FreeLists / bristol-birds / [Bristol-Birds] Re: Thinking outside the feeder

[Bill Cawood <b_cawood@xxxxxxxxx>]

Shane,
Thanks for the info.  With the recent wintry weather, my yardbirds are really 
going through the suet.  Because of the expense of suet blocks, I recently 
performed an experiment with my Powell Valley High School (PVHS) Ecology 
students.  We did two things to help the birds, at least I hope we did.

One thing we did was to recycle christmas trees to make brushpiles.  I 
collected several trees from the BSG Food Lion and friends of mine.  We used 
bailing twine to bind the trees into tripods.  The tripods were placed in a 
small woodlot near PVHS.  After the brushpiles were in place we moved into the 
next stage of our "experiment."

We made peanut butter pine cone bird feeders.  We did a little internet 
research and came up with a way to "soup up" the regular PBPCBF.  First, we 
used chunky PB.  The research showed us that plain PB and only PB is not good 
for some species as the PB gums up their bills and cannot be digested...some 
species don't like it either.  SO, we mixed shortening into the PB and added 
corn meal as a binder.  We then mixed birdseed into the mix.  This mix aided us 
in placing the food into the crevices of the pine cones (cones that were 
collected by last semester's Eco class).  We then rolled the pine cones in bird 
seed and hung them in our Christmas tree tripods. 

With the recent weather, I have been observing the visits.  I have not 
collected data but I have seen quite a few groups of birds using the woodlot.

I am a little sorry for using the shortening.  I could not get any suet from 
the butcher.  I also didn't want to render the suet in the classroom... as you 
could imagine.  If anyone has any information on the use of shortening, please 
let me know.  We only made 7 cones.

Thanks,

Bill Cawood, Big Stone Gap, VA


Birders:  Here is some information that I am sharing with everybody about 
birdfeeders.
 
 
Shane Adams
 
Hamblen County / Morristown, Tennessee