for the love of birds

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A couple of years ago, My Angel discovered a new interest. Birds.  She became fascinated with identifying them and feeding them and watching them.  We put a feeder outside her bedroom window and took photos as the birds came to eat so that she could identify them. She made a book cataloging their individual characteristics. She worked and studied really hard!

Since then, we've spent some time making some pretty 'creative' bird feeders. This is one for thistle seeds that Count Studley made from a garbaged (and emptied out!) power strip. I must admit that the birds (and the neighbors) never did figure out what it's purpose was...

We have also gotten some fun books with recipes to make treats for the birds and have tried several of them out. As time has gone on, My Angel  has become a little less obsessive, but we still try to keep the feeders full and we all have grown to love watching them come and feed outside our windows.
I've seen in all kinds of preschool activity ideas for years to spread peanut butter on pine cones and roll them in birdseed mix, and I saw these cute little wooden bird houses at the dollar store and wondered if they would be as effective.  Ya, they were, and look how cute they ended up being!

To begin with, I drilled a hole on each side of the roof to string some jute twine through after we finished. Next step; peanut butter.
I decided that these are even better than pine cones because the peanut butter spreads on so much easier. My Angel has a hard time using her hands but was able to do it pretty well.  She started out spreading the peanut butter on with a spoon, but then gave up and just used her hands. (Eeewwwwww!)

Then Our Princess and her friend smashed them into a pan of mixed birdseed, covering all of the peanut butter and pressing it down firmly to stay.

We cut up some dried fruit into small chunks and pressed it into the birdhouses, threaded the jute through with a large needle, knotted it, and they were finished!

These make really fun gifts, especially for grandparents. In fact, we gave one to a 'neighbor grandma' and have had to re-do it several times because it was such a hit with her birds. The birds eat everything right off to the bare wood, it's absolutely amazing!

I have thought it would be so fun to hang several of them from a tree, but the birds have cleaned them off so fast, I don't think we can keep up!

Happy Crafting!