed

Mix all the above in a big bowl until the consistency of really thick peanut butter. You may need to add additional oatmeal/cornmeal and/or shortening/grease to mixture to gain the proper consistency. It needs to not stick to your fingers, but feel somewhat dry. Once your happy with the "feel" of it, smush down the mixture into any plastic storage bowl, keeping in mind the width of your suet feeder, usually about an inch or so. Freeze. When you can't push your finger through suet (rock hard in other words), it is ready!

Take outside to your feeder, tap the container against a handy rock and it should slip cleanly out. Place in your feeder and watch your "neighbors"!

We keep this in our suet pretty much year round. Everyone eats it (had a visiting Black bear one Spring that took the whole feeder down!)and it makes you feel good that you are helping them out. Please know that they don't rely on it, it is merely  helpful, like putting out snacks for your friends when they visit you, during weird weather, freaky cold snaps and the like. Remember consistency is the key.