The Avant-Garden Shop: Your Garden & Bird Store

bird feeding

Garden Gate: Episode 176 – Repairing bird feeders (Oct. 25th, 2019)

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At The Avant-Garden Shop we carry a wide variety of bird feeders but the most popular and best quality are those from Brome, Droll Yankees and Aspects. These feeders are made from high quality materials that last a lifetime. The tubes are made from a special UV protected plastic that doesn’t yellow or crack. The … Read more

Garden Tips: It’s for the Birds (the Importance & Nuances of Bird Seed)

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Seedy Business The majority of the contents in most bird seed mixes available at large stores is a blend of “fillers” that are low in nutritional value, such as wheat, red millet, and flax. The seeds in these bulk bags are often poorly cleaned, which leaves them dusty, and oils are then added to reduce … Read more

Garden Gate: Episode 118 – Setting up a bird feeding station (June 23, 2017)

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CHEX TV airdate: June 23rd, 2017 Click link to watch this episode online It’s really wonderful to watch the birds.  Their beautiful colours and sweet songs relax and help you to appreciate the nature all around you.  Often times elderly who live alone at home much of the time can spend hours watching and being entertained … Read more

Garden Gate: Episode 13 – Why are the birds not feeding from my feeder?

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Backyard---5-10-07-008

CHEX TV air date: Fri. May 31st, 2013

Click here to watch this episode of ?The Garden Gate.

During prime finch feeding season, almost weekly I have customers coming in to purchase a new feeder because they?ve lost their finches. Initially when they put up their feeder they get lots of finches but at a certain point they stop coming. Have you experienced this?

My first question is ?Where did you get your Nyger seed??? Often the response is, ?Oh, I don?t remember, maybe the grocery store.?? There?s your answer. The seed is probably old and dried out. There is oil inside the shell that the finches are after. If it?s dried out, they aren?t interested.? Generally your Nyger seed should be no more than 6 months old. If it?s any older it could be stale, there is no oil and chances are it?s gone moldy.? You can?t necessarily see the mold, but the birds can smell it and will not eat it. The seed may look dusty and dull when it’s moldy. Who likes moldy food? I know that I don?t.

One way to check the freshness of your Nyger seed is to pinch the seed with your fingernails and see if any oil comes out. The finches use their bills to twist the seed and sip the oil and then drop the shell. If your seed has dried out the birds may check the seed but then leave unsatsified. We receive fresh seed each week that is properly controlled by our supplier Mill Creek, Canada’s?Premier?specialty bird store supplier. ?Buy small quantities of Nyger to ensure that you?ll go through it within a month or two.? All seed should be ?New crop? seed. This means it is from the most recent growing year. Ask your supplier how old their seed is.? If they can’t answer that question, go somewhere where they can. We don?t know how old ?Old crop? seed is. Could be years?

Keep your feeders full! Finches are notorious for leaving a tube feeder half full. They love to be on the highest perches and empty the top half of your feeder and then leave. Don’t just top off your feeder with fresh seed. Empty the older seed (if it’s still good) into a different container, fill the bottom of your feeder with new seed and top it off with the older seed. The birds will probably eat down to that certain level again and you’ll have to repeat the process.? One nice feature of the Aspects Finch feeder is that you can open it very easily from the bottom. I suggest tipping the half full feeder so the older seed goes to the top, opening the bottom and filling from the bottom. This circulates your seed.

Tap your finch feeder to prevent seed from “bridging”. Seed cavities occur when the air is humid. The dampness allows the seed to cling together and will form a cavity when birds select through the portal. This is called “bridging.” Tap your feeder every time you pass by and at a minimum every week.

In the spring when the dandelions are blooming and going to seed, the finches spend more time eating the dandelion seed?than going to your feeder. Birds generally only take 25% of their food from feeders and 75% from nature. So when the natural seeds are available they prefer those and will spend less time at your feeder. You may also notice that birds disappear for a few days each week. They are probably visiting their natural food sources, but will eventually return.

Consider the location of your feeder as well. The most important place to hang a feeder is where you can watch it easily, but I?ve found the goldfinches feel more comfortable with the feeder near trees. I have several feeders hanging around the house and a couple on a pole in the open in the back of the house. All the feeders have birds but I fill the feeders in the trees twice as much.

402My favourite feeders?are either the Droll Yankees or Aspects Finch Feeders. Several birds can feed at a time, the seed stays dry, and they are easy to clean, easy to fill, have lifetime guarantees and are made in the USA. If you’re thinking of switching feeders be aware that finches don’t like change and it may take several minutes to several months for Goldfinches to accept a new feeder. If you run into this problem, take the feeder that they are using away for a few days and put the new feeder in its place. Once they feed from it, you can return the other feeders.? I like to compare it?to going to your favourite restaurant. You know what you’re going to get, and prefer to keep going back instead of being adventurous and going a new restaurant. Birds are the same. They’ll continue to go back to a feeder they are use to before trying out a new feeder.
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Nyger seed used to be called thistle, but it is not the noxious thistle weed we see growing on roadsides. It typically will not germinate under your feeders since it is required that all Nyger seed imported be heat-treated to sterilize the seed.

Nyger seed is one of the favourite seeds of goldfinches, Pine Siskins, Common Redpolls and other small-billed seed-eating birds.? We’ve also seen nuthatches, chickadees, doves, Downy Woodpeckers, and other small birds eating it.

Is it worth the bother? Yes! I love the happy, sweet, song of the Goldfinches. I love the huge flocks of finches that flutter down from the tops of trees as they take their turn at the feeder. I love that I can hang the feeder anywhere because squirrels and other animals don’t bother with Nyjer seed (provided that you have a quality non-chewable feeder). And once you understand the Goldfinches’ needs, they are easy to please and very pleasing to watch.

Happy bird watching!?

Garden Gate: Episode 6 – Identifying birds

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Suet FeederCHEX TV air date: Fri. Feb 22nd, 2013

Click here to watch this episode of?The Garden Gate.

Drew Monkman joins Brenda Ibey, owner of The Avant Garden Shop, to discuss how to identify your favourite birds during nature walks and birdwatching outings.It was a cold day in January but the birds were out singing and we were also entertained by crows chasing a hawk!

Drew Monkman is a retired teacher, naturalist and writer whose popular nature column ?Our changing seasons? appears weekly in the Peterborough Examiner. He participates in wildlife-monitoring programs, including the Breeding Bird Survey and the Ontario Breeding Bird Atlas and is author of Nature?s Year in the Kawartha?s. He lives in Peterborough.

His book is available at The Avant-Garden Shop.

 

Garden Gate: Episode 5 – Attracting birds to your back yard with Drew Monkman

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Upside down suet feeder

CHEX TV air date: Fri. Feb 8th, 2013

Click here to watch this episode of?The Garden Gate.

Brenda is joined by special guest, Drew Monkman to talk about ways to attract birds to your backyard. It was a cold day in January but we saw a lovely little woodpecker enjoying some suet and peanuts and also learned a few things!

Drew Monkman is a retired teacher, naturalist and writer whose popular nature column “Our changing seasons” appears weekly in the Peterborough Examiner. He participates in wildlife-monitoring programs, including the Breeding Bird Survey and the Ontario Breeding Bird Atlas and is author of Nature’s Year in the Kawartha’s. He lives in Peterborough.

 

The 5 o’clock show, November 11th, 2012, A visit to The Avant-Garden Shop

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5 o'clock showTheresa Kazuba from CHEX TV visited The Avant-Garden Shop in late 2012 to learn more about backyard bird feeding and bird watching.? Special guest Drew Monkman also joined us for a segment of the program.

Well worth watching if you’d like to learn more about choosing the right bird food, quality bird feeders and even a little about the local Blue Bird population.

This video is a little longer than the others but can be seen here.

Winter Bird Feeding

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Pileated woodpecker

Feeding wild birds in Canada during the winter months requires some special consideration. Canadian winters are very cold and the nights are long, sources of water are often frozen and shelter remains a must for many fragile birds. Even grit, which birds require in order to digest food, can become quite scarce in midwinter when the snow is deep. A simple thing like feeder maintenance can make all the difference in the world.

Many birds feed during the day only and thus require enough food to sustain warmth during the long winter nights. In Canada, the winter nights can last up to 15 hours and for some birds, the relationship between the length of night, cold temperatures and the availability of food, will determine survival. A study by Kendeigh (1945) illustrates this relationship as it affects the House Sparrow. The study found that the House Sparrow could go for 67 1/2 hours without food at 85 degrees Fahrenheit. At 50 degrees, there was a substantial decrease in survival time. At 5 degrees, the House Sparrow could survive only 15 hours without food. At -20 F, it could live only 10 hours, and at -30 F, lived for only 7 hours.

It is critical that food is available to birds at dawn and at dusk, to enable birds to survive the long and cold Canadian nights. Food at dusk will prepare a bird for the night, and at dawn, food will provide warmth to help it recover from the night. Corn is a good source of carbohydrates, which in turn gives birds energy to stay warm. Suet is also a good source of high-energy food for warmth. So when your seed supplier advertises, “No Corn” mixes, add some corn to the seed to help keep the birds warm!

There are other ways to help birds endure the cold. Roosting boxes offer excellent shelter by increasing the temperature of the immediate surrounding area for the inhabitant. Cardinals will stay overnight in dense coniferous trees – perhaps a good use for discarded Christmas trees!

Another winter difficulty faced by birds is the availability of fresh water. Some birds have difficulty consuming snow as a source of water and thus fresh water is preferable. Bird enthusiasts can help by providing a heater in the birdbath or there are birdbaths with heaters built in.

Proper feeder maintenance will ensure that an ample amount of bird feed will be available to help keep the birds warm. Be sure to keep the tray of the feeder free of ice and frozen seed. Sometimes the seed will freeze and block the flow of seed and even though it will look as if the feeder is full, the birds will not have access to the vital nourishment. Keep the seed as dry as possible and this will prove to be good prevention at locations such as cottages where maintenance may only be performed occasionally.

Finally, the availability of grit diminishes in the winter, as the snow grows deeper. Birds are often forced to find grit on the roadway, which presents two problems. Firstly, there is the obvious threat of traffic, and second, the grit on the road is often mixed with salt and birds would be better off without the salt. The Season’s Woodland Bird Food Mix from The Avant-Garden Shop has grit mixed in during the fall and winter months!

Remember that as the winter passes, the natural sources of food will be consumed and backyard bird feeding will become increasingly important in providing our Canadian wild birds with the sustenance they need to survive the long winter and to endure until nature begins to provide again.

Original article written by by Mark Bennett of Wild Bird Trading

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