January 2024

THE FLOCK NEWSLETTER

 

New Feeder Alert:

Flyin’ Bistro™ Cylinder Feeder

A brand-new take on our classic seed cylinder feeders. The Flyin’ Bistro™ feeder has a larger, adjustable lid to protect your food from any inclement weather. The bottom tray has enough room to add other nutritious snacks for your feathered friends, too! Fill it with Bark Butter Bits or mealworms to attract some unique visitors like the Eastern Bluebird. Get yours today by stopping in the store or visit us or shop online at https://order.wbu.com/brighton

 

What's been happening in our yards:

Squirrel Stretches!

Some birds take residency in bird houses during colder weather to protect themselves from those frigid winter winds. But squirrels might too! Store owner Mitch had a Red Fox Squirrel make itself comfortable in one of their uninhabited woodpecker houses. Lucky for them, it is a house they keep a camera in, and they captured a video of the squirrel waking up for the day. Keep peanuts and corn out for some of our furry friends too, they can be just as entertaining!

 

Upcoming Events

We will be closed Monday, January 1st for New Years Day - enjoy your birds!


Sunday, January 21st from 4 PM to 5PM- Celebrate National Squirrel Appreciation Day! This in-store program will teach you everything you need to know about these critters.


Thursday, January 25th at 6 PM at the Brighton District Library- Birding for Beginners. Learn the basics about bird watching and bird feeding.


Sunday, January 28th at 4 PM- Hosting “Friends of Island Lake.” Join us in-store to learn more about this great group of volunteers!


*Check your email for other sales, promotions, or nature happenings in our area

Where is Laurel?

With a fully staffed store, Laurel has been working from home more often. What will she be working on during her January home office days? Research! She has decided to dive into the fascinating history of the backyard bird feeding hobby. How and when did putting food out specifically for backyard birds first begin? Which countries and cultures embrace this hobby? How did we learn sunflower seeds are the best out of all the different plant seeds available? Her hope is to learn a lot and then craft her newfound knowledge into a brand-new program she can offer here at the store. If everything goes smoothly, then you'll be invited to jumpstart, & celebrate, "National Bird feeding Month" by attending this new program here at the store in early February. Stay tuned!

 

Bird Nerd Corner:

Downy Woodpeckers and Mixed Flocks

Downy in Tree

Downy Woodpeckers are one of the most reliable birds that you can attract to your yard. In colder seasons they travel in mixed flocks with Black-capped Chickadees, Tufted Titmice, and White-breasted Nuthatches. Woodpeckers aren’t always going to be located high in the trees, one of our customers M. B. brought in this picture of a male Downy that was low to the ground and in some shrubbery near her front door. If you have any fun bird experiences, or pictures you want to share with us, please send them to our email at [email protected].

 

Save the Songbirds:

The Importance of Being Seasonally Savvy

Birds are in constant motion, and it is predicted that during the winter months our feathered friends can expend about 60% of their energy generating enough body heat to keep them toasty warm through the 13–15-hour long nights. This makes fat such an important resource for their survival because this process can use up 75-80% of their fat reserves - and that is almost 10% of their body weight!


To keep our backyard buddies in tip-top-shape we have to provide them with a diet that will best suit their needs. Suet is the best food to add to your set up, and keep full, throughout the season because it is the purest form of fat that the birds can process and absorb efficiently. SuperSuet™ has the highest percent of fat compared to our other cakes, at a whopping 62% crude fat! The mixture of peanuts, mealworms, and tree nuts makes it a great offering to any bird.


Our Winter Superblend™ is another great food source to offer your birds to keep their little furnaces stoking. It comes in loose seed or seed cylinders and has at least 42% crude fat content from sunflower seeds, Nutrasaff, peanuts, and tree nuts. This can be mixed with any type of seed blend to add that extra nutrition, or it can be served separately. Plus, you might get some different visitors like Carolina Wrens or Red-breasted Nuthatches.


If you don’t have a feeder that can use either of the foods mentioned above - our Bark Butter™ products might be an easier option. This is a spreadable suet that can be smeared right on a tree in your yard or on top of a feeder. And with a crude fat content of 31%, it will surely give the birds that extra bump they might need.