Thursday, December 20, 2012

Simple Christmas idea #20 -- Feed the birds

Remember our feathered friends...

Our suet ball is hanging outside the window nearest my computer, so I see a lot of our winter feathered friends as I work. Lately, there's been a huge yellow-shafted flicker visiting, but mostly, it's characters like nuthatches, chickadees, and the downy woodpecker you see below.


Our sunflower harvest was amazing this year. We cut off the sunflower heads and stored them in our garage, thinking we'd bring a new one out for the chickadees every so often... but the mice had other ideas. So we hung our sunflowers on our fence, and there were lots of squirrels and blue jays around for a while. They're too heavy to hang from the heads like the smaller birds do, so they picked seeds from around the edges, and our smaller feathered friends cleaned up the leftovers. The jays still come around now and then, hoping, I think, that we've set out a few more heads. They eye the suet ball, too, as does our squirrel, but it's hard for him to reach it. So he checks out the sunflower heads in case he missed anything.


Nature is something that puts us more in touch with who we are, reminding us that our planet is one huge web of life of which we are just a tiny part. Today's idea is to find ways to bring nature closer to your door, even if it's just your neighbourhood birds. Hang a suet ball, put out some bird seed or unsalted peanuts, and welcome some guests of a different sort. Merry Christmas to the animals in our midst!

3 comments:

Hannah said...

Hi :) Hanging the sunflower heads on the fence is such a lovely idea! I've had sunflowers before and wanted to use the heads for something, thankyou for the inspiration.

Merry Christmas :) xx

Laeli said...

You are so smart! And the flower makes a nice natural decoration too. I just love birds. My neighbour had a small hawk fly into her window this fall, it was after the chickadees she feeds. It was ok but wow what a shock! We thought we'd hit the bird watching jackpot, with a hawk that close. I love watching the little birds..they are so cute.

Nicola said...

We left our sunflowers out too, because we didn't get around to cutting them down, and it's lovely to see the little birds feeding on them as a result of our lazness! Our neighbours have a number of bird feeders and our 1 year old loves to watch all the birds out the window, pointing and making bird noises.