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| Eastern Bluebird |
My husband and I enjoy watching the birds in our backyard. We can sit at our kitchen table and watch the view through our sliding glass doors. We were very excited when we received a Christmas gift from a friend to give us lots of great ideas for attracting and feeding our feathered friends. This gift was a book entitled The Joy of Bird Feeding. In this post I will give you a preview of the tips found in each chapter of this book. I will also share some of the photographs that I have taken of birds in our backyard.
Chapter 1: The Five Steps to Bird Feeding Mastery
The first chapter gives a thorough plan on setting up your backyard to attract the biggest variety of birds. It helps you to set up a plan to decide what foods to serve and when to serve them.
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| Downy feasting on Suet Pellets |
Chapter 2: Thoughtful Bird Feeding Stations Elements in Detail
Details of the elements needed for feeding birds are described in this chapter. One of the items suggested is year-round water. In the photo below you see a group of bluebirds enjoying fresh water from the heated dog bowl I have placed on our deck on a cold winter's day.
Chapter 3: The Birds
This chapter gives us some interesting information on the birds that are found in our backyards. The introduction talks about year-round birds, seasonal residents and migrant birds. It is also talks about how the birds find feeders. The chapter then goes into photos of various birds and identifying information. It is quite comprehensive. Here is a Carolina Wren that is a frequent visitor to my backyard.
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| Carolina Wren |
Chapter 4: The Foods
Great detail is given on the various foods that are available for birds. There is also a section on foods from your kitchen that are good for birds and a section on fun food shapes. Here is a bird on a Penguin feeder that we received for Christmas.
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House Finch on Fun Feeder
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Chapter 5: The Feeders
Are you undecided about what types of feeders to purchase? This chapter goes into detail on each type of feeder and tells you the pros and cons of each. I like to have a variety of feeders in my backyard. Here is a photo of some Cardinals and a finch on one of my feeders.
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| Cardinals and Finch |
Chapter 6: Poles and Hangers
Here we find some great ideas for poles and hangers including a nifty pole system. I will need to look into that.
Chapter 7: Critter Solutions
Unwanted critters can play havoc with your feeding stations. This chapter gives you ideas on how to mitigate the critter issues. We have lots of squirrels in our yard and I have some squirrel proof feeders and others that the squirrels love to visit. We enjoy seeing their antics too. Here is a squirrel at one of our feeders.
Chapter 8: Situations and Solutions
Have you wondered why the birds aren't coming to your feeders or what you can do about the messy deck? The answers to these and other issues can be found in this chapter.
Chapter 9: Buying and Storing Bird Food
Here you will find lots of tips for buying the best foods and storing solutions for your bird food.
Chapter 10: Common-sense Bird Feeding Hygiene
Here I find a lot of tips for making your bird feeding stations safe for the birds. Some I have done, but there are certainly a lot of areas where I can improve.
Chapter 11- Fun Bird Feeding Activities
This chapter is full of some great bird feeding activities including things like hand feeding birds and watching birds when you are not at home. The activity that most interests me is photographing birds. I love to set up my backyard to make some good backgrounds for taking bird photos and this book had lots of tips.
Here is a favorite photo I caught of some bluebirds turning their backs to the camera. I thought it made a good ending for this review.
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