for the birds

Last year we made these feeders for the birds but this year we thought we'd try something a little different and probably more traditional. We took a container of lamb and beef dripping and melted it over a low heat, added a packet of wild bird seed and some stale bread all broken up into little pieces. Miss E did all of that herself, with my supervision for the melting part. We then spooned the mixture into some moulds, some into some ice cube trays and one into the plastic container that the dripping came in. We put a skewer down the middle so we had a hole to hang it with. I had planned to skewer the little ones too to hang on some wire but I tried that when they had firmed up and they just kept splitting so I put them in one of those plastic net bags that oranges sometimes come in.

We waited and waited for nearly two days before the birds found them. Once they had found them though it's been a different story, there have been so many birds all many a bird fight has ensued. It's been so much fun watching all the comings and goings on and miss E is certainly delighted at all the excitement over her little feeders, especially as we found out that over winter some birds can die if there isn't enough food for them. I only wish I had a digital SLR instead of a little point and shoot, then I'd be able to get some better bird shots.