Feed the Birds, Not the Squirrels!

   What a great time of year to have a plethora of birds at your feeders. Very little color to look at besides the cardinals, nuthatches, woodpeckers & the like! A recent photo and text from my sister recently reminded me just how hard it can be to feed just the birds. She sent a photo of her lovely bird ‘food court’, properly baffled of course, with a squirrel happily eating away. The caption contained a mild expletive. Say no more…

    So how do you feed the birds only? Well, in my humble opinion, it doesn’t come cheaply. My ‘food court’ (pictured at left) has been wonderful. I have had it so many years & it still looks new. I found out quickly that the cylinder baffle (which is what my sister has) is not enough. So I quickly added the cone shaped baffle. This has worked beautifully. Placement is still important, 8 feet from any roofs or trees for them to leap from & at least 5 feet from the ground (with baffles) I also have two feeders whose ports close when the weight of the squirrel is on them. My favorite, pictured at left, is the Squirrel Buster plus from Brome Bird Care. Again not cheap but when you consider the cost of seed & stress & aggravation (& possibly therapist time!), sooo worth it! See link below. I received mine as a gift, great idea for the bird lover in your life.

http://bromebirdcare.com/products/plus/

     For your ‘food court’ types visit your local bird specialty stores. The quality is excellent. If you want to just get started then simply buy a suet feeder & some suet cakes & mount to a tree or hang from a shepherd’s hook. The squirrels will get to it from time to time but the initial cost would be under $10.00 for the most part. They also sell hot & spicy suet cakes that squirrels hate but birds don’t mind.

   Whichever route you choose, just enjoy every entertaining moment!

This is Wonderful!

     Back in December I wrote a blog about about the movie It’s A Wonderful Life. Today I am offering up a new challenge to you.

    Sarah Ban Breathnach in Romancing The Ordinary challenges us to open our eyes, perk up our ears & we will suddenly find wondrous things in the most surprising places. Replacing indifference with wonder may be a challenge, but it’s time we reintroduced ourselves to wonderment. For me today, that snow squall this morning was a pain in the ass initially (because I had to drive somewhere), but I eventually took a deep breath & though this is wonderful (and beautiful). The sense of wonder is a birthright but somehow as we become adults it seems to become extinguished leading to boredom in our everyday lives. Lily Tomlin believes that if we want to be happy we need to exercise our “awe-aerobics”. SBB asks us to add to our gratitude journals five reasons each day to say “This is wonderful”. If we are having a difficult time with this, then we need to look for the new, strange, astonishing, mysterious & unexpected. SBB suggests to approach each day as if it were an exhilarating adventure instead of another chain in a life sentence without parole. This may all take some practice, an attitude adjustment even. But so worth the effort. May our wonders never cease!