Blue Skies and Birdseed

"Keep a green tree in your heart and perhaps a singing bird will come."

Chinese Proverb

We have a corner in our backyard that is set up to welcome wild birds. There is food in shallow dishes, a birdbath, an Oriole feeder, and a hanging seed feeder, as well as a little bird swing. Boy, can the birds eat! With White Crowned Sparrows, House Finches, Towhees, Mourning Doves, Black Phoebes, Black Headed Grosbeaks, and a California Thrasher regularly visiting, we have to restock the bird food every few days. In order to make the food last longer, we started buying large cylinder-shaped seed "cakes" at our local wild bird supply store. The birds enjoy it and lots of birds can eat at the same time, but they can get expensive at $13 apiece. So we decided to make our own!

We used the same ingredients as the seed cylinder we usually buy: sunflower seeds, almonds, and dried cherries. Birds all over the United States like sunflower seeds, but you can check online for other items to include for your local birds. Our birds don't like millet, so we don't include it. We used a Craftster Video as inspiration for our cylinder. The video gives directions for molding seed cakes with cake pans, if you want to make them small. We doubled the recipe and used a plastic pitcher for our bigger seed "cake."

you can find vegan recipes online as a substitute for
 unflavored gelatin, if desired

Stir the gelatin into water over a low flame. I made the mistake of dumping all the gelatin in at once, then had to stir like mad to get the lumps out. 

Gradually pour the gelatin into the water while whisking. Once the gelatin mixture is clear (not milky), remove from heat and stir in birdseed.

  

Stir to coat all the seeds and nuts - children can help with this part.

If the mixture is soupy, add more nuts. Then place into molds of your choice sprayed with non-stick spray. Our seed cake hanger uses a rod through the center so we packed the seed around a dowel that we could remove later.

Our home-made seed cylinder next to the store bought version

Place mold(s) into the fridge to set up and harden for 6 to 8 hours. Remove the seed cake(s) from the mold and hang outside. These seed cakes make a sweet gift for bird loving friends!



Our birds seem to like our home made replica better than the store bought version - it's probably fresher.

If you don't have a stand or hanger you can run string through the center to hang it. 

Or place the seed cake in a shallow dish and put it in a secure place high enough that wandering cats won't be able to ambush the birds.

The sky above the Bird Corner in our backyard~

With winter coming, it'll be nice having these on hand for hungry birds. 

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