Woodwork for Wildlife

This is about the feathered and furry friends in your backyard

Providing a friendly environment for the birds and squirrels in the backyard is easy. The proper placement of feeders, water, and nesting boxes is all it takes. This will provide lots of viewing pleasure around your porch or patio.

Providing cover for the birds in your yard

Birds need shelter from hard rains and cold winds, and protection from predators. Young birds, especially, need cover while they are learning to fly. The most dangerous backyard predator may be the house cat next door. You can add shelter and food sources to your yard by including wildlife needs in your landscaping plan.

Fortunately, most of the qualities you look for in plants are also a high priority for birds. We like to have lots of flowers and fruits, dense growth, and long-lasting foliage. Birds do too! Even if you have only a deck or window planter, you can attract birds and offer shelter by careful plant selection. A hanging basket of fern or ivy could shelter a wren. A small evergreen tree in a tub could break a cold wind or keep the rain off.

If your landscape is mostly lawn, plant an island of shrubs and flowers. Perhaps five or seven (odd numbers look best when grouping) boxwood or hollies surrounded by zinnias or marigolds would work well and add attractive color. Add a small flowering fruit tree such as cherry, plum, crab apple, or dogwood.

If your landscape is mostly shrubs and lawn, a fast-growing tree such as honey locust, pin oak, or red maple will add height to your yard. A small grove of trees would be even more attractive. Alder, hackberry, red maple, or sweetgum will all work well.

If your landscape is mostly trees, you have an advantage. Many people wait a lifetime for their trees to reach full height. Planting a few shade-tolerant, smaller trees and shrubs will give a layered effect and will attract different kinds of birds. Consider dogwood, eastern hemlock, holly, serviceberry, aromatic sumac, privet, and viburnum, among others. You may want to add a few evergreens. They are excellent protection from cold winds and will protect your house as well as the wildlife when planted on the north and west sides.

Plant a few trees, shrubs and flowers today. Enjoy both the plants and the birds tomorrow!

Flickr Pictures

Woodwork for Wildlife Photoset on Flickr

Birdhouses, bird feeders, and squirrel feeders

Squirrel feeder

Traditional Cedar Bi...

Bird in a Jar Feeder...

Platform Bird Feeder

Wren Birdhouse

Bluebird House

Downey Woodpecker on...

Squirrel in a Platfo...

Fence top squirrel f...

Bird in a jar Feeder

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Providing water for the birds in your backyard

Water should be available and accessible year-round. Moving water provided in the form of a drip or fine mist is especially alluring. It is most important that the water be clean and abundant. Birdbath water should be changed every few days to insure a fresh and clean supply. Locating your bird bath in a shady part of the yard will keep the water cooler in hot weather.

Tip: Washing birdbaths with water and white vinegar will help prevent algae growth and keep the water fresher.

Birdbaths can be found in a variate of styles, sizes, and materials. You may choose to buy, or perhaps make your own. Textured Materials such as concrete, stone, pebbles, and sand provide good footing for the birds. Plastic or metal surfaces should be roughened with coarse sandpaper or textured footing used in bathtubs can be applied to the smooth surface. Colored aquarium gravel, available in pet or garden centers, can be attractive in a bath and will also improve the footing.

In general, birds prefer shallow water, low to the ground. Most backyard birds are fearful of water deeper than 3 inches, and many like it much shallower. A bath with sloping sides which gradually approaches 3 inches in depth is fine.

Tip: Leveled and securely placed, a garbage can lid turned upside down can make a perfect bath.

In freezing weather, unfrozen water supplied by you is important not only for drinking, but for winter baths. Birds may be seen bathing in fresh snow, but they probably prefer using the birdbath. To keep unfrozen water available use an electric birdbath heater or change the water a couple of times a day, adding warm (not hot) water to iced-over baths.

Do not add Glycerine or Antifreeze to keep birdbaths from freezing!

Providing Feeders for the birds in your backyard

The Types of feeders and their placement is almost as important as the food offered. One species may prefer hanging feeders, while another will eat only on the ground. Woodpeckers and nuthatches prefer tree-trunk feeders. The food being offered should also be taken into consideration when purchasing or making a feeder. Thistle seed will be wasted if not fed from a thistle feeder or mixed with peanut butter or suet mix.

Many everyday items can be recycled into bird feeders. Mesh bags, which onions, oranges, and apples sometimes come in, can be used to feed suet, cut up pieces of fruit, or stale baked goods. Plastic bottles and jugs can be made into a variety of feeders, but be sure to rinse used bottles thoroughly. Pinecone and small logs can be used for peanut butter mixes and suet mixes.

Three considerations when deciding where to put your feeder

1. Visibility - Seeing and enjoying birds is probably the main reason you started feeding them. Locate your feeder where you can comfortably see them.

2. Shelter from weather - Rain can quickly spoil birdseed. Select or build feeders with large overhang roof lines. Also, place your feeders on the south or east side of your home when possible. This will help shelter the birds from wintry west and north winds.

3. Close to cover - Nearby shrubs and trees allow birds to hide from cats or other threats, and allow shy birds a gradual approach to your feeders. Cover within 5 feet seems to work well.

Odds & Ends eBay Store

Novelty T-shirts and Woodwork for Wildlife

T-shirts and Woodwork for Wildlife.
Wood Products for Wildlife, Bird Houses, Bird Feeders, Fun Squirrel Feeders, even the popular and comical Squirrel In A Jar Feeder.
Also T-shirts from funny and novelty T shirts to Biker and rude sayings on 100% preshrunk cotton.

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Peanut butter recipe for log bird feeders

How to make a log feeder.

Log feeders are easy to make. Find a log 3 or 4 inches in diameter by 1 ft. to 1.5 ft. in length. Drill 2 or 3 holes on four sides. Each hole should be 1/2 inch deep by 1 inch in diameter. You can also add a perch if you like. Add a threaded eye to one end and hang from tree limb or feeder pole.

Peanut Butter Recipe

2 cups peanut butter

2 cup corn meal

1/2 cup thistle seed

1/2 cup of any or mix of all peanuts, black oil sunflower seed, cracked corn, and or pecans

1/2 cup bird seed

mix well, and refrigerate unused mixture. You can also use suet (animal fat) added with or in place of peanut butter in this recipe. If you add suet with peanut butter use 1 cup of each.

Attracts

Downy Woodpeckers, Red-bellied Woodpeckers, Nuthatches, and Chickadees

Using fruit feeders or Platform feeders with fruit or Vegetables to attract birds

Use fruit feeders or platform feeders with fruit and vegetables to attract:

Orioles
Tanagers
Mockingbirds
Woodpeckers
Jays
Chats
Bluebirds

Fruit and Vegetables

Fruit and Vegetables such as cut apples, grapes, raisins (try soaking raisins in water overnight), orange halves, cranberries, apricots, dates, tomatoes, plums, peaches, green peppers, broccoli, and nectarines appeal to birds. You can cut them in half or into pieces. Use large fruit halves in fruit feeders. Place large and small fruit and vegetables pieces on platform feeders.

Caution: Be sure to remove food before it spoils or molds. In the hot summer, this may be just a few hours.

String Treats

Making vertical treats to hang in a tree. Tie a popsicle stick to one end of a string. This will be the bottom of the fruit chain so the birds have a perch.

Using dried fruit string any combination you like: cranberries with apricots and apple slices. or Orange slices, apple slices, dates, plums, and raisins.

Hanging Fresh Ear of Corn

Take a fresh ear of corn that still has its husk. Carefully peel the husks downward and remove the silk. Take some twine and tie the husks together below the corn cob. Hang on feeder pole using the twine.

Providing nesting boxes and birdhouses

Bird houses should be mounted in a reasonably open area with a few scattered trees. Open fields will work well as long as there are fences or other things for the birds to perch on. Mounting along a tree line works well when mounting in the yard or around the garden.

Tip: Do not mount too close to a place where you will be using pesticides.

Mounting height should not be too low, because of the increased risk from predators. Mounting too high will make it difficult to clean the birdhouse out when needed. As a general rule, the best height for most birdhouses is 5 to 7 feet above the ground. If you are mounting more than one birdhouse, they should be placed about 20 ft. apart.

Try to face the birdhouses away from the prevailing wind. Face the entrance hole slightly to the south east. Vegetation should be low around the area where the bird house is mounted, except for a perch about 4 to 6 feet away to help make the young birds first flight easy. This perch can be a small tree, bush, or fence.

To catch the first nesting of the season you should mount the birdhouse in the fall, but no later than January or February. Some birds are scouting for future nesting places as early as January. If you get your birdhouses out after January, you will still have time for two or three more nesting.

Be sure to watch the birdhouses closely, and clean out after each nesting is done. This will encourage the next nesting.

Providing feeders for the squirrels

Squirrels prefer to feed in a place where they can easily escape, and as they spend most of their time in the trees, the most suitable position for feeders would be on a tree or near to a wall.

Placing feeders on or near the ground is strongly discouraged, as there is a high likelihood of the squirrels being attacked and killed by predators.

The exact placement of the feeder will depend on the garden or area that the squirrels visit. Try to work out the route that a squirrel will take to arrive at the feeder and place it to avoid crossing open ground where possible.

Secure the feeder on or near to a tree at a height of 5-6 feet. Ideally you should place the feeder as high as possible, while still allowing for easy access to add feed and clean it out.

For secure mounting, nails or screws should be used.

Books for Birding

Birding by Ear: Eastern and Central North America (Peterson Field Guides(R))

by Richard K. Walton, Robert W. Lawson

Amazon Price: $19.80 (as of 07/26/2008)

All Things Reconsidered: My Birding Adventures

by Roger Tory Peterson

Amazon Price: $17.46 (as of 07/26/2008)

Identify Yourself: The 50 Most Common Birding Identification Challenges

by Bill Thompson III

Amazon Price: $13.57 (as of 07/26/2008)

Sibley's Birding Basics

by David Allen Sibley

Amazon Price: $10.85 (as of 07/26/2008)

Birding by Ear: Western North America (Peterson Field Guides (R) Audios)

by Richard K. Walton, Robert W. Lawson

Amazon Price: $19.80 (as of 07/26/2008)

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This is about the feathered and furry friends in your backyard

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Providing cover for the birds in your yard

Flickr Pictures

Woodwork for Wildlife Photoset on Flickr

Providing water for the birds in your backyard

Providing Feeders for the birds in your backyard

Three considerations when deciding where to put your feeder

Odds & Ends eBay Store

Novelty T-shirts and Woodwork for Wildlife

Peanut butter recipe for log bird feeders

How to make a log feeder.

Using fruit feeders or Platform feeders with fruit or Vegetables to attract birds

Providing nesting boxes and birdhouses

Providing feeders for the squirrels

Books for Birding

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