Enjoy wildlife in your backyard by feeding birds

Help take your mind off the coronavirus or self quarantine by feeding the birds. Throughout the day we enjoy the sight of beautiful crimson cardinals, azure blue jays and goldfinches or chickadees fluttering around the backyard.

Usually they are just a few feet away, on the other side of our windows or the nearby birch trees. Many people in the area enjoy the same sights, if you provide the types of food birds need to sustain themselves in cold weather.

Surveys consistently show that bird watching, including feeding the birds in your yard, ranks among the most popular of outdoor related activities.

Especially popular in winter, bird feeders draw birds to foods located close to windows or patios where the birds can be seen and enjoyed.

There aremany kinds of bird feeders, and many kinds of foods that go into those feeders. In order to maximize the numbers and kinds of birds that are attracted to your backyard, it is best to place feeders in all the

feeding niches: ground level, eye level, tree hanging and tree trunk. If you have many birds in your backyard you will find it is necessary to have several feeders to accommodate the different types of birds and the food they prefer.

Forest birds such as chickadees, titmice, finches, nuthatches, and woodpeckers are used to clinging to limbs. Thus tube and wooden feeders as well as suet cages work well for them.

Cardinals and bluejays usually live in on the edges of forests or in mixed habitat and are used to feeding on the ground. They will frequent feeders both in the trees or on the ground. Juncos, sparrows, and mourning doves often feed on the ground and will commonly visit food spread on the ground or spilled when it is not covered with snow.

Cardinals prefer sunflower or safflower seeds but will generally feed only at feeders that have flat footing for them. That means cardinals will eat from a tray feeder or a hopper feeder that has an edge wide enough for them to get good footing. Cardinals cannot hold on to small perches such as those used on most hanging feeders.

Black- capped chickadees, on the other hand, prefer to eat sunflower seeds from feeders with tiny perches. They will even hang upside- down on any kind of perch, wire or bag feeder. Woodpeckers and nuthatches eat suet from laminated cagetype feeders that hang on tree trunks.

Some other common birds attracted to feeders, and their preferred foods and niches, are juncos ( sunflowers, wild birdseed mix; ground level), goldfinches ( sunflower and thistle seed; tree hanging tubes), blue jays ( sunflower and peanuts; eye level), house finches ( hulled sunflower and safflower; tree hanging), mourning doves ( seed mix, hulled sunflower; ground level), and nuthatches or woodpeckers ( sunflower and suet; eye level and tree trunk).

Some of the birds, especially chickadees and bluejays, often take sunflower seeds away to hide for later use. Studies have shown that incredibly these birds will remember the location and find the majority of the seeds they put away. This is amazing when you consider that many of us cannot remember where we put our glasses!

Birds also require cover where they can hide from predators such as hawks and find protection from the elements. If your backyard is near cover or has adequate trees and shrubs then you will probably get a lot of birds. But if it is relatively open you can temporarily create cover by gathering some Christmas trees that have been discarded last weekend.

You can tie tops of trees together to create a teepee like shelter that will protect ground feeding birds. However, you need to be careful that these do not provide shelter for the neighbor’s cat to go dining al fresco.

A metal stake driven into the ground will support a discarded Christmas tree and create inviting cover near your feeders. Put up several to attract the birds and create a windbreak for your feeders.

Many people have a problem with nuisance squirrels eating much of the seed or driving birds away. There are baffles and squirrel proof feeders, but they are incredibly resourceful in foiling these attempts at keeping them away.

If you intend to develop a bird feeding station, now is the time to start it, if you haven’t already done so. Although there has not been much snow cover, many of the natural foods have been depleted, so birds will be attracted to a site where there is food and cover. It is important to continue the feeding program until spring since many birds will become dependent on a regular food supply. SHORT CASTS Great Backyard Bird Count

The 2021 Great Backyard Bird Count will be held February 12 – 15. The event is free, it is an important step in citizen science, and you find interesting things by participating. For those who would like to learnmore about identifying birds, Cornell University is offering a free bird identification academic course. It is for beginners who would like to learnmore about identifying birds and includes five lessons and nine short videos. Check the website: academy. allaboutbirds. org/ product/ ebird- essentials/. Even if you can’t participate in the GBBC you might want to take this course to enjoy your birds at the feeder, especially if you are one of the people who can’t tell the difference between a crow and a tufted titmouse. Loons Trapped In Ice With the relatively mild winter so far most of the young loons in the Adirondacks have had plenty of time to fly south. However, many of them have hung around because here was no reason to leave the lake they were born on. In the past few weeks some cold snaps have formed a thin layer of ice on many Adirondack lakes and left a lot of them trapped in small areas of open water.

Naturally people in the central Adirondacks called Gary Lee, the retired forest ranger, and one of the foremost experts on loons and loon rescue.

Actually, by the time Gary arrived at the scenes, most of them had managed to leave. Gary explained that juvenile loons can fly out of the holes in the ice if the wind is just right. They run out of the holes on top of the ice and run into the wind for lift, just like on the water, until they get airborne. Gary hopes that they find open water before they get tired of flying.

Gary said that most will make it to the ocean and open water. Gary said that the fishing will be different and the new foodmay be salty. He did say that loons have the ability to excrete the salt fromtheir system through a gland above their eyes and out through their nostrils.

AE Adventures Postponed

Scott Locorini, owner and operator of AE Adventures, has announced that the planned adventures for January in Florida and Central America have been cancelled. Due to concerns over the coronavirus and the safety of participants those camping and kayaking adventures are cancelled. Hopefully in February a full range of outdoor tropical adventures will be available.

Winter Conditions In the Backcountry

Winter is a great time to explore nature if you are properly prepared with clothing and equipment. Even though there is not much snow in central NY, the Adirondacks, especially the central Adirondacks or the High Peaks have more snow. There is a thin coat of ice on many ponds or lakes but it is covered with snow which acts as insulation to prevent further freezing. Stay off bodies of water. If you are venturing to the High Peaks, check the DEC website for conditions and a list of preparations. The Old Forge webcams show different areas, including Mccauley Mt.