BOUNTIFUL — Not all birds fly south when the weather turns cold.
While some head for warmer climates, others stay through the winter.Still others come through our neighborhoods only in fall and spring on their way to homes farther south or north, according to Larry Kienke, owner of Feed the Birds ... and More, of Bountiful.
So don’t put away those backyard bird feeders.
Fall, in fact, is a good time to add suet to the bird food you leave for the birds that visit your yard, according to Kienke.
Suet is rendered beef fat and is mixed into seed cakes or with peanut butter. The combination provides protein for birds when the weather turns cold and there are fewer insects to eat.
Suet is not used in summer because it goes rancid in the heat, said Kienke. But in fall, winter and spring it will bring woodpeckers, chicadees and western scrub jays.
In winter, bird baths are more important than ever, said Kienke.
“In the summer you have sprinklers and gutters that leave little puddles. In the winter, everything’s frozen and the water that is running in the gutters is loaded with salt so it isn’t good for them,” he said.
For more information check out the Oct.11 edition of Davis Clipper.
“Bird baths are critical to birds in the wintertime,” he said.
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