Tag: wildlife

Categories
Cottage Life

Wild Profile: Meet the boreal chickadee

By Romeo Andrei Cana/Shutterstock

Look, it’s a black-capped chickadee! No, wait, it’s a boreal chickadee. Every Canadian can recognize the former, and its calls. But the lesser-known boreal chickadee has the same tiny body, big head, and round belly. (Adorbs.) Look carefully, though, and you’ll note the differences between the two species. The boreal chickadee has a brown cap, and darker, cinnamon-coloured sides. (Why isn’t it called the brown-capped chickadee? Good question.)

Where does the boreal chickadee live?

In North America, this songbird sticks almost exclusively to spruce and fir forests in Canada, and a few neighbouring states, such as Alaska. You can find these chickadees in almost every province, and, like black-caps, they don’t migrate (though they’ll move slightly south in the winter if there are food shortages). They prefer to feed off older trees. They’ll cling to tree cones, and poke around with their beaks to get at seeds or bugs. Their short bills are also tough enough to loosen tree bark and uncover insect eggs and larvae.

What does the boreal chickadee sound like? 

The species produces a call that’s similar to its black-capped cousin’s, but it’s a little rougher and harsher, less sweet and melodic: tschick-a-dee-dee. Like other birds, boreals have all kinds of vocalizations, for alarm, warning, courtship, and aggression—everything from a low gargle to a twitter to a series of short chirps and squeals. Still, it’s a lot less chatty than the black-capped chickadee—one reason why some birders consider the boreal reclusive. And unlike our other chickadee species, the boreal chickadee doesn’t vocalize to announce its breeding territory. (For such a wee bird this can be a large chunk of real estate: up to 13 acres.) Instead, to scare off intruders, males will use a chin-up motion, or a “ruffle display”: they puff up their feathers and wings. Oh, stop frontin’, chickadee. Just kidding. We know that you’re tough.

Are they endangered? 

Because boreal chickadees have a more remote and northern range than many other bird species, it’s hard for experts to monitor their numbers. Still, one survey estimated that population increased by 38 per cent between 1970 and 2017, and according to the North American Breeding Bird Survey, their numbers appear stable. So even though a lot of avian species are struggling, the future looks bright for this bird.

 

 

 

Categories
Cottage Life

Why wolves love trails (and caribou, not so much)

Photo by C_Gara / Shutterstock

Zoom in and explore the northern boreal forests of western Canada on Google Earth and you’ll see long straight lines making their way through the forest. These lines are cleared trails through the forest to extract resources, creating roads for forestry and seismic lines searching for underground oil and gas deposits.

Now picture yourself faced with the task of moving across this landscape: Will you push your way through dense trees and underbrush, or will you choose to walk on the trails?

Like humans, wolves often choose the path of least resistance, moving faster and farther on human-created trails through the forest. Increased wolf movement is believed to play an important role in the decline of the threatened boreal woodland caribou—an iconic species in Canada (just look at the quarter in your pocket).

When wolves move farther, they encounter their prey more frequently, and caribou are being hunted by wolves at rates they cannot sustain.

a cleared path through a forest
A seismic line created by searching for underground oil and gas deposits.
(Natasha Crosland/Caribou Monitoring Unit), Author provided

Smaller territories

But now, we’ve also found that wolves living in areas that make it easier for them to get around need less space to make a living. The relationship is particularly strong when prey are scarce.

We tracked 142 wolves using GPS collars across British Columbia, Alberta and Saskatchewan—spanning over 500,000 square kilometres. The tracked wolves spanned areas with low to high prey density (measured using a metric of habitat productivity, or how much vegetation there is for species like moose), and had varying access to human-created trails.

Wolves living in areas with high densities of human-created trails took up an area roughly 20 times smaller than wolves without trails, but only when they lived in areas with low habitat productivity. Comparatively, trails didn’t change the area needed for wolves when they lived in areas with high habitat productivity.

A diagram showing how the areas covered by wolves are affected by human activity
The territories covered by wolves are changing.
(Created by FUSE for Caribou Monitoring Unit/UBC-Okanagan/Regional Industry Caribou Collaboration), Author provided

Think about picking berries. If the berries are hard to find, you have to go looking far and wide to get enough to fill up your basket. But if something makes it easier for you to find the berries, then you don’t have to look around as much. You can just grab all the ones that you see close to you. The advantage of being able to easily find berries would be less important if there are a lot because you can skip over a few without noticing. But it becomes more important when there are few to begin with, and every last berry counts.

This is exactly what we are seeing with wolves: Instead of choosing to travel far and wide, wolves with access to lots of trails stay close to home and get by with what they have.

Watch: Tiny wolf pups practice howling together

The space animals use to carry out their lives is called a home range, or if defended from conspecifics like in the case of wolves, a territory. If animals have smaller home ranges, that means more animals can crowd into a given space, increasing the density of that species. It is well documented that animals need less space when there is an abundance of food around—and now we know that easier access to that food can also decrease home range size. We found that increasing a wolf’s access to their prey, through things like cleared trails through the forest, can decrease their home range size, likely increasing the regional density of wolves.

Habitat restoration

But why do we care about how big wolf home ranges are? One of the biggest conservation challenges in Canada is that of woodland caribou. Caribou live across large areas, overlapping places where the energy and forestry sectors are actively extracting natural resources like oil, gas and timber.

a caribou stands next to a cleared path in a forest
A remote camera capture of caribou in the boreal forest. Changes in wolf-hunting patterns are threatening the already endangered caribou.
(Melanie Dickie/Caribou Monitoring Unit), Author provided

Habitat restoration and protection have been identified as key steps needed to recover declining populations. Despite existing efforts and policies, caribou habitat loss continues to accelerate across much of western Canada.

Habitat restoration is imminently needed, but is expensive and time consuming. Prioritizing habitat restoration in areas where it will be most beneficial to caribou as soon as possible is necessary for effective caribou management.

Habitat restoration has two main goals: to reduce wolf hunting efficiency by limiting their use of trails and slow their movement when on them and to return the forest to caribou habitat. But now we have reason to believe that slowing wolves down can also reduce wolf density on the landscape — forcing individual wolves to take up more space and push others out—especially in low-productivity peatlands, where the effect on home ranges is stronger.

Effective habitat restoration is going to be important for moving away from other management actions like wolf management in the long term. But, we have a lot of work ahead of us. There are hundreds of thousands of kilometres of these cleared trails that need to be restored. Our study points us towards prioritizing low-productivity areas to see the biggest effects sooner.The Conversation

Melanie Dickie, PhD candidate, Biology, University of British Columbia

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

Read more: Photographer captures rare images of coastal wolf

Categories
Cottage Life

Why wolves love trails (and caribou, not so much)

Photo by C_Gara / Shutterstock

Zoom in and explore the northern boreal forests of western Canada on Google Earth and you’ll see long straight lines making their way through the forest. These lines are cleared trails through the forest to extract resources, creating roads for forestry and seismic lines searching for underground oil and gas deposits.

Now picture yourself faced with the task of moving across this landscape: Will you push your way through dense trees and underbrush, or will you choose to walk on the trails?

Like humans, wolves often choose the path of least resistance, moving faster and farther on human-created trails through the forest. Increased wolf movement is believed to play an important role in the decline of the threatened boreal woodland caribou—an iconic species in Canada (just look at the quarter in your pocket).

When wolves move farther, they encounter their prey more frequently, and caribou are being hunted by wolves at rates they cannot sustain.

a cleared path through a forest
A seismic line created by searching for underground oil and gas deposits.
(Natasha Crosland/Caribou Monitoring Unit), Author provided

Smaller territories

But now, we’ve also found that wolves living in areas that make it easier for them to get around need less space to make a living. The relationship is particularly strong when prey are scarce.

We tracked 142 wolves using GPS collars across British Columbia, Alberta and Saskatchewan—spanning over 500,000 square kilometres. The tracked wolves spanned areas with low to high prey density (measured using a metric of habitat productivity, or how much vegetation there is for species like moose), and had varying access to human-created trails.

Wolves living in areas with high densities of human-created trails took up an area roughly 20 times smaller than wolves without trails, but only when they lived in areas with low habitat productivity. Comparatively, trails didn’t change the area needed for wolves when they lived in areas with high habitat productivity.

A diagram showing how the areas covered by wolves are affected by human activity
The territories covered by wolves are changing.
(Created by FUSE for Caribou Monitoring Unit/UBC-Okanagan/Regional Industry Caribou Collaboration), Author provided

Think about picking berries. If the berries are hard to find, you have to go looking far and wide to get enough to fill up your basket. But if something makes it easier for you to find the berries, then you don’t have to look around as much. You can just grab all the ones that you see close to you. The advantage of being able to easily find berries would be less important if there are a lot because you can skip over a few without noticing. But it becomes more important when there are few to begin with, and every last berry counts.

This is exactly what we are seeing with wolves: Instead of choosing to travel far and wide, wolves with access to lots of trails stay close to home and get by with what they have.

Watch: Tiny wolf pups practice howling together

The space animals use to carry out their lives is called a home range, or if defended from conspecifics like in the case of wolves, a territory. If animals have smaller home ranges, that means more animals can crowd into a given space, increasing the density of that species. It is well documented that animals need less space when there is an abundance of food around—and now we know that easier access to that food can also decrease home range size. We found that increasing a wolf’s access to their prey, through things like cleared trails through the forest, can decrease their home range size, likely increasing the regional density of wolves.

Habitat restoration

But why do we care about how big wolf home ranges are? One of the biggest conservation challenges in Canada is that of woodland caribou. Caribou live across large areas, overlapping places where the energy and forestry sectors are actively extracting natural resources like oil, gas and timber.

a caribou stands next to a cleared path in a forest
A remote camera capture of caribou in the boreal forest. Changes in wolf-hunting patterns are threatening the already endangered caribou.
(Melanie Dickie/Caribou Monitoring Unit), Author provided

Habitat restoration and protection have been identified as key steps needed to recover declining populations. Despite existing efforts and policies, caribou habitat loss continues to accelerate across much of western Canada.

Habitat restoration is imminently needed, but is expensive and time consuming. Prioritizing habitat restoration in areas where it will be most beneficial to caribou as soon as possible is necessary for effective caribou management.

Habitat restoration has two main goals: to reduce wolf hunting efficiency by limiting their use of trails and slow their movement when on them and to return the forest to caribou habitat. But now we have reason to believe that slowing wolves down can also reduce wolf density on the landscape — forcing individual wolves to take up more space and push others out—especially in low-productivity peatlands, where the effect on home ranges is stronger.

Effective habitat restoration is going to be important for moving away from other management actions like wolf management in the long term. But, we have a lot of work ahead of us. There are hundreds of thousands of kilometres of these cleared trails that need to be restored. Our study points us towards prioritizing low-productivity areas to see the biggest effects sooner.The Conversation

Melanie Dickie, PhD candidate, Biology, University of British Columbia

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

Read more: Photographer captures rare images of coastal wolf

Categories
Cottage Life

How to get rid of your Christmas tree

Photo by Kolomenskaya Kseniya/Shutterstock

When the holiday season is over, it’s time to call it quits for that conifer. Real trees require careful consideration when disposing of them; they can’t be unassembled and stored in the basement. Here are a few ways to get rid of your Christmas tree.

Municipal pickup

There are environmental benefits to repurposing your tree instead of kicking it to the curb for municipal pickup. Forests Ontario says that more than 100,000 Christmas trees are collected in Toronto annually and chipped into 3,700 tonnes of mulch used as compost in city parks.

Arts and crafts

If you’re feeling crafty, foliage from your evergreen–namely fir tree branches–is excellent for aromatic crafts. Snip the greenery into small pieces and stuff it into a pillow for a refreshing scent in your living room or bedroom–or place them in a dresser drawer and closet. Like woodworking? You can use the trunk to make coasters or candleholders.

Put it in the backyard

Whether you choose a Fraser fir or a Scots pine, real trees are a gift that keeps on giving. According to Christmas Tree Farmers of Ontario (CFTO), you don’t have to go much farther than your backyard to get rid of your Christmas tree.

Put your tree in the garden near or up against the fence to provide winter shelter for small animals and birds. It will draw a variety of wildlife: toads, insets, and pollinators will seek refuge under the log. You can ‘decorate’ the tree to feed wildlife throughout the winter. Remember to remove all decorations, especially tinsel, before doing so.

Use your tree as firewood

You can also use your tree as firewood. Because conifers are sappy by nature, burn them outdoors. The sap is flammable, and creosote can build up in an indoor fireplace, so it is best to leave it for the bonfire. Mother-Nature.ca suggests you chop the tree and stack it to dry, though you’ll have to wait until next year to burn it. The site also suggests turning the process into a tradition: burn last year’s tree right before you buy/decorate the new one.

Waterway

Consider habitat for the aquatic population near your home when getting rid of your Christmas tree. CFTO suggests sinking your spruce in the water to provide habitat and cover for fish. Check with your local municipality for whether or not this is allowed.

Let it be

No surprise: real trees are biodegradable! According to a news release from the Nature Conservancy of Canada (NCC), the branches and needles make great mulch for your garden (run it through a wood chipper). CFTO says rhododendrons, in particular, will appreciate your effort. Plus, leaving the tree in the garden over winter improves your soil as it decomposes.

Categories
Cottage Life

Is the chickadee the most Canadian animal?

Photo by Rino Falvo / Shutterstock

This essay about the chickadee was originally published as part of “The Great Canadian Creature Feature” in the June/July issue of Cottage Life.

Chickadees are so abundant at backyard feeders and neighbourhood parks across Canada, it’s easy to forget that they are wild animals that live in almost every treed habitat in our country. Perhaps you’ve even seen one and thought, It’s just a chickadee. It’s a common bird, but that familiar sight is also an extraordinary one. Not only are chickadees an animal we can get close to, they are so emblematic of what it takes to thrive here that they deserve a new title: Canada’s National Animal.   

Let’s start up close, because we can bond with chickadees. They make eye contact, and if you can whistle, you can have a conversation with one; they will respond. As children, we learn to sing with them, “Chick-a-dee-dee-dee.” And if we’re patient, they will come to our hands. 

Chickadees are the central characters in my earliest wildlife memories. As a kid, I spent winter afternoons in our local forest holding out handfuls of sunflower seeds and willing them to come. I would stand until my fingers froze and my outstretched arm shook from the effort. Chickadees taught me the patience and stillness I would need when I became a guide and naturalist later in life, and I have never tired of them. As an adult, I return to the same forest, still waiting to feel the pinpricks of their tiny nails against my cold fingers. 

By feeding chickadees healthy seeds, we can deepen our connection with them and help them to survive the winter and improve their reproductive success. Yet they don’t become dependent on us—they never forget how to forage for themselves. Chickadees don’t migrate. They can handle winter—an essential trait for a national animal—and though they only weigh as much as two quarters, they can induce a controlled state of hypothermia to survive the cold nights. By morning, they’ll be flitting around again, drinking fresh water from melting icicles. 

Meet the black-capped chickadee

While these birds are charismatic and approachable, they’re also tough enough to meet the demands of Canada’s huge and wide-ranging habitats. They have some nifty adaptations to help with this: their legs are so strong that they can feed hanging upside down; they have extraordinary spatial memory for the food that they cache; and they use at least 16 different vocalizations including the intense “high zee” which warns of predators so effectively that other species of birds also listen and react. Like many songbirds, chickadees are short-lived (they rarely see their fourth birthday) and experience about 50 per cent mortality in their first year. One of their main strategies to survive the hardships of their short lives is the very thing that makes them so remarkable: curiosity. You only have to watch a chickadee for half an hour to see this for yourself. They never stop learning, and that—more than any other trait—is what makes them my top choice for Canada. They are always exploring. This makes them more than an animal we can learn about; it makes them a companion we can learn from. 

Zoom out from the cute little bird at your feeder and look at a map of Canada. You’ll find chickadees everywhere, in every province and territory: in Haida Gwaii, the Arctic coast, the fjords of Labrador, southwestern Nunavut, and downtown Toronto. We have five species: black-capped, mountain, gray-headed, boreal, and chestnut-backed. Between them, they have evolved to live in every major forest type in our country. They are all cavity nesters and partially dependent on tree seeds for winter forage, but they push those habitat requirements to the limit: some live at high elevations, others on the edges of the tundra.

10 feeder birds to attract this winter

So we might get to know chickadees for how common they are—our companion in nature, our national bird in the hand—but our moments with them might also be the closest encounters we will ever have with a wild animal. When you look one in the eye, you will see tenacity, intelligence, and poise— and an animal that knows our country better than we do.

Facts & Figures

How do you like my outfit? As with most birds that brave Canadian winters, chickadees can fluff out their feathers and trap a layer of insulating air around their bodies.

 A tall tale: Chickadees have long legs—longer than other perching birds. 

 Nothing says love like bugs: Courting male chickadees present females with large insects—protein, yum!—in order to woo them.

Read more essays from “The Great Canadian Creature Feature” to read more of our favourite writers making the case for their pick for the most Canadian animal in the June/July 2021 issue of Cottage Life. 

Categories
Cottage Life

Is the coywolf the most Canadian animal?

Photo by Fiona M. Donnelly / Shutterstock

This essay about the coywolf was originally published as part of “The Great Canadian Creature Feature” in the June/July issue of Cottage Life.

Animals are oblivious to national borders. Their habitats pay no heed to lines on a map; birds and herds migrate across them at will. They were roaming the landscape long before those lines were drawn anyway. No nation can ever truly lay claim to any one beast as its national animal. 

The coywolf is, quite possibly, the only known exception to this rule. It is the rarest of breeds: a new species of hybrid origin, a mammal forged before our eyes. The coywolf is younger than zoology, younger than even Canada itself, having emerged only in the last 75 to 100 years.  

The coywolf’s origins trace deep into Canada’s cottaging heartland. In the early 20th century, as North America’s population grew and its landscape was colonized, the eastern wolf population (Canis lycaons) was hit hard. Facing a habitat squeeze and eradication campaigns, the wolves headed north from the eastern seaboard and the St. Lawrence lowlands. By the 1950s their few remaining numbers had found safe haven in and around Ontario’s Algonquin Provincial Park. That’s when they met up with some western coyotes (Canis latrans) who, facing similar habitat pressures, had migrated from the American midwest and the central plains region of Canada. 

So began the greatest-ever dirty weekend in the history of cottage country. For the coyotes, it was probably not love at first sight. The western gray wolf (Canis lupus) kills coyotes, so the idea of getting cozy with its eastern cousin probably seemed a bit dodgy. But eastern wolves, being significantly smaller than western ones, were a lot less intimidating. They were also eagerly seeking to diversify the gene pool, so they’d have been in a welcoming frame of mind. Plus both were new to the area, and there’s no better icebreaker than “where you from?” 

13 things you didn’t know about coyotes

The courtship turned out to be quick, and the marriage mind-blowingly successful. Their offspring are acknowledged by scientists as a species of hybrid origin: zoologists call them “eastern coyotes” and the rest of us call them “coywolves.” (For taxonomy nerds, they are known as “Canis latrans var.,” or “coyote variant.”) Coywolf is the better name, given that the species is a perfect fusion of its ancestors’ inherent traits, to the point of practically wielding mutant superpowers. 

The coywolf’s size falls somewhere between wolves and coyotes, weighing in at roughly 45 pounds on average—small enough for stealth and agility, but big enough to throw its weight around. They can be loners or travel in packs. They can hunt together to take down deer, or subsist happily on rabbits, birds, and berries, or shop for groceries, ie., raid a chicken coop. 

But perhaps their most remarkable trait is their habitat adaptability: they can live anywhere. And at a time when the combined pressures of ongoing habitat loss and accelerating climate change are putting more and more species at risk, the coywolf is kicking everybody’s ass. Like wolves, they are comfortable in the wild, but like coyotes, they’re not perturbed by human settlement. They happily nest and hunt amid rolling hills, farmland, and even in urban areas. Across eastern Canada and the New England states and as far south as Virginia, the “coyotes” people keep seeing in their backyards are most likely Algonquin Park coywolves, busy reconquering the continent. 

So in addition to being made in this country, the coywolf’s traits are clearly and distinctively Canadian. We all love our big-city amenities, as well as the joys of escaping them. We know how to nest in any habitat; there’s no landscape we can’t call home. We can get along with just about anyone, and we believe there is strength in diversity. Truly, we are all coywolves.

 

Facts & figures

​​ Let’s talk about sex, baby: Unlike some other hybrid species—mules, hinnies, ligres—coywolves are fertile and can reproduce.

And the winner is… Scientists call coywolves “the most adaptable mammals on the planet.” 

 A wolf in alternate clothing: For a long time, people thought coywolves were just large coyotes.

 

Read more essays from “The Great Canadian Creature Feature” to read more of our favourite writers making the case for their pick for the most Canadian animal in the June/July 2021 issue of Cottage Life.

 

Categories
Cottage Life

Is the coywolf the most Canadian animal?

Photo by Fiona M. Donnelly / Shutterstock

This essay about the coywolf was originally published as part of “The Great Canadian Creature Feature” in the June/July issue of Cottage Life.

Animals are oblivious to national borders. Their habitats pay no heed to lines on a map; birds and herds migrate across them at will. They were roaming the landscape long before those lines were drawn anyway. No nation can ever truly lay claim to any one beast as its national animal. 

The coywolf is, quite possibly, the only known exception to this rule. It is the rarest of breeds: a new species of hybrid origin, a mammal forged before our eyes. The coywolf is younger than zoology, younger than even Canada itself, having emerged only in the last 75 to 100 years.  

The coywolf’s origins trace deep into Canada’s cottaging heartland. In the early 20th century, as North America’s population grew and its landscape was colonized, the eastern wolf population (Canis lycaons) was hit hard. Facing a habitat squeeze and eradication campaigns, the wolves headed north from the eastern seaboard and the St. Lawrence lowlands. By the 1950s their few remaining numbers had found safe haven in and around Ontario’s Algonquin Provincial Park. That’s when they met up with some western coyotes (Canis latrans) who, facing similar habitat pressures, had migrated from the American midwest and the central plains region of Canada. 

So began the greatest-ever dirty weekend in the history of cottage country. For the coyotes, it was probably not love at first sight. The western gray wolf (Canis lupus) kills coyotes, so the idea of getting cozy with its eastern cousin probably seemed a bit dodgy. But eastern wolves, being significantly smaller than western ones, were a lot less intimidating. They were also eagerly seeking to diversify the gene pool, so they’d have been in a welcoming frame of mind. Plus both were new to the area, and there’s no better icebreaker than “where you from?” 

13 things you didn’t know about coyotes

The courtship turned out to be quick, and the marriage mind-blowingly successful. Their offspring are acknowledged by scientists as a species of hybrid origin: zoologists call them “eastern coyotes” and the rest of us call them “coywolves.” (For taxonomy nerds, they are known as “Canis latrans var.,” or “coyote variant.”) Coywolf is the better name, given that the species is a perfect fusion of its ancestors’ inherent traits, to the point of practically wielding mutant superpowers. 

The coywolf’s size falls somewhere between wolves and coyotes, weighing in at roughly 45 pounds on average—small enough for stealth and agility, but big enough to throw its weight around. They can be loners or travel in packs. They can hunt together to take down deer, or subsist happily on rabbits, birds, and berries, or shop for groceries, ie., raid a chicken coop. 

But perhaps their most remarkable trait is their habitat adaptability: they can live anywhere. And at a time when the combined pressures of ongoing habitat loss and accelerating climate change are putting more and more species at risk, the coywolf is kicking everybody’s ass. Like wolves, they are comfortable in the wild, but like coyotes, they’re not perturbed by human settlement. They happily nest and hunt amid rolling hills, farmland, and even in urban areas. Across eastern Canada and the New England states and as far south as Virginia, the “coyotes” people keep seeing in their backyards are most likely Algonquin Park coywolves, busy reconquering the continent. 

So in addition to being made in this country, the coywolf’s traits are clearly and distinctively Canadian. We all love our big-city amenities, as well as the joys of escaping them. We know how to nest in any habitat; there’s no landscape we can’t call home. We can get along with just about anyone, and we believe there is strength in diversity. Truly, we are all coywolves.

 

Facts & figures

​​ Let’s talk about sex, baby: Unlike some other hybrid species—mules, hinnies, ligres—coywolves are fertile and can reproduce.

And the winner is… Scientists call coywolves “the most adaptable mammals on the planet.” 

 A wolf in alternate clothing: For a long time, people thought coywolves were just large coyotes.

 

Read more essays from “The Great Canadian Creature Feature” to read more of our favourite writers making the case for their pick for the most Canadian animal in the June/July 2021 issue of Cottage Life.

 

Categories
Cottage Life

Create a holiday bird feeder tree

Photo by Elliotte Rusty Harold / Shutterstock

If you’re looking for something fun to do with the kids this season or want to up your wintertime bird feeding game, decorate a tree in your yard with some DIY edible decorations. You may also get some squirrel or deer visitors; which are an extra visual bonus for the kids.

“What I think is fun about this idea is that you turn just filling up your bird feeder every day into a family activity,” says Jody Allair, Director, Community Engagement at Birds Canada. He says it’s a festive thing to do that goes beyond your typical decorating and becomes something the birds will appreciate. It’s also a way to build connections to the natural world. “We need more of those,” he says. “This is a great arts and crafts project to do as a family, and the reward is having birds in your yard.” It’s win-win for you and the birds.

First, pick a tree in your yard. Allair says it doesn’t have to be a conifer – even a bush will suffice. Speaking of trees, he also says once you’re done with your real Christmas tree, instead of putting it in the dump or in the garbage, you could ‘plant’ it outside once you’ve removed the tinsel, garland, and decorations. Of course the stump won’t take root in the frozen ground, but its branches can offer additional habitat for animals.

And since you’re doing all this to help the birds, “there are important elements to keep in mind to create a bird-friendly environment,” say Allair. “Don’t place the food or items in an area where birds are going to collide with the windows. Be strategic.” Also, if you have cats, keep them inside or on a leash. For anything you wish to hang, use natural string (the thicker the better he says); never use fishing line. “Natural string that can break down in the sun after a few months is fine.”

Now to the fun part. Here are five DIY feeder ideas you can make yourself this winter:

Hang bird-friendly Christmas cookies. Use this recipe from Birds Canada. Let your kids choose which shapes they’ll want their cookies to be.

Love blue jays? Give them peanuts, or peanut butter. “The best way to present them is with a peanut wreath, or Allair says you could simply string them together and hang them up. “They’re crazy for peanuts.”

Meet the blue jay

Pinecone feeders. Go for a nature walk and gather some pinecones (not spruce, though, as Allair says they’re too soft). Tie on a string for hanging them up, then add peanut butter. (Allair says regular popular store brands are okay.) The hearty, rigid cones have lots of openings to fill.

Make your own suet balls or cakes. These offer a lot of messy DIY fun for kids. Allair recommends using large plastic margarine tubs to keep the mess at a minimum – unless you like lard all over the place. “It’s fun to roll the suet in seeds,” he says. Which type is best? Allair recommends black oil sunflower seeds – they have a high fat content, which birds need, and all species of birds are able to open them (no nutcracker required).

Log feeder. If you’ve got some hollow branches on hand, you can hang those, filled with peanut butter. “The birds will pluck out the peanut butter,” he says.

The main goal for each of these is to provide things the birds would like to eat in the natural world, “but you’re presenting it in a festive way,” he says.

You can also DIY a more traditional bird feeder and fill it with seed. To attract cardinals, include some sunflower seeds inside. Cardinals are “robust and like the perch,” Allair says, so they’ll need a sturdy structure where they can enjoy their meal.

If you provide a mix of food, you can expect chickadees, red-breasted nuthatches, downy woodpeckers, blue jays, and hairy woodpeckers.

Once your tree’s all decorated, relax with some hot chocolate by the fire and watch for visitors that stop by to admire – and eat – the outdoor decorations.

Know someone that’s an avid birdwatcher? Allair says Birds Canada’s Project Feeder Watch program makes a great last-minute gift.

 

Categories
Cottage Life

Create a holiday bird feeder tree

Photo by Elliotte Rusty Harold / Shutterstock

If you’re looking for something fun to do with the kids this season or want to up your wintertime bird feeding game, decorate a tree in your yard with some DIY edible decorations. You may also get some squirrel or deer visitors; which are an extra visual bonus for the kids.

“What I think is fun about this idea is that you turn just filling up your bird feeder every day into a family activity,” says Jody Allair, Director, Community Engagement at Birds Canada. He says it’s a festive thing to do that goes beyond your typical decorating and becomes something the birds will appreciate. It’s also a way to build connections to the natural world. “We need more of those,” he says. “This is a great arts and crafts project to do as a family, and the reward is having birds in your yard.” It’s win-win for you and the birds.

First, pick a tree in your yard. Allair says it doesn’t have to be a conifer – even a bush will suffice. Speaking of trees, he also says once you’re done with your real Christmas tree, instead of putting it in the dump or in the garbage, you could ‘plant’ it outside once you’ve removed the tinsel, garland, and decorations. Of course the stump won’t take root in the frozen ground, but its branches can offer additional habitat for animals.

And since you’re doing all this to help the birds, “there are important elements to keep in mind to create a bird-friendly environment,” say Allair. “Don’t place the food or items in an area where birds are going to collide with the windows. Be strategic.” Also, if you have cats, keep them inside or on a leash. For anything you wish to hang, use natural string (the thicker the better he says); never use fishing line. “Natural string that can break down in the sun after a few months is fine.”

Now to the fun part. Here are five DIY feeder ideas you can make yourself this winter:

Hang bird-friendly Christmas cookies. Use this recipe from Birds Canada. Let your kids choose which shapes they’ll want their cookies to be.

Love blue jays? Give them peanuts, or peanut butter. “The best way to present them is with a peanut wreath, or Allair says you could simply string them together and hang them up. “They’re crazy for peanuts.”

Meet the blue jay

Pinecone feeders. Go for a nature walk and gather some pinecones (not spruce, though, as Allair says they’re too soft). Tie on a string for hanging them up, then add peanut butter. (Allair says regular popular store brands are okay.) The hearty, rigid cones have lots of openings to fill.

Make your own suet balls or cakes. These offer a lot of messy DIY fun for kids. Allair recommends using large plastic margarine tubs to keep the mess at a minimum – unless you like lard all over the place. “It’s fun to roll the suet in seeds,” he says. Which type is best? Allair recommends black oil sunflower seeds – they have a high fat content, which birds need, and all species of birds are able to open them (no nutcracker required).

Log feeder. If you’ve got some hollow branches on hand, you can hang those, filled with peanut butter. “The birds will pluck out the peanut butter,” he says.

The main goal for each of these is to provide things the birds would like to eat in the natural world, “but you’re presenting it in a festive way,” he says.

You can also DIY a more traditional bird feeder and fill it with seed. To attract cardinals, include some sunflower seeds inside. Cardinals are “robust and like the perch,” Allair says, so they’ll need a sturdy structure where they can enjoy their meal.

If you provide a mix of food, you can expect chickadees, red-breasted nuthatches, downy woodpeckers, blue jays, and hairy woodpeckers.

Once your tree’s all decorated, relax with some hot chocolate by the fire and watch for visitors that stop by to admire – and eat – the outdoor decorations.

Know someone that’s an avid birdwatcher? Allair says Birds Canada’s Project Feeder Watch program makes a great last-minute gift.

 

Categories
Cottage Life

Create a holiday bird feeder tree

Photo by Elliotte Rusty Harold / Shutterstock

If you’re looking for something fun to do with the kids this season or want to up your wintertime bird feeding game, decorate a tree in your yard with some DIY edible decorations. You may also get some squirrel or deer visitors; which are an extra visual bonus for the kids.

“What I think is fun about this idea is that you turn just filling up your bird feeder every day into a family activity,” says Jody Allair, Director, Community Engagement at Birds Canada. He says it’s a festive thing to do that goes beyond your typical decorating and becomes something the birds will appreciate. It’s also a way to build connections to the natural world. “We need more of those,” he says. “This is a great arts and crafts project to do as a family, and the reward is having birds in your yard.” It’s win-win for you and the birds.

First, pick a tree in your yard. Allair says it doesn’t have to be a conifer – even a bush will suffice. Speaking of trees, he also says once you’re done with your real Christmas tree, instead of putting it in the dump or in the garbage, you could ‘plant’ it outside once you’ve removed the tinsel, garland, and decorations. Of course the stump won’t take root in the frozen ground, but its branches can offer additional habitat for animals.

And since you’re doing all this to help the birds, “there are important elements to keep in mind to create a bird-friendly environment,” say Allair. “Don’t place the food or items in an area where birds are going to collide with the windows. Be strategic.” Also, if you have cats, keep them inside or on a leash. For anything you wish to hang, use natural string (the thicker the better he says); never use fishing line. “Natural string that can break down in the sun after a few months is fine.”

Now to the fun part. Here are five DIY feeder ideas you can make yourself this winter:

Hang bird-friendly Christmas cookies. Use this recipe from Birds Canada. Let your kids choose which shapes they’ll want their cookies to be.

Love blue jays? Give them peanuts, or peanut butter. “The best way to present them is with a peanut wreath, or Allair says you could simply string them together and hang them up. “They’re crazy for peanuts.”

Meet the blue jay

Pinecone feeders. Go for a nature walk and gather some pinecones (not spruce, though, as Allair says they’re too soft). Tie on a string for hanging them up, then add peanut butter. (Allair says regular popular store brands are okay.) The hearty, rigid cones have lots of openings to fill.

Make your own suet balls or cakes. These offer a lot of messy DIY fun for kids. Allair recommends using large plastic margarine tubs to keep the mess at a minimum – unless you like lard all over the place. “It’s fun to roll the suet in seeds,” he says. Which type is best? Allair recommends black oil sunflower seeds – they have a high fat content, which birds need, and all species of birds are able to open them (no nutcracker required).

Log feeder. If you’ve got some hollow branches on hand, you can hang those, filled with peanut butter. “The birds will pluck out the peanut butter,” he says.

The main goal for each of these is to provide things the birds would like to eat in the natural world, “but you’re presenting it in a festive way,” he says.

You can also DIY a more traditional bird feeder and fill it with seed. To attract cardinals, include some sunflower seeds inside. Cardinals are “robust and like the perch,” Allair says, so they’ll need a sturdy structure where they can enjoy their meal.

If you provide a mix of food, you can expect chickadees, red-breasted nuthatches, downy woodpeckers, blue jays, and hairy woodpeckers.

Once your tree’s all decorated, relax with some hot chocolate by the fire and watch for visitors that stop by to admire – and eat – the outdoor decorations.

Know someone that’s an avid birdwatcher? Allair says Birds Canada’s Project Feeder Watch program makes a great last-minute gift.