Holiday Fun That's For the Birds!

Use a heart-shaped cookie cutter
to makea festive energy bar
for the birds in your backyard.

So... the children are home all week on their holiday break, the wind is whipping up all the snow that fell yesterday so it feels too cold to play outside for long and you want to do something with your family that makes the spirit of the season last through this entire week.  We've got just the activity for you! 

You can stay indoors where it is warm and whip up some treats to share with the birds that are searching out nutritious food now that the insects that remained in our region for the winter are in hiding and the berries left on trees and bushes are buried under drifting snow.  You'll have a great time making these treats, and it will be even more fun to watch the birds flock to them once you've put the treats outside in a spot you can view from your windows.  Over the last several days we've spotted cardinals, juncos, chickadees, blue jays, mourning doves, various finches and sparrows and even bluebirds at feeding stations we've set up around our house.

Use half a hollowed-out orange
to hold your energy bar mixture. 
It makes a very attractive bird feeder!

You don't have to go out and purchase lots of fancy ingredients for these treats.  Chances are good that you've got the necessary supplies right in your kitchen.  Energy bars are all the rage for humans these days, and it turns out that birds love them too.  To make a batch, combine 1 cup chunky peanut butter, 1 cup vegetable shortening, 2 ½ cups coarse yellow corn meal, seeds, raisins or other dried fruit, and roasted peanuts. Mix the peanut butter and shortening, then add cornmeal to thicken the mixture. Stir in seeds, raisins or roasted peanuts. Make energy bar "muffins" by placing your mixture in muffin tins. Sprinkle seeds on top. Place a pipe cleaner in each muffin to act as a hanger and place the tin in the freezer. Once hardened, hang the muffins or place in feeding stations. Hang the cakes from the tree with string, in a suet cage, or in mesh bags like those in which oranges and grapefruit are sold. You can use orange grapefruit or even coconut halves to create a feeder by stuffing your mixture into half of a hollowed-out rind. Poke three holes in the edge of the rind and run string through the holes. Sprinkle seeds on top. Place in the freezer to harden. Once hardened, knot the strings at the top and the bottom to secure and hang outside near a window. You can also gather cones from evergreen trees like pines and spruce, stuff shortening and peanut butter into the crevices, and then roll them in seeds.

For more recipes to make this week and throughout the winter, please visit URWA's Creature Feature web page at http://urwa.org/education/creatures.html.