Pat Munts on Gardening: Feed the birds this winter

I celebrated the call to get outdoors over the holidays by shredding up a big pile of garden detritus, hard work by anyone’s standard. I finished late in the afternoon and sat under our spreading Amur maple to rest. Overhead a large flock of nuthatches and chickadees was busily tapping on sunflower seeds from our nearby feeders. They were dashing back and forth trying to get enough to hold them over through the night. In the process they rained hulls and tree bits down on me.

Winter is a tough haul for most wild critters and birds are no exception. They need lots of nutritious food to keep warm. In the wild they can draw on leftover seed heads and winter hardy insects to sustain them, so your feeders provide a welcome addition. According to the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife, dozens of birds call the region home over the winter and they have their preferences when it comes to the seed in home feeders.

Most of the birds that visit our feeders love whole or hulled black oil sunflower seeds, including mourning doves, quail, woodpeckers and flickers, finches, goldfinch, chickadees, nuthatches, pine siskins and juncos to name a few. Some of these birds will eat red or white millet but we found the majority of birds just kicked it out of the feeders. We also put out suet cakes in wire mesh baskets hung on a tree branch as a protein source for insect eaters like woodpeckers, goldfinch, chickadees and nuthatches.

There are a number of different types of feeders available commercially, or you can make your own. Doves and quail prefer flat, open feeders set at least 15 feet away from shrubbery where cats can hide. You can build a cover over the top to keep the seed dry. Unfortunately, these feeders are easy for squirrels to get into so a squirrel proof baffle is advised on the pole.

Tube feeders are popular for several reasons. They provide individual feeding ports while keeping the seed dry. There are many squabbles on our feeders about who gets what port which just adds to the fun of watching them. Tube feeders that swing free are also a little more difficult for squirrels to gain access to. They and the raccoons will try their best though. We had to move ours further from a deck railing because a raccoon creatively figured out how to use his paws and teeth to grab the feeders.

Buying fresh seed is important because like all food products the nutrients will degrade over time. Most stores offer feed in different sized bags so you have a choice. It is better to buy single varieties of seed and then make your own blends depending on what they like so you don’t waste seed. Always store your seed in a container, preferably metal, to keep rodents out of your stock. Store the seed bucket in the garage; we’ve had raccoons pack off the bucket and growl at us when we intervened.

Pat Munts is co-author, with Susan Mulvihill, of “Northwest Gardener’s Handbook.” She can be reached at pat@inlandnwgardening.com.