If you enjoy having birds visiting your yard, there are a number of things you can do to increase avian traffic.
Something Wild: Get Close to Birds
Air date: December 17, 2004
Welcome to this week's edition of Something Wild. I'm Rosemary Conroy for the Society for the Protection of New Hampshire Forests.
One of winter's gifts is the opportunity to feed wild birds. Many people enjoy watching chickadees and nuthatches and woodpeckers and mourning doves flitting about their yard.
And I'm not alone, I know. According to the US Fish & Wildlife Service, 54 million Americans feed birds. There is something really mesmerizing about watching wildlife - many people find it quite soothing.
So, with so much stress at this time of year, I wanted to offer you an idea that is fun and can help you get to know birds even better. It may take a little work, but I think you'll find it worth the effort.
Near your regular bird-feeding station, set-up two chairs that you can leave outside. In one, create a dummy - kind of like a scare-crow. Not to scare birds, of course, but to make them more accustom to people. To you, in particular.
Dress the dummy in a hat and old clothes and sprinkle bird seed on and around it every time you fill up your feeders. Eventually you should see the birds taking seed right off the dummy.
After a week or two, you can take your place in the second chair. Place the dummy?s hat on your head and fill your hands with seed. If you are quiet and calm enough, the birds will begin to take seeds from your hands.
There is nothing like having a bright-eyed little chickadee alight on your hand and look you in the eye before it flies away.
Eventually, the birds will come to recognize you and you won?t have to sit in the chair or use the dummy. They?ll expect seeds, of course each time they see you.
As the saying goes, it is better to give than receive ? but in this case, I think the bird?s trust is a precious gift indeed. Enjoy it.
Something Wild is a joint production of the Society for the Protection of New Hampshire Forests, NHPR, and NH Audubon.
For Something Wild, I?m Rosemary Conroy.
