Can't you just hear Julie Andrews?  [....tuppence a bag...listen, listen, she's calling to you....] I always thought the bird woman looked a bit scary.    Liked the song, didn't care for the bird woman.

Well, spring is coming.  The snow starts to melt, the days are longer, the sun seems brighter, and Tarah starts talking about birds in her blog.    Our mourning dove pair is back for a third straight season of using the old robin's nest in our bush by the dining room window. (can I use that many prepositional phrases in one sentence, Mom?)   I just think that's amazing!  Amazing that they keep coming back...how long do they live anyhow?  Also amazing is that they do two broods each year, and the first one is laid while there's still several feet of snow on the ground! 

Anyway, this year I've had an excuse to indulge my obsession with birds.  We've been working on Apologia's Flying Creatures of the Fifth Day....at least half on birds!  One of the projects that I've been putting off and putting off (b/c we HAVE no birds in the middle of the winter) is having them make bird feeders and "smart suet" for our backyard.  Well, I'm starting to see birds again...we also have a cardinal pair that was scouting out the bushes the other day.  So, I decided that this weekend....we'd get the feeders made and out.  Enjoy the pics!

First we made "smart suet" for our basket....we see lots of woodpeckers in our backyard each year.  Here is Anna melting together the crunchy peanut butter and lard.

Some of our other ingredients....yummy!!

Johnny read the recipe and instructions for us.

Here is David stirring in the raisins.  (who knew that woodpeckers like raisins!)

And here are our bags of suet....ready to harden in the freezer!

While the suet was hardening, we made hanging seed feeders out of old juice containers.  Johnny's feeder has thistle seed in it for finches.  The others are a wild bird mix.

And now you'll have to just picture me dragging a ladder around in a backyard that has a couple feet of snow in it.    But here's an activity for you....can you spot the three feeders and the hanging suet basket in this picture?

Wow, I'm a picture posting maniac.  I'm discovering that pictures are a way to look like you're posting alot without saying anything substantial.