The Backyard Visitors

Now that winter has truly set in, it's time to focus on the visitors that come to our back yard when it's cold and snowy.  Here's a sweet little chickadee hanging out in the birdfeeder.

Another visit this week was a sassy bluejay who was enjoying the suet hanger.  I made my own suet bird concoction this weekend.  We had houseguests and I cooked a shocking amount of bacon.  I won't tell you how much, it's just wrong.  As my friend Stacey and I were staring at the prodigious amount of bacon grease waiting to be disposed of, I remembered something I had read in one of the boys Cub books recently.  Little birds need the fat from suet or bacon grease in our cold Canadian winters.  I grabbed a bowl, the grease and a big bag of birdseed, and added enough birdseed to the bacon fat to make something that looked like a seed muffin mix.  I spooned the mix into four muffin tin papers, and popped them in the fridge to cool.  Voila, little chilled suet balls, waiting to be used.  I put one on the birdfeeder a couple of days ago, and yesterday I saw a little chickadee picking away at it, so it was successful!  I hope he has a good cardiologist.