December heralds the start of winter, hosting the shortest day of the year, and the rise, away from the horizon, of the midday sun. It also is the beginning of the three-month period that typically has the deep freeze of January - the coldest weather in the Calgary area.
Short days, with the sun remaining low to the horizon, and freezing temperatures, makes foraging an urgent task for birds. Seed heads and berries in gardens become important food sources for these feathered friends. Shrubs and evergreens provide shelter from the elements, especially on snowy or windy days.
Chickadees are one of the birds that are year-round inhabitants of our yards. They are such cheery critters to watch in the winter garden. These seed eaters will happily eat at bird feeders, so putting
a feeder out now will help them thrive through the winter. I enjoy watching birds and have bird feeders in my garden all the time, but I am especially mindful of filling them during the winter. I try to fill feeders in the morning to provide the longest foraging period. If deer come visit the feeders, they typically do it at night.
The feeder in my garden, filled with chipped sunflower seeds, is the chickadees and nuthatches favourite. It is a screen style feeder that is enclosed in a cage, and is marketed as squirrel proof. However, the native red squirrels are small enough to readily hop through the cage grid and use the floor of the cage as a comfortable place to sit while eating and collecting seeds.
The larger grey squirrels tend to hang off the cage and reach in to snatch seeds. While the cage does not prevent squirrels from getting seed, it does inhibit the larger ones. The real benefit of the cage is limiting how much the deer take at night. Uncaged, the deer will clear this feeder out in one visit. Caged, the deer will shake seeds out, but between the birds, squirrels, and deer visits, refilling is typically a once-a-week task.
Chipped sunflower seed is pricy but, come spring, little cleanup is required. I just rake the area under the feeder to mix any leavings into the soil and it’s done. There are no shells to clean up and no sprouts to weed. At this time of year, I also like to make decorations that are bird feeders. They can be fun activities to do with young children. Small clay garden pots, mounted on sticks, filled with a blend of wild bird seeds and vegetable shortening, lard, tallow, or peanut butter, mixed to a playdough consistency, make a nice decorative feeder that can be placed in doorstep arrangements or even a snowbank. Pinecones and blue spruce cones can be filled with this mixture and hung from branches. There are recipes available to make seed wreaths for birds. The wreaths need more material and time to set but are pretty. Place these homemade feeders where they can be seen from a window, to watch which birds enjoy the treats.
Attracting birds to the winter garden is planning for spring. Did you know that chickadees need to feed their hatchlings insects? The poplars next to my house host an abundance of mite galls. All winter long and in the spring chickadees can be seen pecking at the galls to eat the host inside.
While many gardeners were concerned about aphids this past summer, my garden had few and I give some credit to the birds that visit.
So, if you’re looking for a great winter gift for gardeners, consider a bird feeder. Select one that limits squirrel and deer feeding. Birds can be messy eaters, pitching less favoured seeds to the ground as they seek preferred ones. This may make spring cleanup a big chore, so evaluate the
pros and cons of the seed you are considering using. And, as gardeners, plan to grow plants that
keep their fruit and seed heads into the winter to be winter forage for birds such as coneflowers, gaillardia, blue oat grass, rocky mountain fescue, sunflowers, and snowberry—and save garden cleanup for spring.
