With so much snow everywhere, this is a timely tip to make sure the birds have a source of food. Place a few old cookie sheets or other shallow pans around the area where you feed the birds. Scatter feed on the pans during snowy weather. If the snow covers the feed, just empty them on the ground and refill them. When the snow melts, they will find the seed that you have dumped. In the meantime, they will be able to find food. I use large shallow trays and pans year round, but it is especially important in the Winter.
Here in the desert, we have very windy days, most of the year. In recent years, I used terra cotta flat dishes for birdseed & for water dishes for wild birds, mainly where I don't have to chase them down thru out the neighborhood, after a wind comes up. These dishes are heavy enough to withstand the wind. The birdseed blows out some, but the birds or other critters will find it & benefit from it.
Great idea, Harlean! I have several old multi-tiered concrete fountains which don't work, so, in the winter I can put water in one tier, bird seed/cat food(which they ADORE) on another tier and feed several families of birds at once. I find fountain PARTS now and then, usually without bases, so I just set them on the ground throughout the yard/garden for the squirrels AND birds, who are clever enough to avoid the few neighborhood cats who squeeze through tiny fence holes now and then to catch any lizards basking near the soil. I hate to lose the lizards who are great at keeping the worst insects down, but unfortunately they keep even the beneficial insects away too often, also. So, I figure God knew what He was doing when He Created them? I just feed the creatures that survive. (I STILL haven't requested the Agricultural Extension center's referral man to pick up the nesting rare Black Bumble Bee Queen in her bird house bungalow near our Mexican Petunia grove. It's too cold, but I know she'll be at it again with all her brood, and little new queens looking for another bird house, come Spring in April, so I need to get that complete and get her moved to a better, less people-populated area. lol ) God bless you. : )
I lived in a very nature-oriented area for a period of time, borderline rural. I used to LOVE to feed the critters-I had frogs and mantises who kept my garden pest free, ladybugs who ate the gnats, hummingbirds who returned every year to the feeder, and plenty of cute little birds, some of which had their babies nearby. I own 2 cats, so what I would do over the winter every time it snowed was put some dry cat food in a blender and ground it to a coarse powder, then sprinkle it on the snow. It was so light it did not sink and the birds gobbled it up! They were all fat and shiny. They also received seed but this was my solution when the weather was snowy so they could still eat. No digging trays from under the snow; then as snow melted the shallow dishes which once held seed became impromptu baths for my feathered friends.
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