Baby it’s cold outside and many of you have told me it seems colder this year. Well not really, we haven’t seen any record lows even though it has been colder than many recent past years. Luckily we don’t have to be out in the cold twenty-four seven like the birds and other critters. When it gets real cold out, we go in. Some of us even hibernate like the bears, but the birds are out there in the cold all winter long. 

This time of year when the temperature drops your birds diet changes as they need some fat to help them through the cold days and nights. Ever wonder how a chickadee that is so small can survive nights getting down into the teens? A lot has to do with their feathers and structure, but also the diet that they eat in the winter. 

You might know it as suet but suet cakes are made primarily from beef fat that has been rendered and solidified. Suet cakes are widely available and many have added extras like seeds, peanuts or berries to attract the eye of humans but the birds don’t care, they want it in any form they can get it. 

Now, not that I don’t want to sell you loads of suet, you can make it yourself, in your kitchen. You have been doing it for years whether you realized it or not. Every time you cook ground beef or bacon you are left with plenty of fat in the pan. Simply save that fat in a metal can or put rolled oats in th pan to soak up the fat and feed it to your birds directly. 

As it cools in the pan it will start to solidify. You can add seeds, berries or peanut butter if you want for extra flavor for your birds, but like I started before, they don’t care as long as it’s there. Woodpeckers are the birds that want suet the most as it replaces the high protein, high fat bug diet that they normally have if the weather was warm. But all birds will take a nip of the suet every once and awhile. You don’t need to feed suet exclusively, just have a suet cake available for the birds. 

Also with your homemade suet, you can do many projects with your kids or grandkids. Find some pine cones outside and smear some suet on the cone petals and then roll the cone in seeds. The seeds will stick to the suet and now you have just made an all natural bird feeder. Attach a piece of yarn to it and hand it from a tree branch. If you have been feeding the birds, they will find the pine cone in about five minutes. 

If you haven’t been feeding the birds don’t worry, once they find it, it will be gone in short order. Also with the cold weather - do you have a water source nearby for your birds. When I lived in Swan Lake we had a garden pond with a surface deicer to keep a small hole in the ice through the winter. This was so carbon dioxide didn’t build up under the ice and kill my fish, but the hole also provided a water source all winter long for my birds. 

Since I’ve moved to Eldred, I don’t have a pond, but I use a black rubber pan that I put some water in every morning. The black color helps absorb heat from the sun so that the water doesn’t freeze over during the day. 

It will freeze at night but I just flip the pan over in the morning and the ice from the night before just pops out. If you have young children, grandchildren or cats, they will all enjoy watching the birds outside from a nice warm seat inside.