Tidings of the Season, Eons birders! Here are a few suggestions for last-minute gifts and craft projects for the birder(s) in your life -- enjoy!

Holiday Seed Wreaths and Pine Cones
As you decorate the interior of your home for your human holiday guests, why not add a festive, edible touch to the outside of your house for your winged visitors? Holiday seed wreaths and pine cones are perennial favorites and fun to buy or make. You can get pre-made ones at your local Audubon shop, Wild Birds Unlimited, or other nature-oriented retailer. Or you can make your own! Here are links to a couple of recipes online:

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Do-It-Yourself Suet Blocks
Suet (basically pure fat) is a high-energy food and a dream come true for hungry birds waking up from a cold night with depleted energy reserves. Pretty much every bird will be thrilled to plunge its beak into some. Store-bought suet is pricy enough, and comes in enough enticing flavor choices, to make an acceptable holiday gift. (Hey, I wouldn’t re-gift it!) Or you can make your own. Even the most craft-challenged person can make a suet block, and it’s a good, albeit kinda messy, way to deal with fatty holiday leftovers. Here’s a link to a bunch of recipes, of which there are zillions to choose from online (Connie’s suet pizza?):

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A caveat on suet-chefing: please remember, if you’re on town water, that grease is highly problematic for your local water authority. Many millions of dollars are spent annually nationwide cleaning cooking grease out of the water-works. Please do your best to discard grease with the trash or compost.

A Better Bird Feeder
Many of the people I know who put out seed for the birds have beat-up and/or poorly designed feeders that create large amounts of waste, allow seed to become wet and moldy (a significant health hazard for birds), and -- despite many valiant efforts -- feed the squirrels. Want to say goodbye to those kinds of issues for yourself and/or a birder you care about? Then pull together about $60-75 and get your talons on a Squirrel Buster Plus! view link

This is one terrific feeder! The spring-actuated bottom keeps squirrels 100% out of the seed without “hurling,” shocking or otherwise disrespecting them, while the extra-sturdy and well-designed hopper cylinder makes it next to impossible for them to even get a purchase on the feeder. I’ve never seen a squirrel get even one millet seed out of one of these. Plus they’re easy to fill and the perches are adjustable to support your favorite birds. And the Squirrel Buster Plus is so totally squirrel-proof that you can hang one anywhere -- from a crook, from a tree limb, off your deck, etc. No more trying to outwit bushy-tailed rodents in the realm of feeder placement. Even your resident Uber Squirrel will soon give up.

A Better Nyjer Feeder
Next to black oil sunflower seed, nyjer or thistle seed (the tiny, little black seeds) is in my opinion the #2 indispensable seed for backyard bird-feeding. Nyjer is a favorite of goldfinches, House Finches, Common Redpolls, and other members of the finch clan, but is eschewed by House Sparrows, squirrels, and other beings you might not wish to find noshing your njyer at $3 per pound.

Niger seed feeders have traditionally been long, tube feeders with tiny holes. The problem with these is that the holes tend to clog and/or ice over easily. And even the best of them can let moisture in, resulting in a wad of soggy stuff at the bottom.

Enter the Mobi Nyjer Feeder, sold by Wild Bird Centers: view link

Made of steel mesh, it’s easier for the birds to use and easier for humans to maintain. They’re rugged enough to come with a lifetime warranty.

A Heated Bird Bath
NOW is the time to consider installing a heated bird bath. Fresh, open water is hard to come by in winter in many areas (the birds here in Maine are ice-skating on the birdbaths about now, assuming the snow has not completely buried them). All birds need to drink water daily, and it’s energetically very demanding for them to eat snow and thaw it with their body heat. Today’s better heated birdbaths come with thermostats and run on as little as 60 watts of power. Put one out and I bet you’ll be very pleased by all the added bird activity it creates.

The best birdbaths have shallow, sloping sides -- most are much too deep. A bird-oriented retailer should have a good selection of well-designed, sturdy and easy-to-site heated bird baths.

And as with feeders, placement of birdbaths is important. Birds will only use the bath if they feel safe, since they’re so preoccupied and vulnerable while bathing. They like to have a clear view around them, but with bushes or trees to dart to, not too far away (10-20 feet).

Peace and good birding,
Scott Cronenweth
www.naturalpathwalks.com