RECENT NEWS
January 13th, 2012. A Very Snowy Day!
Supporting Winter Birds - With notes from author Julie Zickefoose
Winter in Ohio! A time that humans hunker down in heated abodes and drink warm liquids of many different flavors. Meanwhile, the wild birds do whatever is necessary to stay warm, and procure food and drink while the temperature plummets, wind howls, and snow flies. Feeling guilty yet? Want to help the birds this winter? Good! Here are some suggestions to aid our flinty, feathered friends.
Food, water and shelter are necessary for a bird to survive any type of weather. But just as we love to have our "comfort foods" the birds could use a good, nutritious treat.
Julie Zickafoose, noted author and naturalist, who lives in South East Ohio with her husband Bill Thompson III, editor of Birder's Digest
magazine, has formulated a special treat she calls "Zickdough". Here are Julie's Facebook notes on how to make "Zickdough"
Zick Dough, Improved
Melt together in microwave until liquid:
1 cup lard,
1 cup peanut butter.
Combine separately:
2 cups quick oats,
2 cups chick starter, un-medicated (available at feed store),
1 cup yellow cornmeal,
1 cup flour.
Put dry ingredients in mixer and blend. Slowly pour in melted lard/PB mixture until a crumbly, lumpy consistency is attained. Store in peanut butter jars.
Does not need refrigeration. Serve crumbled. This mixture is too crumbly to serve in a suet feeder.
I recommend a plexiglas feeder with a dome you can lower to protect it from weather and starlings.
In fair weather we serve it in a shallow dish, or simply put it loose on the deck railing.
You can, of course, enlarge the recipe. I make two double batches back-to-back with my KitchenAid mixer.
As long as you have everything pulled out, you might as well make some to store. I use a kitchen scale instead of measuring cups to measure the melty ingredients;
it's much easier to watch the scale and just add 8 oz of lard or PB into your bowl than to cram it into a cup measure.
Of course you'll need a cup measure for the dry ingredients, but they're a snap to measure. If you haven't got a mixer, just mix by hand, as I did for 15 years...
This is a cold-weather food. Discontinue feeding when weather warms in spring as it is too rich and fatty to feed all summer long. Chick starter is the "improved" part of this recipe,
and it helps make a more balanced diet, but please feed in moderation. The old recipe without chick starter caused gout in bluebirds that got hooked on it. For more information and photos, see:
Julie's Blog
If you would like to see how I make it (well, before I got my whoppin' persimmon-orange Kitchenaid mixer), here's a video that Bill took, surprising me in the kitchen one afternoon.
Had I known he was going to do that I might have put on my best gown.
Making Zick Dough
It's an excellent food for insectivores in the dead of winter, and will definitely help pull your bluebirds and Carolina wrens through snow and ice storms.
Attracts chickadees, titmice, nuthatches, jays, woodpeckers of all species, song, chipping, white-throated and field sparrows, towhees, cardinals, bluebirds,
and Carolina wrens, to name some.
OBS thanks Julie Zickefoose for permission to reprint her Facebook notes on this birdy treat!
Below we have listed a number of sites that have valuable information on how to care for your winter feathered friends of many species.
Bald Eagle Released by OBS at Big Island
It was a chilly, blustery day but the young Bald eagle showed no signs of caring whether the sky he flew into was gray or blue. His main concern was to exit the large carrier
in which he had made two trips in as many weeks; from OBS to Glen Helen Raptor Center where he spent time in a large flight cage flexing his muscles and gaining fight strength; to Elgin High School on the edge of Big
Island Nature Preserve and his ultimate release.
In front of Division of Wildlife Officers, high school biology students,school officials and teachers, media and OBS staff and volunteers, the youngster took the sky as though he had never left.
Not a sound was made until sight of the bird was lost behind a distant tree line. Then cheers, applause and laughter broke the silence. He was free...He could fly! The best was yet to come! After a
moment or two, a juvenile eagle flew in from the west traveling to the spot that the newly released animal had disappeared. Looking toward that tree line, three, then four birds were observed wheeling in the sky.
A welcoming committee? Perhaps. This young bird had been found on the ground in June, flightless with a wing injury, approximately five miles from the spot of his release. As OBS Director, Gail Laux said
"We needed Born Free playing in the background!"
To watch the Mansfield News Journal video of the release, click HERE
For more photos go to About Us and choose Photo Gallery
As the season moves on we will continue to bring quality environmental opportunities to the North Central Ohio area. Check our Calendar of Events page frequently to see what is coming up next!
Many of our events are photographed and posted at our Facebook page!
Search for Ohio Bird Sanctuary on Facebook.
Many thanks to all who support the Sanctuary by your visits, contributions, program referals and gifts!