Bird Seed Decorations

Today’s activity on our Random Acts of Kindness Advent Calendar is leave some food out for local wildlife. This could be something like take a walk to feed the ducks, or even scattering some food for local deer. We’ve chosen to feed the birds that often come into our garden, by putting out some bird feeder decorations.

As the weather is now colder birds require extra high energy foods to maintain their fat reserves during all the frosty nights. Food shortages can be common so supplying your local birds with some yummy nutrients is a really easy, kind thing to do. The RSPB offer plenty of advice on what kind of foods to offer birds, when and how to feed them and what to expect when you put food out. You might be surprised to read that you can feed birds all kinds of things, including mild grated cheese, cooked potatoes, breakfast cereal and rice.
Today I am sharing a really simple bird feeder idea that is great for little helping hands and will look really pretty hanging out in your garden.

You will need:

• 4 cups bird seed
• 2/3 cups flour
• 3 tbsp golden syrup
• 1 sachet of gelatin dissolved in 2/3 cups boiling water
• cookie cutters
• ribbon
• a straw, cut into 2 inch pieces

Method

1. Combine the bird seed, flour and golden syrup together and mix thoroughly
2. Sprinkle the gelatin into the boiling water – never the other way around! Stir until it’s dissolved then add to the seed and mix
3. Fill each cookie cutter with the seed mixture. Press it down firmly with the back of a spoon. Don’t make them too thick – a couple of centimetres is good
4. Insert a piece of straw near the top and push it all the way through – this will create a hole to thread your ribbon through
5. After a few minutes you can gently lift the cutter off if you need to re use the shape
6. Leave to dry for several hours, overnight if you can, to make sure they are fully set
7. Once dry remove from the cutters, push the straws out and thread some pretty ribbon or twine through the hole

And that’s it! Hang them in your garden or even on trees in your local park or a nearby forest. They look pretty and will hopefully attract some local birds and keep them going this winter.