Tag Archives: birds in winter

Day 9 Welcome to Winter

11 December 2025

Good Morning Everyone,

We hope you are well! It has been a cracker of a day, and it all started in the garden at the feeder…

A morning video of the garden and yes! Two Blue Jays. I am so relieved. Junior and Mrs J are alive!

Birds and Squirrels at the table feeder – and look two Blue Jays!

Today we have a news story about Cornell University and its attempts to protect Big Red’s nest during a construction project! Lovely. Now if we could get them to make sure every window on that campus had bird strike preventative measures.

https://news.cornell.edu/stories/2025/12/meinig-fieldhouse-built-protect-iconic-red-tailed-hawks

Suzanne Arnold Horning, the admin for the Cornell Hawk Cam Chatters FB group is posting daily images of events from the nest. Today it was a flap fest. Oh, goodness, these end of the year summaries and montages are really quite wonderful while we wait for all the action to start. Let’s see – third week in March for eggs for Big Red and Arthur? What do you think?

Suzanne picked the top five viewing moments. Aren’t they cute?

Speaking of protecting birds from window strike, I am ‘horrified’ that my city, under its mayor, Scott Gillingham, has altogether scrapped a programme to protect birds that came into effect only a year ago. Unbelievable. We will just have to try and fight this decision.

‘J’ in Berlin sent me a great announcement. It has to do with a young man that I mentioned several times in past years – Oliver Hellowell who lives in the UK. I love his wildlife and landscape photographs.

The Kat Awards 2025
I was born with Down syndrome and doctors feared I might never speak. Now I’m a filmmaker

Oliver Hellowell loves raptors and he has photographed many. He is quite the talent. Keep your eyes open for his work.

It might have been ‘only’- 10 °C, but it was cold on the Canadian Prairies. The snow keeps on giving, and today was the photo shoot in the park. Instead of spending half an hour, we stopped at fifteen minutes. It was that wet, cold to the bone. Of course, Toby loved it! We didn’t get a chance to take off our Dyfi toques – so the whole shoot is now dedicated to a great osprey pair, Idris and Telyn. If the pictures turn out, I will post some. I, who do not like to have my photo taken, promise.

We now having a warning for -40 C (with wind chill) coming for Saturday. The frigid cold is to begin tonight!

Heidi gave me the best holiday present. She made a montage of the indoor and outdoor animals set to holiday music for us – and she included dear Lewis. I broke down when I saw him. Oh, how I loved that boy. Since so many of you have been readers for years, you might enjoy seeing HY when she was little and dear Lewis along with everyone else. Thanks, Heidi – that is what it is all about. Giving of your time and love. I so enjoyed this montage. https://youtu.be/yKOeSsFwJcE

You forget how little they once were!

Hope with her first Christmas tree.

No plant was ever safe with Lewis or Missey! He was my darling.

Heidi’s video really hits the holiday spirit even if many, who knew Lewis and saw it, have wept. Please enjoy! There is even a baby HY in there.

Bella and Scout at the NCTC nest are working hard. Last year their three beautifully feathered eaglets perished when their nest collapsed. We wish them a great season this year.

While we wait for eggs at NCTC, we do not have to wait long for little eaglets at SW Florida. My calculations indicate that we should see an eaglet around Tuesday of next week. M15 and F23 are excellent parents. This is exciting.

Gabby and Beau will have to wait a little longer. Egg dates: 23 and 26 November. End of December eaglets!

Superbeaks (Central Florida) has two hatchlings. The third egg was laid four days after the second (Froto). We wait to see if it is viable. Mira and Froto are doing well.

We have eaglets at the Duke Farms nest! No eggs. Just nest prep.

Ron and Rose continue incubating at the WRDC nest. Egg dates: 12 and 15 November. I will be looking for a pip around the 18th of December or that first egg. That would be 35 days.

Clive and Connie at Captiva on Sanibel Island are also resting and waiting while incubating. Egg dates: 16 and 19 November. I do love that camera that Window to Wildlife have installed.

There are no eggs at Eagle Country. The river cam caught the eagles bathing.

Girri is 36 days old today. Female falcons, on average, fledge at 40-44 days, slightly longer than males, because they need to fill out that larger body mass and cover it with more feathers. Girri is quickly losing her baby to all that flapping! Could you take a look at that crop? Diamond and Gimbir keep their only baby full to the brim! I recommend watching because Girri is going to fledge soon, and whether she returns to the scrape afterwards is anyone’s guess.

That’s a wrap for today. Thank you so much for your comments and your letters. We are glad that you are enjoying this daily mix of pets and birds!

Thank you so much for being with us today. Take care of yourself. We will be back tomorrow!

Thank you to Heidi for that amazing holiday present. I am so very grateful – and for the spirit of love, care, and the time it took. These really are the best presents of all! To ‘J’ for sending me the news about Oliver Hellowell and to the owners of the streaming cams and authors of the FB posts, you have my thanks.

Taking care of the birds in winter

“RED BIRD in SNOW crg” by carl & tracy gossett is licensed under CC BY-ND 2.0

What you do to attract birds to your yard in the winter will depend on where you live. One of the first rules is that birds who are fed seed in winter require water, not just snow. How do you do this if you life in an area where the water freezes, like I do?

“Birds in Snow-9” by Tancread is licensed under CC BY-NC 2.0

You can purchase bird baths with heaters or various other water bowls with heaters that attach to your deck. If you do get a birdbath with an electrical cord you will need to stabilize the pedestal. That was the first great hint a birdie told me was to fill the pedestal with sand bags. It worked perfectly. Be sure to put the cord and the extension cord in first! Fill with sand bags and attach the top. OR if you want to save your money and you have an electric skillet that still works then you can do like my neighbour Bert. Bert had several old electric frying pans. He even set them on styrofoam sheets at the time so the feet would not get cold. Those frying pans worked well but they have to be set at a very very low temperature and you need to put rocks in them. So rule number 1 – birds need water all year round but especially in winter if you feed them seed. They cannot consume enough snow. Make sure that the source of water is kept clean.

“Fowl Spray” by Ian Sane is licensed under CC BY 2.0
“Early Birds in Snow” by alans1948 is licensed under CC BY 2.0
Mr Blue Jay eating his dried corn on the cob.

Buy good nutritious food for your birds. While they might love bread, do not feed bread. It is junk food for them. Sugar and salt and they love it like people but they will fill up on the bread and not get the proper nutrients. Our birds love black oil seed in winter but the shells are messy and you have to be able to clear them up. While chopped sunflower seeds and peanuts out of the shell are more expensive initially, you are getting as much bang for your buck because half the product does not wind up as opened shells on the ground. Where I live suet is very important. I put out one that is a grainy suet and another that is called peanut butter and jelly. The only place that I can spread seeds for the birds that like to forage on the ground is on the deck if it is dry or the snow is so frozen it will not melt.

Some of the birds will also find seeds under the feeders that gets knocked out. The type of food will, however, depend on where you live.

I love my Blue Jays and they are very thankful for dry corn cobs (if Dyson doesn’t carry those away) and peanuts in the shell.

“Bird in Snow” by Rajan Manickavasagam is licensed under CC BY 2.0

For the health of your birds the feeders need to be cleaned. Remove the feeders if you hear of any diseases spreading in your area like salmonella, trichomoniasis (that probably killed chick 4 at Collins Street), aspergillosis, or avian pox. Be careful what you use to clean the feeders. Many cleaning substances are toxic to the birds. This is what my bird seed supplier says to do: “To clean your feeder, take it apart and use a dishwasher on a hot setting or hand wash either with soap and boiling water or with a dilute bleach solution (no more than 1 part bleach to 9 parts water). Rinse thoroughly and allow to dry before refilling.”

Create windbreaks for the birds so that they can get away from the wind and blowing snow.

“Birds in our yard” by MN Photos is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

Plant trees and shrubs that have fruit that the birds can eat in the winter. In my City, Mountain Ash is very popular. The Robins love the berries and they will eat and eat them entertaining you for a long time before they migrate.

I am not going to suggest stringing popcorn and cranberries and putting it outside for the birds to nibble on. Why? I bet you already know. That string – however thin – can tangle and cut those tiny, tiny little legs.

At this time of year there are various suet balls and ornaments to put in the trees for the birds. Just make sure that the bell or wreath does not have a string to attach it to the branch. Get the ones with the metal hooks. All those precious little feet and legs will thank you!

One last thing and this is a real biggie problem for the birds. Wreaths that have artificial berries that are plastic. Please do not put them outside where the birds can get at them. They will eat those plastic berries and die. It is a simple fix. If you have anything outside that has artificial berries, remove it. The birds and the wildlife rehabilitation clinics will thank you!

Thank you for joining me today. There will be an update on our favourite birds on streaming cams later today. Take care!