The Avant-Garden Shop: Your Garden & Bird Store

bird feeding

GARDEN GATE: Episode 310 – Seed Cylinders! (January 17th, 2025)

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A very popular feeding option for our backyard birds are seed cylinders! These are made fresh by the company that brings our bird seed every week. Woodpeckers, blue jays, nuthatches and chickadees really love these. Ingredients like hulled peanuts, meal worms, cranberries, sunflower seeds and safflower make them very attractive. Approximately 3lbs of compressed seed is held together in each cylinder so the birds really have to work away at them. This means we get to see them at our feeders longer! There are many different ways you can hang or add a cylinder to your feeding station. Pop by the shop and we’ll find which one is right for your birds! ** Please note, some birds shown in this video are from stock footage and may not be relevant to the area of Peterborough Ontario. **

** Please note, some birds shown in this video are from stock footage and may not be relevant to the area of Peterborough Ontario. **

GARDEN GATE: Episode 309 – The Best Bird Seed For Winter (January 3rd, 2025)

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As the days get shorter and the nights get longer and colder, birds have to eat from dawn to dusk to have enough energy to survive the nights.  Offering fatty seeds like hulled peanuts and sunflower seeds are some of the best options to provide quick easy energy to the birds. We also have a Niger seed blend with chips of the hulled sunflower which is very popular with finches. It’s also a great time to give your feeders a good cleaning as you can expect a heavier flow of birds. Checking your feeders often for freezing and clearing off the snow really helps them have easier access to the seeds. Doing this will help you see many different birds enjoying themselves at your feeders this winter!

** Please note, birds shown in this video are from stock footage and may not all be relevant to the area of Peterborough Ontario. **

Attracting Hummingbirds and Orioles

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  Sweets for the Sweet In May, we begin to see the arrival of hummingbirds, orioles and warblers. The beautiful but elusive warblers are generally happy within the safe cover of trees to provide a healthy diet of insects, but hummingbirds and orioles will come to gardens and feeders if we provide what they love … Read more

What do trail mix and feeding birds have in common?

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Imagine a bowl of trail mix in front of you. Assuming no nut allergies, you may be faced with peanuts, cashews, dried fruit, sunflower seeds, and M&Ms. Many people “high-grade,” sifting through and picking out favourites and leaving the rest behind. I know I end up eating a lot of peanuts and sunflower seeds if … Read more

What’s up with all the Red-winged Blackbirds this year?

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We’ve been hearing a LOT of reports of high numbers of Red-winged Blackbirds (RWBL) in the area, even in places where there aren’t any wetlands. So what’s up? Science nerd here. Bear with me… I don’t know what’s up! So, the first thing I wanted to do was find out if there are, in fact, … Read more

Garden Gate: Episode 256-Bird seed for winter feeding (Dec 23, 2022)

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Where you buy your bird seed really does matter. If you’re going to take the time to set up a bird feeding station or bird feeder, you want to use the best seed possible. Box store seed often contains a lot of filler. Seeds such as wheat and red milo are not eaten by birds … Read more

Garden Tips: Attracting birds to your yard in the winter

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People often ask why they don’t have many backyard birds in the winter. Here, we explore some of the many reasons why this might be. Birds need food, water, and suitable habitat year-round. The more of these available in your yard, and the better quality they are, the more likely you are to attract more … Read more

Garden Gate: Episode 209 – Plants to attract birds to your garden

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Often times our customers will wonder why they aren’t getting birds to their feeders. On this episode I show you some different trees, shrubs and perennials that you can add to your garden to attract a wider variety of birds. Birds are not attracted to yards with only grass. They find food in trees, shrubs … Read more

Garden Gate: Episode 208 – Building a squirrel proof bird feeding station (Jan 29, 2020)

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Setting up a squirrel proof bird feeding station can be done! You just need to be smarter than the squirrels! And I think you are! Squirrels can climb poles, clothes lines, shepherds hooks and they can jump up 4-5′. Squirrels can also launch themselves 10-12′ from deck rails, gazebos, your roof, trees, clothes lines etc. … Read more

Why aren’t the birds using my new feeder?

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New feeders, pole systems, and baffles to keep squirrels away? Check! New, fresh, high-quality bird seed? Check! Binoculars, identification guide, and excited anticipation about all the birds you’re going to see? Check! Birds? … insert cricket sounds here … So what’s up with that? There are plenty of reasons why there aren’t any birds coming … Read more

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