1 1/2 c. raw suet
2 c. bread crumbs
1 c. popped popcorn
1 c. sunflower seed
1 tsp. sand

Combine popcorn, bread crumbs, and sunflower seed in a medium size bowl. Set aside.

After putting suet through a meat grinder, melt it down in a double boiler. Remove from heat and allow to harden slightly. Reheat and while in liquid form - pour suet over popcorn mixture, mixing well. Add sand.

Place mixture in a suet-log feeder or other suitable feeder for outdoor use.

The National Audubon Society has developed a food mixture called a "food tree". The mixture is as follows:

5 oz. bread, dried and ground
3 oz. meat, dried and ground
5 oz. hempseed
3 oz. millet
2 oz. ant "eggs"
3 oz. sunflower seed
1 1/2 oz. dried berries

Mix well. Add 1 1/2 to 3 times as much melted suet. It was originally intended to be placed directly on tree branches - thus the term "food tree" came to be. But, you can place it in any suitable container (as in the above mentioned Nuthatch Nibble).

In place of the ant eggs - the dried meat can be increased to 5 ounces.

When rendering suet for feeding the birds, first put it through a food grinder. This will break it up into small pieces to make melting easier.

If this step is omitted, the suet will stay lumpy making mixing with seed, etc., and pouring difficult. After suet is ground, heat in double boiler. As soon as it has melted, allow to cool until it hardens.

Do not mix the suet with the seed the first time it has melted. If the suet is allowed to cool and harden, and then remelted a 2nd time, it becomes much harder.

To produce the mixture, add to the melted suet any one or all of the following ingredients:

Millet
Raisins
O atmeal
Cracked corn
Cooked noodles or spaghetti
Sunflower seed
Corn meal
Rice
Chopped peanuts

You may have additional items. Try them!!

Suet log-feeder; small cake-forms made of aluminum foil; aluminum foil dishes frozen foods come in; coconut, grapefuit or orange shells-halved; pine cones; spread directly on the bark of a tree.

I heard the song of spring today; It whispered through the trees, It rose up to the skies above, 'Twas carried by the breeze.

I wondered where the sound came from; And on a fence I saw A plump red robin sing His song without a flaw!

His world was bright and so was mine, He seemed to give me A new beginning and a song That bubbled happily.

I heard the song of spring today! Look up, you too, shall see The robin, and you too, shall hear His song of ecstasy!