EDITOR'S NOTE: For more Christmas releases, go to www.clemson.edu/psamedia . 

DATE:     12/6/00
WRITER:   Candace Cummings, Clemson Extension wildlife specialist, 
          (864) 656-7146
EDITOR:   Giles Singleton, (864) 656-3876

A Christmas tree for the birds?

     CLEMSON  -- This year, trim a tree for the birds. While you 
are at it, you can include food for squirrels too. You'll spend 
some enjoyable time watching birds and small mammals feast on 
your gifts to them.
     A wildlife tree is an attractive, environmentally friendly
decoration for your yard, a great family activity for the holiday
season and, best of all, it helps birds and squirrels make it 
through the winter.
     Both birds and squirrels have high metabolisms and need loads 
of calories to help stay warm, so be sure to decorate the tree 
heavily. 
     You can use an evergreen growing in the yard, or you can 
recycle your indoor tree after Christmas as a wildlife tree. All 
edible decorations should be hung with biodegradable materials, 
such as cotton string or thread.
     Garland strings of popcorn and cranberries are a traditional
favorite for both humans and birds. Buy a bag of fresh cranberries 
in the produce department. With a needle and thread, string four 
or five pieces of popcorn, then one cranberry for a colorful red 
and white pattern. This is a good activity for children to do 
while watching television.
     Birds and squirrels love dried corn. To hang sections of 
dried yellow and colorful Indian corn on the tree, drill a hole
horizontally through the corncob and hang with cotton string.
     For a special treat for the squirrels, buy mixed nuts in the 
shell and drill a hole completely through each. Then feed a cotton 
string through the nut and tie a knot at the bottom. If you hang 
these individually on the tree rather than making a garland, a 
squirrel can pull them down one at a time.
     Birds love homemade suet, which you can hang in old onion 
bags.
     One good recipe for suet includes: two cups of fresh ground
suet -- rendered beef fat-- one cup of peanut butter, two cups 
of yellow corn meal, two cups of birdseed, one cup of dried fruit
pieces. 
     First, melt suet in a pan over low heat. Allow it to cool
thoroughly, and then re-heat it. Add the peanut butter, stirring
until well blended. Next, add dry ingredients to the mixture, 
blend well and pour it into a cake pan or casserole dish to cool. 
Then cut the suet into squares and place them in onion bags for
hanging.
     Pinecones make good decorations too: Wind a cotton string 
around the pinecone and loop the end so it can hang from the tree. 
Mix peanut butter thinned with a bit of vegetable oil with birdseed 
and spread this mixture on the cones. Roll in more birdseed and 
hang. 
     You can also spread this peanut butter mixture onto rice 
cakes that have been punched with a toothpick to make a hole 
for threading with cotton string. Leave a loop at the end for 
hanging on the tree.
     Millet, cracked corn and mixed birdseed should also be 
sprinkled on the ground around the tree for ground-feeding birds. 
In addition, you could drill holes in small logs -- birch is 
especially pretty -- and fill them with suet or peanut butter 
mixed with cornmeal and oatmeal. Stack these under the tree.
     Fill out your tree for the birds by hanging bunches of 
weeds that still choices.
     Remember to add shallow pans of fresh water and to replace 
the water as it freezes -- Candace Cummings, Clemson Extension 
Wildlife Associate. 
             **************************************
     If you have questions about gardening, write to PSA Media
Relations, A-101 Poole Ag Center, Clemson University, Clemson,
S.C. 29634-0129 or see www.clemson.edu/psamedia. 
                          END