In many parts of our nation winter has all ready set in. In our part of the country in zone 6 I think it finally has arrived on the very calendar day marked for winter arrival. In our part of Kentucky I can never figure out whether we live in the South Central part or the South West part of the US and whenever I ask anyone they do not seem to know either.
Regardless, winter is here and the temperatures currently are in the mid twenties to mid thirties and since we live in a windy area it seems colder. As I look out our dining room window I can see that many of our garden birds have left for warmer climates. However, many of our feather friends are still here.
There are a lot of "old wives" tales about these winter birds such as the birds will freeze when the temperature gets down towards zero and that simply is not true since they are naturally equipped to survive all kinds of cold or they would have simply migrated to warmer places. They look for places to huddle in out of the weather so keep your garden area full of good roosting places like birdhouses, your old Christmas tree and grassy thickets.
Another "old wives" tale is to take your birdhouses down for the winter and that is not a good idea. Your feathered friends, that stay during the winter, need those birdhouses, so leave them be and add more if you are able to.
Keep suet out for them, instead of throwing out your stale bread put it out for them and perhaps enhance it with peanut butter.
Don't worry about your garden birds starving if you go away during the winter. They will just go visit your neighbor's gardens or scrounge around the fields for things to eat. If you are going for a short spell you can rig up some large feeders that will help them along.
Someone once told me that bird's feet stick to metal suet feeders and roosts during extreme cold winter and that is not true at all.
Keeping warm water in your bird feeders may require some extra work on your part. I like to keep our bird baths very shallow so I can dump out any frozen water and add warm water. Don't worry about the birds freezing in the water. It is just to give them something warm to drink and they have a natural instinct not to bath around in them in the winter like they do in the warmer weather.
"Tread the Earth Lightly" and in the meantime may your day be filled with. Peace, Light and Love
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