Blog de Puree

Special thanks to Randye’s mother for aiding us to rediscover a great way to feed and attract birds from our childhood arts and crafts days.

A couple of weeks ago, she sent us a recipe for pine cone bird feeders. It being rainy this past weekend, we took the opportunity to put some together. First, Randye tied some string around solid parts of the pine cone so it wouldn’t snap off. Then, we spread peanut butter on two of the pine cones and crisco on the other two. They were then rolled in a seed mixture containing sunflower seeds, millet, milo, and cracked corn. Once the cones were completely covered in seed, we put them in the fridge to cool and harden—it was raining out and we didn’t want everything to wash off.

The next cold and dry day, Randye tied them on the back fence and we’ve attracted a number of birds within a few days: European starlings, dark-eyed junkos, house sparrows, cardinals. The feeders are also frequented by a small band of adolescent squirrels who have been fairly well-mannered towards their winged neighbors so far.

We’ve found that there was no preference towards the peanut butter or the Crisco, so if you decide to make these feeders, either spread will do. They both contain a fair amount of fat which is a great source of energy for small birds struggling to keep warm in the hard New England winter months.