Back from the big city..

Had a business trip that took me to Toronto this week.  My husband and I used to live in the GTA some years ago when we were both yuppies chasing the dream.  It was nice to go back and visit the area.  I realize that I miss the culture and excitement that goes with a larger center.. we even managed to catch the Korean Harvest Festival and the Ukrainian Festival while we were there.  Yes I do enjoy the action and diversity of Toronto and I miss it.

However, I have to say that I think that I may have extended my life by moving back to a small town and working in the countryside.  That traffic on the 401 and QEW gets old pretty quick and really - how many birds are going to show up at your condo on the 40th floor overlooking a construction site in North York?  Yes getting back home did put the two lifestyles in perspective:

My road hazard today on the way to work out on the farm was sunshine in my eyes as the sun rose over the beautiful prairie .......
 

and my only traffic on the way home was this wonderful bird of prey who passed me by to land on a straw bale next to the road.  Yes I miss Toronto but you know I am pretty happy to live where I live and work where I work.  :) 

Bird seed Q&A : what are sunflower chips?

Whole sunflower kernels or "coarse" sunflower chips.

Sunflower chips are one of our best moving bird seed ingredients but what are sunflower chips anyway?  Well in the bird seed industry we often refer to hulled sunflower seeds as sunflower "chips" or sunflower "hearts".  "Coarse" sunflower chips are whole kernels, "medium" chips are split kernels and "fine" sunflower chips are finely chopped kernels. 

Sunflower chips are the perfect food for birds because their high oil content makes them a very nutritional food source.  In fact sunflower is the most preferred food of most seed eating birds.  Sunflower chips provide an immediate energy source (since they do not need to be hulled) thus allowing birds to conserve their energy which is especially important in the cold winter months.

Sunflower chips are the perfect food for people too because they are considered a "no mess solution" because there are no hulls to pick up behind the birds.  They can also be a "no sprout" solution if you use finely chopped sunflower seeds because they will not germinate under the feeder. 

Wow sounds good eh?  What's the catch?  Well sunflower chips are expensive in comparison to most millet based bird seed products and many of the common grocery or chain stores do not sell pure sunflower chips.   You may need to find it at a more specialized wild bird store or a feed store with a large bird seed section.

This fall it looks like sunflower chips could be a bit tough to find.  Last year's crop of sunflower has been just about consumed and the outlook for new crop supply is not looking as good as in past years.  So farmers who do have old crop sunflower are holding tight to their inventory, hoping that the already record high sunflower prices will rise even further.  Sunflower processors are having supply problems and are having trouble meeting contract commitments, leaving bird seed manufacturers like ourselves pulling our hair out and scrambling for supply.  Just another interesting bird seed season in the making.

Despite my grumbling about supply, I still am a big fan of sunflower chips,  if you haven't yet tried them in your feeder get a small package and try them out.  I think you will be amazed at how many birds these nutritional little seeds will attract.