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Bird Feeding Staples - Black Oil Sunflower Seed Is Magic Mix

Arkansas Game & Fish Commission

LITTLE ROCK, AR --(Ammoland.com)- Feeding birds in yards enthralls many thousands of Arkansans every winter.

When they are ready to move up a notch from using bags of mixed seed from discount stores and groceries, the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission suggests, there are two effective steps to take.

1. Black oil sunflower seed.
2. Magic Mix.

Using these, the backyard bird feeder gets many more varieties of visitors. The ratio of wanted versus unwanted species like house sparrows and starlings increases sharply.
Black oil sunflower seed is available from farm supply outlets, garden centers and bird specialty stores. Magic Mix is something you concoct at home.

It’s simple. Like making a stew or chili, there are all sorts of variations to Magic Mix, and no one insists you have to go by a recipe or formula. Magic Mix is a name that came from somewhere years ago, and capitalizing it just seems logical, although it’s not a brand name by any means.

Magic Mix is lard, peanut butter and cornmeal. You can add other things. Exact proportions aren’t needed. Just mix it so it looks and feels right.

In a large mixing bowl, blend in lard and peanut butter, using more lard than peanut butter. A pastry blender works well or you may prefer other kitchen tools you have on hand. Then gradually mix in cornmeal to reach a consistency somewhere in the vicinity of Play-Do or muffin mix. It needs to be fairly stiff and solid but moldable and not crumbly. You’ll use a goodly amount of cornmeal.

It will be greasy. You’re using lard. If the greasiness bothers you, wear latex gloves, but you can wash hands later.

A very rough guide on proportions is two parts lard, one part peanut butter, one part cornmeal. Some Arkansans toss in a handful of flour also, saying this small addition helps the mix achieve the preferred consistency.

To get the Magic Mix to the birds, just put it out anywhere above the ground. Purchased or homemade suet feeders work well. So does pressing a handful of Magic Mix into the bark of a tree.

Hanging log feeders are heavily used in some yards. These are just sections of a fence post with several large holes drilled and a sturdy screw eye placed in one end. Then it is wired or hung on a bent-out coat hanger form a tree limb.

To make several of these log feeders, buy a cedar fence post from a lumberyard, fence company or a farm supply store. A six-foot post can be cut into six sections, each a foot long.

Secure an inch-and-a-half spade bit in an electric drill or drill press and bore staggered holes about an inch deep around the post. Four holes to a section are about right. Below and slightly to one side of each large hole bore a quarter-inch hole. Insert a three-inch piece of wooden dowel into each of these small holes for perches. Don’t glue the dowels in place because they will rot and break before the cedar deteriorates. Pull out the stub of dowel and replace it with a new one.

Use a good-sized screw eye and put it in the center of the top of your feeder. Screw it all the way down. Then use a wire or coat hanger and hang the feeder after it’s filled with Magic Mix. These cedar feeders will last for years.

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Bluebird Nest Boxes Help Pennsylvanians Connect With Wildlife

Pennsylvania Game Commission

HARRISBURG, PA --(Ammoland.com)- If you are interested in connecting with wildlife in your own backyard, beginning Monday, Jan. 23, the Pennsylvania Game Commission will be selling bluebird nesting boxes at its Harrisburg headquarters at 2001 Elmerton Avenue.

The boxes sell for $9.54 (includes sales tax), and customers can select from assembled boxes or kits that can be assembled as a wood-working project.

“Bluebirds are early nesters, so now is the time to put up new nest boxes, as well as to clean and repair existing boxes,” said Dan Brauning, Game Commission Wildlife Diversity Division chief. “These bluebird boxes enable Pennsylvanians to help wildlife in a natural way.

“Also, building nesting boxes is a great project for individuals, families or civic organizations interested in connecting with wildlife. These box designs are proven to attract bluebirds and other native species, such as tree swallows and house wrens.”

Bluebirds live in open country, and are a beautiful songbird native to Pennsylvania. Bluebirds are cavity nesters and have become less common due to a lack of suitable nest sites. Many nest sites have been lost through changing land-use practices, as well as to urban and suburban sprawl. But the introductions of house sparrows and starlings in 1851 and 1890 have been the primary reasons for the bluebirds’ decline, as these non-native species took over native bluebird nesting cavities.

The bluebird boxes offered by the Game Commission include an opening that is the prescribed one-and-one-half inches in diameter. This precludes starlings from being able to enter. However, house sparrows still may be able to enter the boxes. If this occurs, the house sparrow nests should be removed immediately.

Boxes should be erected on a free-standing pole three to five feet above the ground – facing south, if possible – and facing a nearby tree or fence where young birds can safely land on their initial flights from the box. To reduce predation and competition from other species, no perch should be placed on the box; bluebirds do not need one. Boxes placed in pairs, about 20 feet apart, may help reduce competition from swallows.

The Game Commission’s Howard Nursery has been manufacturing bluebird nest boxes and box kits for more than a quarter century. Each year, about 9,000 boxes are manufactured there and sold or provided to Pennsylvanians to help bluebirds. That annual influx of new nest boxes helps ensure Pennsylvania remains a “keystone state” in bluebird conservation.

Sales will continue while supplies last, and office hours are Monday-Friday from 7:45 a.m. until 4 p.m. The Game Commission’s headquarters is at 2001 Elmerton Ave., just off the Progress Avenue exit of Interstate 81 in Harrisburg. To order by phone, call the Game Commission’s Harrisburg office at 1-888-888-3459. If ordering by phone, shipping and handling costs will apply depending on how many boxes are ordered.

For more information on bluebirds, visit the Game Commission’s website (www.pgc.state.pa.us), click on “Wildlife” in the menu bar at the top of the homepage, and then select “Bluebird” in the “Wild Birds and Birding” section of the page. Also, information about additional wildlife nesting structures can be found by putting your cursor on “Self-Help” in the menu bar at the top of the homepage, then clicking on “Download Forms and Brochures” in the drop-down menu listing, and then clicking on “Wildlife Homes Order Form” in the “Agency Programs” section.

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