Feeding the Birds

Birds, Reflections, Suet Cakes, Tallow

I don’t have a bird calendar hanging in my kitchen this year, but we have been enjoying watching the birds at the feeders outside our kitchen window. We didn’t have a feeder when my husband brought home the first bag of bird seed, so rather than buy a feeder I decided to make suet cakes. We had a lot of tallow in the freezer that would be perfect for this project. Since we purchase our beef in bulk, ordering 1/4 cow from a local farmer, we always get the suet (fat from around the kidneys and loins of the cow). Long time readers might remember this post when I explained the process of rendering suet into tallow. Even though they are called suet cakes, technically, they are made with tallow (rendered suet).

To make the suet blocks I melted the tallow, about 6 cups then added about 2 cups oatmeal, 2 cups corn meal and 2 cups birdseed. I then poured it into freezer containers. I poured it about 1 1/2 inches deep because that is how thick I wanted my suet cakes. I then put the freezer containers in the freezer. Once the suet cakes were solid I took them out and used a sharp knife with a long narrow blade to drill a hole in the center of the cake. I then strung a ribbon through the hole and tied it at the top of the suet cake. I could now hang the suet cakes in a tree or on a shepherd’s hook for the birds to enjoy.

That is a suet cake hanging on the right-hand side of the shepherd’s hook in the picture below. My dad then gave us an extra feeder that he was not using so we hung that up as well.

These pictures were taken through my kitchen window so are not very clear.

Regular visitors to the feeder have been Tufted Titmice, Juncos, Black-capped Chickadees, and Sparrows. I did see a Harry Woodpecker a couple times and there is a squirrel who keeps steeling the suet cakes. I saw him (or her) the first couple of times eating from the suet cakes before they were knocked to the ground and disappeared, so it is safe to assume that the same thing happened to the last two suet cakes as well.

On Saturday a large flock of starlings visited. Mostly they sat in the maple trees (and pooped on my car) but a few did grab a snack from the bird feeder before they flew off the parts unknown. Since then, I have seen a few more starlings stop to eat.

Sunday afternoon my husband quietly called me over to look out the window. As I looked out, I saw a small hawk sitting in the arborvitae right next to the bird feeder. While I’m sure it was looking for a meal, it clearly had no interest in the bird seed. Thankfully all the little birds had disappeared, so the hawk had to look elsewhere for dinner. I do understand that hawks need to eat too, but I would prefer that they find field mice and other small rodents, and if they do have to eat a smaller bird I don’t want to see it.

Yesterday afternoon the feeder was visited by three Blue Jays and while most of the smaller birds cleared out while the Jays were there it was delightful to see.

At this point the only bird I am still hoping to see is a cardinal or two as we usually do see them in winter or spring.

Thanks for visiting.

Do you feed the birds?

22 thoughts on “Feeding the Birds”

  2. Those are my favorite birds, the Juncos and Black-capped Chickadees in the backyard – at the Park I see the Blue Jays and Cardinals. I stopped feeding the birds in the backyard after the neighbor behind got rats, so in 2008 when that happened I had to stop – it broke my heart. After the groundhog debacle I didn’t want any critters in the yard, but my neighbor (Marge’s son) decided to feed the birds. He is putting out a millet seed mix which is bringing a ton of sparrows, but he put out suet cakes which is bringing Chickadees and Downy Woodpeckers … so I bought and gave him two twelve packs of suet because I knew he would run out and stop feeding them. It’s been nice seeing the birds in the backyard again.

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    1. Thankfully I haven’t seen any mice or rats around our feeder. My husband said since we started feeding them we have to keep it up. My next-door neighbor has feeders in their back yard as well, but we can’t see it from our windows. I gave her a suet cake for Christmas. The birds in our neighborhood are well fed.

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      1. I never had mice or rats at my feeders either Ruth, then the neighbor moved in and had a dog he left outside 24/7/365 and never cleaned up after it, so we got rats – I was so upset as my mom had said to me to clean underneath so no seeds would be out there for the mice, but the other birds would go down and Juncos also who are ground feeders. It is such a treat to see all the birds enjoying their treats.

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  3. What joy bird feeding brings!
    I feed the birds at our lake house and get many of the same birds you mentioned. At our desert home, I provide thistle only …as bird feed brings unwanted rodents. The rodents are not attracted to thistle; however, my goldfinches love it!
    Enjoy your bird friends! Such fun for you both!

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      2. We have had a few sprout but in the wrong place even one is too many. Yes, we have some black oil sunflower seed in the mix. Mostly in the suet because they tend to clog the feeder. It’s time to hang some more suet.

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  4. Here you go again with your genius ideas. Well done.

    Right now I’m a bit upset with birds as they make noise in the morning and wake me up. Maybe if I fed them they wouldn’t?

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  5. The beautiful weeping birch outside our large front window lived only a little while past its life span. Instead of cutting it down, my husband had the idea to make it “lawn art.” We trimmed the branches and hung 8 – 10 bird feeders and suet blocks from it. We usually get the same kinds of birds as you. One day we saw a blue jay, a cardinal, and a woodpecker. We have a resident hawk across the field. He swoops in every once in a while, and everyone scatters. But sometimes we find a pile of feathers in our yard.

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  6. I have been thinking about how much I miss my bird feeder outside of the kitchen window. I had so many beautiful little visitors when it was up. Last year when we were traveling I left a
    bag of bird seed on the porch and a bear got into it. Totally my fault but I took the feeders down so the temptation wouldn’t be there. I know that I could hang them each morning and bring them in at night. It would just have to be a strict routine and I’m not sure if my scatter brain would remember

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  8. I do love the birds that visit in the winter. I always admire the birds for the life that they live as we complain about the weather..one winter I had six pair of cardinals in our tree at one time. It was really a beautiful sight.
    I have also had a young hawk near my feeder but didn’t see it catch any of my birds. And I had a Kestrel stalking my birds one time. It was beautiful to see, but I agree that I don’t want it catching any of my visitors.

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