Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow

I'm watching the first snow of the season fall, and as the yard and trees are getting dusted with pretty light white I'm thinking about the next weeks ahead. Soon it'll be Thanksgiving, then Christmas, then New Year's. I love this time of year. Being with my family for the big meals, staying in with my husband to watch old movies On Demand, getting to a lot of the projects indoors that I've been putting off for years.

Winter months always make me nostalgic. There's nothing better than putting on a vinyl record, making some tea, and doing an "arts & craft" project. Remember kindergarten when you'd have "arts & crafts"? Nothing better.

And in the cold months ahead, a great project you can do for birds and with your kids is the classic Pine Cone Bird feeder. If you haven't made one of these lately, treat yourself. It'll take you back to your six-year-old-self.

Start by collecting fallen pine cones (go to a pine forest and forage - or pickup the pine cones in your own yard if you have them - you could buy them prepackaged in stores but I think that's a waste of money and a waste of an opportunity to be outside!) It doesn't matter exactly what type of pine cones you start with, but I think cones that are open offer more "grip" and better nooks for birdseed.

Tie a length of string to the top of your pine cones (varying lengths to hang from a tree, porch, or pergola). If you use jute or hemp your feeders will look rustic, use narrow satin ribbon for a rich and decorative look (my fabric store sells 15 yards for only 50 cents per roll - in lots of pretty colors!) Next, break out some peanut butter (chunky or smooth) and push into the pine cone crevices. It doesn't need to be neat, I like the look of the pine cone tips coming through the seed, but the more peanut butter you use the more sticking surface you'll have.

Once your pine cone is coated roll it in a plate of birdseed. You can use any type of seed, millet is a classic but sunflower seeds make a pretty contrast too.

If you are worried about squirrels raiding your new Pine Cone Bird feeder, add a couple tablespoons of cayenne pepper to the birdseed before rolling your pine cones. Squirrels hate pepper and they should leave your feeder "For the Birds"!

Time to come in from the cold

It's that time of year when first-freezes will do a number on your hummingbird feeders - so when weather is unpredictable and temperatures drop suddenly, it's time to put your feeders in winter storage.

Glass and ceramic hummingbird feeders (and seed feeders for songbirds) need to be stored indoors or in your garage during freezing weather. Since hummingbird feeders are filled with liquid nectar, freezing temperatures will cause the nectar to expand and possibly crack or damage your feeders. Sometimes there are hairline cracks that can snap a glass piece in two when frozen nectar expands.

Any exposed terra cotta in your hummingbird and songbird feeders can absorb moisture which can also freeze and break your ceramic pieces. I learned the hard way last year when I kept a ceramic bird bath out in my yard all winter and had shards of ceramic on my porch after a big freeze. Whoops!

Even hummingbird feeders that are plastic are best stored for winter. The freezing nectar can warp plastic, and hard freezes can break plastic pieces. UV light weakens plastic, and remnant nectar can grow some nasty bacteria that adheres and corrodes plastic. You can actually ruin and destroy your plastic feeders by leaving old nectar in storage. If there's snow on the ground and ice on the drive you won't be seeing hummingbirds anyway. Best to just put your feeders away for next season!

It always helps your hummingbird plants if you winterize your garden - lay down some fresh mulch to add nutrients to the soil, and add compost materials to your beds. Throughout winter remember to water plants if you don't snow or rain for a couple weeks - plastic rain gauges near your plants are a great way to monitor the actual water your plants receive. In desperately dry climates you can add polymers to the soil that swell when water is plentiful and then slowly distribute the moisture into the soil. Lots of nurseries and gardening catalogs sell these and they are great to use in xeric gardens year-round!

Flying in the fast lane

There's no question - one of the coolest facts about hummingbirds is that they can fly forward, backward, sideways and upside down! A hummingbird can hover over a feeder or flower while drinking nectar seemingly suspended in space. Zipping in and out, hummingbirds are the ace-fliers of the bird world. No other bird can fly like a hummer can... but how?

There are two physiological characteristics of the hummingbird that allow it to do their spectacular aerial maneuvers: 1. the hummingbird's pectoral muscles account for 30% of their body weight and 2. the hummingbird can move it's wings in a circular motion.

Pectoral muscles in birds are best known as the breast - and in most breeds the pectoral percentage is about 15-25% of the bird's total weight. Human pectoral muscles are much less developed than birds' - our main muscle groups are in our quadriceps (our legs and buttocks - which is why we walk and don't fly). Even the bulked up physiques of body builders don't hold a candle to the "pec power" of birds. Arnold Schwartzenegger at his chest-popping Mr. Universe best had pectoral muscles at least 7 times weaker than a hummingbird! So much for the Governator...

Since hummingbirds can move their wings in a circle, they are able to get lift and thrust in both directions of their wings. Average birds flap their wings to get lift (upward motion) and thrust (forward motion). Hummingbirds rotate their wings to get lift both upward and downward and thrust both forward and backward. To hover, hummingbirds move their wings in a figure eight movement - the same way you'd move your arms while treading water.

As if their normal flying feats weren't enough, hummingbirds can also fly upside down! To evade other flying predators like hawks and owls the hummingbird can fly short distances completely inverted. Fast thinking and fast acting are the key to the hummingbird's success in out-maneuvering much larger and fiercer birds.


Hummingbirds are definitely built for speed, and the smaller the species the faster their wing beats actually are. Magnificent hummingbirds (E. Fulgen or Rivoli's hummingbird) fly the slowest of all hummingbirds, with 10-15 wing beats per second. Ruby-throat and Rufous hummingbirds average around 53 wing beats per second. The Bumblebee hummingbird (Atthis Heliosa) is the world's smallest bird and their wing beats are more than 80 per second! Hummingbirds fly around 27 miles per hour, but have been clocked at doing up to 45-50 MPH. That's twice as fast as the fastest human can run.