A Recycled Bird feeder!

Todays ‪#‎30dayswild‬ activtity was this rather 'unique' looking fat ball holder.

We decided the activity today was going to be aimed at the birds that visit out garden. Recently we have noticed that the number of birds visiting our garden is growing, Partially due to some hedgerows being removed in our village to make room for new houses , the birds have been searching for new homes and appear to have taken notice of the food we have been putting out.

I did not have a holder for these fat balls , so we decided to have a go at making our own!

First we marked out on the bottle where we wanted to cut slots for the birds to be able to reach the food. In hindsight now, we should have cut strips around the top and around the bottom separately to hold the shape of the bottle more once full. But it was very much a trial and error practical activity and we now know for future projects !

Evie ( age 3) found some sticks to act as supports for the birds to stand on so they could reach their lunch better. Together we poked these through the bottom of the bottle.

With a few leaves as decoration to make it pretty , we used Twool twine to hang it from a tree in our garden. We also used some of this twine to pinch in the middle of the bottle as the fat balls kept escaping due to our slight design flaw.

We are hoping to have lots of visitors to our feeder soon. We will keep you updated as to whether it receives our birds approval!

Fat balls are easy to make if you fancy having a go at them, all you need is bird seed and lard/suet. You can add other kitchen scraps such as bread crumbs, bacon rind ( a favourite with robins ) or small pieces of fruit.

We documented our morning in our log book as well ! A well spent productive morning.

XxP&TxX

#30dayswild Dorset Wildlife Trust Twool RSPB Love Nature RSPB Arne & East Dorset