April is the month that Mainers welcome the song birds back from their winter "vacations". Some of them will have flown over 2,000 miles to arrive in our yard! Needless to say, they arrive hungry so we provide them with good, nourishing food and water. It's a fair trade for being able to hear their incredible songs drifting in an open window.
While they certainly go through a lot of seed, taking care of the birds doesn't have to mean buying costly equipment. Your family can have lots of fun making these bird feeders from inexpensive and easy-to-gather supplies. Little hands will need support to do some of the steps so it's best to work together.
Pine cone feeders
Materials you'll need:
- Pine cones Have at least two per person. (Pick up natural ones if possible. If you need to buy them, use only untreated cones from the craft store.)
- Peanut butter (Any nut butter will work fine if your family can't use peanut products.)
- Yellow corn meal
- Birdseed
- Some cotton string or easy-to-bend wire
- Spoon for each person
- A bowl to mix the nut butter and corn meal
- Low cake/baking pan or plate for the birdseed.
- Newspapers to protect the table from nut butter mixture!
Instructions:
- Lay down several layers of newspaper on your table. This craft is fun AND messy!
- Lay out the supplies--fill a pan with bird seed about half an inch deep, jar of nut butter, corn meal, spoons, string/wire and cones.
- First tie string or floral wire to the tops of the pine cones. Little hands may need help with this step.
Place the wire or string between the "petals" of the
pine cone and twist or tie tightly. Then form a loop
and twist or tie that closed.
- In a bowl, mix half a cup of nut butter with a cup of corn meal.
- Take spoons-full of nut butter mix and smear it into the pine cones. Do your best to fill every nook. This is messy fun!
Smear the pine cone with the nut butter and cornmeal
mixture. Fill all the nooks!
- Next, roll the gooey pine cones in bird seed.
Roll the pine cone in the bird seed to cover the nut butter
mixture. We're using black oiled sunflower seeds but any
bird seed will work fine.
- Voila! Just hang it in a tree and wait for the birds to find it! (Hang your feeders at a safe height, away from neighborhood cats!)
Here is a finished cone to hang in a branch!
Scatter the gooey seed left in the pan outside for the squirrels and ground feeding birds.
Smiling Can Bird Feeders
Materials you'll need:
- Birdseed
- Some cotton string or easy-to-bend wire
- 1" deep cans-- You'll need at least one per person. (The aluminum, pull-off top cans that cat food and some tuna fish is packed in work best. If the edges of the can are sharp, PLEASE smooth the sharp edges with sand paper first! You may also want to use a substitute, something in place of the can, such as empty grapefruit or orange halves, shallow plastic containers or trimmed down, paper milk cartons.)
- Cranberries or blue berries or raisins to make the faces
- A hammer
- Sturdy nail to go through the can
- A scrap of board to protect surfaces as you hammer
- Spoons
- Newspaper to protect the table!
- Safety glasses are recommended for the person who will be hammering!
- "Bird Treat"--This can be made ahead of time. Instructions are below.
"Bird Treat" recipe:
- 1 pound lard (or leftover cooking fat)
- 1 cup hot water
- 2 cups oatmeal
- 1 cup flour
- 4 cups wild birdseed
- Large sauce pan
- Mixing spoons
Melt the lard or fat over low heat in the sauce pan. Just melt, do not over heat. Add oatmeal, then flour. Next add the water and birdseed. Mix very well.
Stir all the ingredients until they are well mixed.
- Let cool a bit before working with it.
Smiling Can Feeder Instructions:
- Lay down several layers of newspaper on your table. This is very messy fun!
- Put out the supplies--cans, a board, hammer and nail, bird treat, and string or wire.
- Using the hammer and nail--carefully punch two holes at the top edge of the can.
Hammer the nail through the can edge to make two holes.
Be sure to protect your work surface!
- Tie a string or wire to form a hanging loop.
Here is a close up of the finished string through the
holes and tied.
- Fill the can with "bird treat."
Pack the can and smooth the top of the mixture.
- Press cranberries, blueberries or raisins onto the surface of the treat to form a face!
Here are the finished "Smiling Can Feeders." Many different kinds
of containers may be used for these feeders. The green container
once held mushrooms!
- Hang it in a tree (at a safe height, away from neighborhood cats!) and wait for the birds to find it!
Even 3 to 5 year olds enjoy making these refillable treats for the birds, with some assistance from adults. Use your imagination for other easy ones suitable for younger children. For instance, try using empty grapefruit or orange halves and trimmed down paper milk cartons instead of cans.
Spend time watching the birds that come to eat from your feeders. Squirrels may visit you, too! Make drawings of the birds and the trees that they visit! If you're good with a camera try catching shots of your visitors. Who are they? Use a bird identification guide to find out who's coming to your yard!
We'd LOVE to see pictures of the faces you've created on your Smiling Can Bird Feeder! Let us know who comes to your feeders and please send us your drawings, photos and stories, too! Email us at: editors@spritliving.org
Calling all junior builders out there! What kind of Earth-loving sculptures can you make from your Legos®?
We'd love to see your animals, birds, plants, bugs and whatever other creative, eco-centric magic you can come up with!
We'll publish photos of your project, a photo of you with your Legos® and what you have to say about your creation. Create your masterpiece alone or get a gang together!
Ready, set, get building!!
This month's Lego® eagle was submitted by Brandon Inman of Holbrook, New York.
Send your pictures to: submission@spiritliving.org
by Tom Magadieu
Kids. They are a great blessing. They can also be a great challenge - especially because we care about them!
My story starts where many parenting stories start, my own childhood. I wanted kids since I was a kid myself. What I didn't want was to repeat cycles of behavior that generations of my family had created. Sure there were some good aspects that bear repeating. But in the age of Archie Bunker, my parents didn't have the benefit of an "Oprah-fied" supportive community. They made choices that at times had devastating effect.
I look at my kids and see the brightest light of hope and possibilities. They are the very expression of Spirit. My goal as a dad is to help them grow - give them structure, support, tools to make good choices, and a variety of opportunities to discover what makes them tick. Through it all, I want to do my best not to diminish that light.
My kids did not come with instructions. They did however come with large personalities, and their own agendas. Cute when they were drooling babies... when their heads began spinning around with flames shooting out their nostrils, I knew my resolve would be tested at every turn.
In failure we learn. And so it was, when my friend Ellen arrived to see my son crying on his way up the stairs and me following behind, bellowing. Another dinner time, another episode of a wired little man standing on his chair, doing everything but eating.
I told her I was exasperated, that nothing I was doing worked. I told him over and over again, night after night, "Stop standing on the chair and eat your dinner!"
He rejoined the table, and it wasn't more than five minutes when up he went, singing! Ellen piped in playfully, "Little man... you need to have your bum-bum on the seat or your feet on the floor. That's the rule!"
He looked at his feet and then sat down. Not a voice was raised.
He knew my rule. It just wasn't presented in a way that he could act upon. Ellen's rule was the same as mine, but her's was actionable.
Tell him not to stand on the chair and he's deadlocked. The image I put in his mind was him standing on the chair. Tell him to put his tail on the seat, and he knows just what to do.
Huh! It's so simple.
Kids are approval seeking. They want accolades and smiles. Let the rules be pathways to success, and it's amazing how much negativity and yelling you can avoid.
Is my parenting now conflict-free? No. But a resolution comes more quickly, and at much less cost. Functionally, we get through the day with greater ease - and many more smiles.
Ellen rules!
Do you have a parenting tip of your own? Please send us your stories and photos. Email us at: editors@spritliving.org
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