Feeding Our Wild Friends

Feeding Our Wild Friends

Offer them food and they will come. Birds, deer, turkeys, squirrels, raccoons, mice, even bears. Often they will come with a vengeance for dining is a big part of the way of nature.

 

 

Tracks of the Trail of Deers

We feed the wild animals (our friends) all year - sometimes trying to keep them alive while the hunters come from other places to kill them when they step off our property - or like last year to ask permission to search for one who went on our land after being shot with a bow - I said OK but was not happy about it. Many of them can get maimed and wounded and die slow agonizing deaths. I see people buying bags of corn to lure them to their deaths. It is well known that it is cheaper to buy deer meat than to kill it. Perhaps it is that the Art of Stalking is so compelling. We have had to stalk coon hunters at night on several occasions. I thought about getting a game camera to watch things at the feeders. It could be fun as some take pics and movies via a motion sensor. Some guys at work did this with a corn feeding setup and watched the night feeders. Most all were deer but one showed a mouse eating the corn getting taken by what looked like a small bobcat. It could have been a domesticated cat but we were way back away from any inhabited areas. It might also be interesting to get to know specific deer. We have done this with bucks due to the size of their antlers and a few family groups when they have young ones.

The deer can be rather greedy.  They frequent certain oak trees after the acorns fall and develop feeding trails on their daily rounds as do the wild turkeys. Squirrels seem to prefer the hickory nuts. We feed the birds near the woods – one reason is that they are further away from the cats who can threaten and catch them. The deer have broken several of the bird feeders so I have to hang them up high and prefer the box-type squirrel feeders. Some deer come close and wait while I feed to come and eat.

After a storm felled a large oak tree, I noticed that the outer wood, about 2 inches thick had separated from the inner so I was able to cut this off a big chunk to make a roof for a large bird feeder. The roof piece is about 5ft long and a foot and a half wide. I attached it to two locust posts inserted into the ground and made a tray with plywood and small pieces of wood for a border. It sits in like a shelf. With occasional repairs the whole contraption should last for years. The birds enjoy it and the deer can also pull it out a little and eat from it. I had to put some fiberglass panels around the locust posts so the cat would not climb up and lie in wait for unsuspecting birds. The squirrels climb up and hide in the space between.

We always have an abundance of feathers since we have chickens, a turkey, geese, and ducks – also a few groups of wild turkeys and all the wild birds at the feeders. Morning Dove, Blue Jay, Crow, and Wild Turkey feathers are fairly common finds.

                          Deer block with 'irresisitible berry flavor'

I have not had good luck with bird baths – at least with non-concrete ones.  The deer or possibly the squirrels or raccoons seem to knock them down. I guess I’ll have to get a concrete one but I fear they will somehow break it too.

One year during a cold winter we hung many pine cones slathered with peanut butter. These were popular as most got emptied fairly quickly.

In the winter through early spring the birds begin roosting in our biggest bamboo grove in the front yard. Usually – the starlings come by the thousands – making a powerful cacophony – otherworldly at times. I have heard it said that starlings are aggressive at bird feeders but have never noted this at our feeders. They are the blackbirds of European lore but have migrated to North America a couple of hundred years ago I think.

 

Animals seem to understand food. It is their prime need and securing it often requires danger and struggle. They are keenly aware of its presence or absence, it’s time and place, it regularity. Food is energy. It is fuel. All energy comes ultimately from the sun, our patron star. The activity around the bird feeders is nice to watch and hear. The birds, the squirrels, and the deer all seem to be enjoying themselves. Unfortunately, due to having many cats we never feed close to the house or where cats dwell so we have to wander off a ways both to feed the wild ones and to observe them so most of the observing is done before, during, and after feeding. I think they like it better too having food where they are less disturbed and where the birds are safer from predators. One year when we fed out in the open the hawks would swoop down so we put up an army camo net. 

I have some CD’s and tapes of specific bird calls but have yet to listen. I can recognize a few so far but hope to learn many more. Been meaning to do this on long drives but I guess I’m a bit lazy. A few years ago I went on a May morning bird walk at friend’s place with a bird guy there to point out birds and calls. That was cool. Often I will carry food with me in the car  – corn for birds, squirrels, geese, ducks – esp. in snowy times where it might be hard for them to get food. Actually, I often have bags of bird food in the car since the raccoons are adept at opening containers and raiding the food which really sucks if it rains right after they leave the container open. Animals can convert food into heat rather efficiently I am guessing. Also, as I know from having quite a few cats and birds – they can covert food into shit rather efficiently as well. Another thing one can do for birds is to plant things that leave big edible seeds that birds like – millet, sorghum, sunflowers are examples. One might also plant berries and fruits that they like in various seasons as well such as viburnums, mulberries, and a million others.   

                                  Hungarian Broom Corn (a form of sorghum)

                 
                              Chionanthus retusus (Chinese Fringe Tree) - from                       olive family - birds seem to enjoy them