Aspen Song™ Feeding Tips
March Feeding Tip
It has been awhile since we have seen green plants growing outside our favorite bird-viewing window. Our seed-eating feeder birds have noticed as well. Throughout the winter months, they feasted on the many native seeds set last growing season in your neighborhood.January Feeding Tip
Warmth radiates from the crackling fire. Steam rises from a mug of hot cocoa at your side. You pause from the morning paper and look out the window at the bird feeders. A group of your regular visitors are busy consuming Aspen SongŪ. You wonder: "How do these beautiful animals survive such harsh conditions? Do they depend on me to keep those feeders filled?"February Feeding Tip
When visiting your favorite restaurant you expect dishes and utensils to be clean, food preparation areas to be sanitary, and the products to be healthy. Our songbirds should expect no less from us! When we attract these beautiful creatures to the "bird sanctuary" we have created for them in our yards, we have a responsibility to do no harm.March Feeding Tip
It has been awhile since we have seen green plants growing outside our favorite bird-viewing window. Our seed-eating feeder birds have noticed as well. Throughout the winter months, they feasted on the many native seeds set last growing season in your neighborhood.April Feeding Tip
The hummingbirds are coming! The hummingbirds are coming! It is time to get those hummingbird feeders out of winter hibernation, clean them up, make up some nectar, and get them out in their summer spots. Our only eastern hummingbird species, the Ruby-throated Hummingbird, is on its way north. A really fun way to watch their march northward is at the website: www.hummingbirds.net/map.html Aficionados post first arrival dates across the country and these are posted on a map of the United States.
May Feeding Tip
May in the northeastern United States is the month when the largest number of migratory bird species is present. Many of these beautiful songbirds are insect-eating birds that have spent the winter months in the southeast, the Caribbean, Central America, or South America. May is the peak of their northward movement back to breeding territories in northern latitudes.
June Feeding Tip
June is a great time to feed the birds. It offers a chance to see newly fledged youngsters brought to the yard for a lesson in table manners. Often the young are kept safely tucked away on vegetation proximate to the feeders. Mom and Dad can be observed moving back and forth to the feeder, carrying seeds to their family.July Feeding Tip
Are you a summer kind of person? American Goldfinches (Carduelis tristis) are a summer kind of bird! This beautiful visitor to backyard feeders is one of the last species to begin the nesting cycle each year, typically waiting until late June or early July.
August Feeding Tip
August is migration time for Ruby-throated hummingbirds. Exactly when in the month they depart depends on one's location and when temperatures cool. Most have arrived in Central America by the second half of September.
September Feeding Tip
As the days of early fall shorten and nighttime temperatures drop, the specie mix and activity levels at many backyard bird feeders change as well. It is an important time of year to keep a steady supply of seed available to your avian visitors. Some of the feeder visits you are observing may not be about today's nutritional requirements. Many of the seedeaters of the northeast are known food hoarders.
October Feeding Tip
By this point on the calendar, most of the temperate and neo-tropical migrants have left for southern and warmer climates. Why? Generally speaking, they are insect-eaters who leave for regions where food will continue to be available during winter months. The northeast's resident birds remain with us at this time of year. Why? Seed-eating birds (granivores) have ample supplies of the fruits of native plants. Many of these plants have just completed setting their seeds at the end of the growing season.
