Winter arrives with a vengence - thank goodness for suet.

It's been two weeks now of winter here in Southern Alberta. Not just a little bit of snow mind you - lots of snow and cold and blowing hurricane force wind. Finally this last weekend we had a reprieve and I finally headed out to the feeders to replenish them.


Thank goodness for suet! I had put about 6 suet cakes out at the end of last week and it looks like my poor little birds have been pretty much living on these since my seed was about wiped out. The picture you see is of my downy woodpecker enjoying suet in my backyard. That is what I love about suet. Not only do the little finches and other seed eating birds enjoy it, but the woodpeckers and insect lovers will also eat the suet. It is the perfect food to help birds make it through cold winter days.


It looks like we could be in for a tough winter here. Don't forget the birds....

Thoughts for the day - what does the future hold?

I've had a very busy couple of weeks travelling around Alberta talking to customers and visiting various stores. A couple of things have struck me as I have travelled about. One is how metropolitan the Calgary to Edmonton Hiway 2 corridor is. It is starting to remind me of my days in Toronto commuting back and forth between Mississauga and North York where one city just merged into the next.

Today is my birthday so you have to pardon me for being a bit reflective. I remember Calgary back when I was going to university and Calgary today is so much larger. I guess that shows my age. It struck me though... what will Alberta look like in 40 years. How much farm land will be left along this corridor? What will be the impact on wildlife and native birds? What will be the impact on the environment of this suburban car-based economy? What will our kids be doing? How will Alberta support this huge infrastructure and will the Alberta economy be able to support this commercial development forever? I guess you can see the environmentalist in me starting to come out. I am planning to be around 40 years from now to find out what Alberta looks like - but it scares me a little bit to ponder the changes that may be coming.

So for now, I go out in my backyard and refill my feeders and wonder what the future holds in store for us.

What the heck is suet?

Sometimes when I talk to people about suet, they give me a blank look and say "what the heck is suet?" Well let me tell you - the suet secret is out! Suet is the best way to up your yard's "attraction factor" for birds.

You should find suet in any well stocked wild bird food section of your local wild bird store. Suet is one of most concentrated energy food sources that you can feed birds. This is because it is based on animal fat which has a very high energy value for birds who need help maintaining their body temperature in the winter time. Suet is easily digested and metabolized by birds to give them that energy boost they need to make it through a cold winter day or night.

Many birds love suet including birds that perhaps will not eat out of your other feeders. Suet lovers include woodpeckers, chickadees, northern flickers, nuthatches, and starlings.

When choosing suet, look for a high quality suet. For example our Pine Tree Farm's Suet is made from rendered beef kidney fat. It has been refined to maintain a high melting point for year round feeding. Pine Tree Farms uses top quality seeds, grain, peanut butter and peanuts, to attract a wide variety of birds.

Suet comes in a few different shapes and sizes. The standard type of suet is a 4 X 4 inch cake. However, there are suet plugs (cylindrically shaped suet), and suet balls etc. Just remember when buying suet that you need to have a feeder that works with the type of suet you have selected. Personally I use the Pine Tree Farms suet cakes in a simple cheap wire feeder.

Hang your suet feeder from a tree ideally within good view of a window in you home. If you are feeding suet for the first time and you find you are not attracting birds to your feeder, try smearing some peanut butter on the outside of the feeder and press some seeds into the peanut butter. The birds will recognize the seed and this will attract their interest.

So that is your quick introduction to suet. Give it a try! You will be impressed with who you find at your suet feeder.

Fall Bird Feeding Tips.

Fall is an exciting time for backyard bird feeders. Here is what to think about when feeding birds this fall:

Different birds in your backyard: Fall migration is underway and this means that you may have some unusual birds visiting your feeders as they pass through on their way south. It also means that you may start to see a change over in your regular feeder visitors. For example, redpolls, chickadees, jays, certain sparrows and juncos may visit your feeder more in the winter than the summer, while goldfinches and grosbeaks are not likely to overwinter in your backyard. As your backyard visitors change you need to keep an eye on your feeders. Different birds have different tastes in bird seed. The best way to deal with this is to offer a variety of different feeders and seeds in your backyard so that you are prepared for whoever comes your way.

Don't wait til winter: Now is the time to start feeding the birds before the miserable weather arrives. Birds are looking for the best place to overwinter and if your yard appears to have the food, water and shelter they need, then they will stay. If you start feeding the birds after the snow flies, it may be too late to attract many birds.

Don't forget about shelter: As you are trimming your trees and bushes this fall, don't throw out the trimmings. Create a brush pile about 4 foot high by 4 foot wide. This is a great place for small songbirds to escape the weather and predators and will encourage them to stay in your yard this winter.

Water: The experts say that there is nothing like ice free water to attract birds to your backyard. Think about setting up your winter watering station now. You can buy plug-in water heaters for your bird baths. Shop around and see what is the most practical and best solution for you. I have to admit that I have not yet found the ideal solution for my backyard. I have promised myself that this winter will be different - I will keep you informed as to how successful I am with this one.

High energy food sources: Think about adding a suet feeder or peanut feeder to your bird feeders this winter. Both of these will attract birds that may not eat at your other feeders and can provide all your birds with a quick high energy boost on a cold winter day.

Trick or Treat? Save that pumpkin: Finally, have some fun this fall and think outside the box. When you clean out that pumpkin, save the pumpkin fibre and seeds and offer them to your backyard birds on a flat cookie sheet. Pumpkin seeds are actually a key ingredient in some of our parrot mixes so why not give your jays or other birds a chance at these fresh seeds.

How to recognize a good bird seed mix.

In this slow economy, I have noticed that the bird seed mixes being offered by many of our competitors are changing composition to increase the amount of cheaper, lower quality and less desirable ingredients. Has the consumer noticed? I don't know but I am sure their backyard birds have. How do you compare one bird seed mix against another? Here are the things to consider:

Ingredients: I recently looked at a grocery store competitor's mix. It was over 50% corn, and over 20% wheat, and over 15% milo seed, leaving about 15% of the mix comprised of white millet and a sprinkling of sunflower. Of this mix, the majority of birds will happily eat the sunflower and white millet seed, but less birds are interested in the corn, wheat and particularly the milo seeds and even for these birds, those seeds are not their favorite food source.


I compared this mix to our Mother Nature's Songbird mix with 55% sunflower seed, 20% canarygrass seed, 10% canola seed, 10% cracked corn and 5% red and white millet. Our seed mix is overflowing with desirable ingredients for backyard birds. The Mother Nature's Songbird mix may not be quite as low priced as the grocery store mixture but if you consider that much of the grocery store mixture will end up on the ground or wasted in the feeder, you would find that our mix is considerably cheaper on a $/lb of product consumed.

When you are looking at an all purpose bird seed mix, visually look at the mix and see how much sunflower is actually in the mix. Also take a look at the ingredient list on the package. Desirable premium ingredients include sunflower seed, millet (not milo), canary seed, flax and canola seed, nyjer seed, and peanuts or tree nuts.

Remember that all bird seed mixes are not the same and that price is not the only differentiating factor. Remember also that if you want to attract specific birds to your yard that it is better to buy a mix that is specifically designed to attract that type of bird. For example Mother Nature's Finch mix for wild finches, Mother Nature's Jay mix for jays or woodpeckers, Mother Nature's Chickadee mix for chickadees and nuthatches and so on.

Why do birds migrate?

Now that we have finally gotten into the fields to harvest here in Southern Alberta, we hope that fall will last a long time and that winter is a long way off. There is no doubt however that it certainly is fall, with the crisper nights and the already shortening days. Soon we will see large flocks of birds migrating south for the winter.

Migration is an amazing sight, particularly when you are driving across the prairies in the fall. Often times you can see many flocks of all sorts of different birds flying overhead. The flocks that seem most common to us here on the farm are the snow geese that travel in very large flocks through the area in the fall and spring. We are definitely on their migratory path.

When you see these flocks in the air, you can't help but wonder how do birds know when to migrate? The articles on this subject vary but many experts (source: Lincoln, Frederick C., Steven R. Peterson, and John L. Zimmerman. 1998. Migration of birds. U.S. Department of the Interior, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Washington, D.C. Circular 16. 113pp.) believe that birds have a natural hormonal cycle. A change in the day length in the fall affects bird hormone levels causing birds to eat more and build up fat. These hormones also cause them to molt, thus ensuring that birds have fresh flight feathers for the migration journey. It also appears that the hormone level changes cause birds to become restless and ready to move on.

Some, but not all, birds will migrate at night. Many smaller birds do this and it is believed that this is to avoid enemies and secondly to allow the birds to feed during the day when more food is available to them.

So how do birds know where to go? It appears that this varies from bird species to bird species. However, in general, birds who only migrate short distances seem to learn the route from other more experienced birds, while birds that travel long distances seem to have an innate ability to determine where they need to migrate to. Studies show that some birds appear to navigate according to stars. However, some birds will travel even on a cloudy night so the earth's magnetic fields, the location of the setting sun, topographic features of the landscape (coastlines, rivers, mountain ranges, for example),and prevailing wind patterns are all possibly used as cues for migration.

So what does migration mean for backyard bird feeders? Well during the seasons of spring and fall you may see birds in your yard that you do not regularly see. These weary travellers will likely be looking for a well-stocked feeder or fresh water to help them make it through the next phase of their journey.

Weird weather - what's next?

OK we have suffered through a miserable August and September here in Southern Alberta. Hardly any of our crop is harvested and much of it is languishing out in the field wet and on the verge of sprouting. Now I hear it is going to be 25 degrees on Saturday and nice for the rest of the week. Now that is what we need on the farm to get crops off. This weird weather does make me wonder though what is coming next for fall.

October is usually a time of year when many birds start migrating. Will this weird weather throw them off? Have they started migrating already? I haven't seen our snow geese come through our fields yet. Every year we have a huge number of snow geese migrate through this area - we are definitely on their flight path. It is a wonderous sight to see.

More on bird migration - next time.