Backyard Birder

Waste Free

I thought that I could buy the Waste Free feed locally, but when I punched the location in to Map Quest, it put the travel time at 4 1/2 hours. I think not! I found two places to buy from, and I am not sure which is cheaper. The one site tells you the shipping before you order, the other does not. I ordered from the site that does not. I also ordered a Opus Top Flight Triple Tube Bird Feeder at the same time, so that doesn't allow me to compare the shipping. If you wish to check for yourself, the sites are here and here. I ordered from the first one.

The Opus Top Flight Triple Tube Bird Feeder seems OK. It was listed as squirrel proof, but when you use it with the enclosed pole, it is not. The feed ports have lids that can flip down for nyjer seed, so I filled one tube with that. I stocked one tube with the new Waste Free, the final tube with the mix I received for Christmas. That last has cracked corn, which none of the other mixes has. After I finished filling it, I watched a couple of birds eying it up. It didn't take too long for them to brave the new gadget.

I moved the nyjer feeder into view of the new web cam. I hate to admit it, but I think my downys have moved on. I do have one other thing to try for the downys, homemade suet. A recipe was posted on rec.birds by SteveB today. Here it is:

Martha Sargent's Famous Suet Recipe

1 cup - crunchy peanut butter

2 cups - quick cook oats

2 cups - yellow cornmeal

1 cup - lard

1 cup - white flour

1/3 cup - sugar (no longer recommended)

Melt lard and peanut butter in saucepan over medium heat. Gradually stir

in remaining ingredients. Pour mixture into freezer containers (aluminum

pie pan, etc.) that measures no more than 2 inches deep. This allows the

cakes to fit into standard suet baskets. Place in freezer; when frozen,

break into suitably-sized pieces.

I bought eight of those square covered plastic storage things at the dollar

store that are the exact size as my suet holder. I put a piece of saran

wrap in them and spoon in the same amount to each, helping the Saran wrap to

drop in there and make a squarish cake. Making it in one big blob and

cutting it is not the best way. Use Saran wrap or you will break them

trying to get them out of the container. I added a bunch of old chopped

pecans this time.

They LOVE it, and eat it much more readily than store bought suet. The lard

and peanut butter are the only things that cost much, and it costs less to

make it than buying suet..

edit- They now say that you should leave out the sugar.