For the Birds

Every morning, Kalina & I open up the blinds to see the birds out the windows while we eat breakfast. Usually we have quite a few colorful robins to watch, as well as some crazy squirrels. It was such a nice day yesterday that we decided to take a blanket outside and enjoy the company of the animals. I thought it would be fun to feed the birds too, hoping it would bring more into our yard. I didn't have any bird food though, so grabbed some sunflower, pumpkin & sesame seeds to share.

We soon realized that unlike the Florida seagulls who will attack you to get whatever you're eating, these well-mannered birds actually run away when you chase them with food!

At least Kalina enjoyed the snacks...

I then had a great idea. Since we wanted to feed and watch the birds, but they wanted nothing to do with us, we would build them a "bird feeder". I remembered making one in the past out of a pinecone, peanut butter, and bird seed. EASY.

I gathered the supplies, and we began the hunt for pinecones. We searched all over our yard and the neighbors, but unfortunately when you have no pine trees, you also have no pine cones. Too bad. We collected some sticks to use instead.

We tied some strings to the sticks and then found some peanut butter. I dug out what was left in my last jar of natural peanut butter. Not quite the consistency needed to adhere to sticks (hydrogenated oils must be the secret!), but we made do.

Next comes the bird seed. Except, we had no bird seed. Instead, we prepared these birds a gourmet treat - a mix of sesame, flax, & sunflower seeds, quinoa, and millet. This part was messy and fun and I was thankful that we were doing this project outside! Eventually our peanut buttered sticks were covered in seeds & grains.

I then adorned the tree closest to our dining room window with three beautiful birdy treats. I cleaned up the mess as Kalina spread the word about the new restaurant to our feathered friends.

So far, I don't think the birds have found it. We did, however, see a squirrel hanging upside-down by his feet to get himself a taste. He was camera shy though, so we didn't get that funny pic. At least we know that SC squirrels are no different than the FL variety!

We'll keep an eye out for the birds, but I am thinking that next time we'll just decorate the tree with some worms!

UPDATE: As we ate our eggs this morning, we watched a mockingbird eating from one of our lovely bird feeders! He held on and spun around some, and hopped off when I think he got too dizzy... then wiped his beak off on a branch (peanut butter?! lol) and was off ~