PORTLAND – Winter is wonderful for catching up with friends & families; as the weather outside normally keeps us inside and it allows each of us time to personally reflect and share what we learned this year and get grounded or prepared for the coming YEAR 2012.
My wife Debbie has a wonderful Christmas family tradition called “PEANUT BUTTER PINE CONES”.
The cover photo is of a recent Blue Jay outside our window letting her know “It is time to make more peanut butter pine cones!”
Yesterday, she made two peanut butter pinecones and they were cleaned out by local bird by afternoon! The colorful dozens of varieties of our “Oregon Junco” always stays around outside our window. This simple slab-board, bird feeder tray ATTRACTANT makes for wonderful photography and shooting thru a window or door screen can give a wonderful soft look to these wild bird photos. Try it out!
Frankly, the holidays has one drawback called “The winter doldrums”; in that we can get bored or run out of ideas for new things to share with friends or family? Beautiful native songsters outside a kitchen window grab or divert your attention to the outside world even during the coldest winter day and human’s need new experiences or input or a quick jumpstart or unforgettable memories to rekindle new ideas to share or talk about!
The peanut butter pine cone recipe is very simple and children love to help here and help Nature.
One caution is even pine cones have single sharp points and my wife says, “Remember the roses, and forgive the thorns”!
Essentially, collect some pine cones found on the ground at home or in public parks or nearby forests; and park workers won’t have to clean them up in spring before mowing again.
Kids, this is the fun part! TAKE A PINE CONE IN HAND and smear creamy or chunky peanut butter in between the gaps designed to hold peanut butter naturally. Some people prefer to spread the peanut butter with a non-messy table butter knife or a cake frosting spatula.
My children and grandchildren love to get messy outside during the warm season; maybe they just like to shock mom? Anyway, parents scoop out a half cup of peanut butter in individual bowls for each “kid” – young and old!
Gather the kids around a kitchen table and discuss some ground rules about cleaning up their mess for later!
Deb lays out a sheet of wax paper to lay out a layer of bird seed; and then roll the STICKY BROWN outside of your PEANUT BUTTER PINECONE into the birdseed as an attractive covering for birds.
Have you ever had a big glob of peanut butter stuck to the roof of your mouth? There currently is a scientific debate about – if this can happen to small mouth birds? Anyway, in this case, the wild bird picks out a seed with peanut butter frosting!
One can laugh when some skinny person says, “I eat like a bird”!
Another author, Sally Roth, wrote an interesting book titled ATTRACTING BIRDS TO YOUR BACKYARD and Sally shares an interesting insight of page34.
“EATING LIKE A BIRD” – the metabolism of a bird is something I can only envy – if I could burn calories as fast as they do, I’d be a fashion model in no time.
Smaller birds have an especially high metabolic rate. Their bodies zip along at an internal temperature around 20 percent higher than ours, and they’re often constantly in motion.
When someone claims she eats like a bird, she usually means she’s a light eater. But in fact birds have to eat huge amounts to maintain {energy} their activity level.
HERE IS A COMPARISION WITH HUMANS:
MULTIPLY YOUR WEIGHT BY 4. THE RESULT IS THE NUMBER OF HAMBURGERS YOU’D HAVE TO EAT PER DAY IN ORDER TO TRULY IMITATE THE EATING HABITS OF SOME SPECIES OF BIRDS.
Observations of caged birds show that food intakes vary greatly from bird species – even inside a warm home.
Some small to medium size songbirds consume the equivalent of 80 to 100 percent of their body weight every day.”
Human bodies must maintain body temperatures around 98 to 99 degrees (F) to stay healthy; however, wild birds outside have must maintain body temperatures in the 102-08 range in a smaller body outside with no coat. Abundant food or energy is how they can survive.
It is no wonder bird watching has become a major American pastime; almost as popular as gardening.
Here is another interesting website for BIRDS FOREVER
And, for later, Cornell University does wild bird research continually and families can help and they post fun things for families to do together in the storms of January.
SAVE OUR BIRDS-SAVE OUR FORESTS addresses why it is scientifically preferred to keep wild birds around.
“Knowing that both NEOTROPICAL MIGRATORY BIRDS and RESIDENT BIRDS feed on budworm and Tussock Moth Larvae, Forest Service scientists planned an experiment to see just how effective these birds were. Specifically, how many budworms were birds eating off trees?”
In true scientific method, USFS SCIENTISTS covered a control area of trees under a PVC pole structure with netting to keep the birds from eating any caterpillars. Under cover the scientists counted 36 budworm caterpillars per branch within controlled study area. Outside the makeshift canopy – where birds ate freely – zero to 6 caterpillars were discovering per branch!
USFS STATEMENT“In other words, birds ate five of every six caterpillars! The birds were making a difference!”
*Not all birds eat insects; but the majority does. And some species eat as many as 300 insects a day during summer months. A breeding pair of evening grosbeaks can devour 25,000 to 50,000 caterpillars just in the period it takes them to raise a family!
* Forest Service biologists in the Pacific Northwest have recently learned that 35 species of birds, including 24 Neotropical migrants, feed on the Western Spruce budworm and the Douglas-fir Tussock Moth, which are the two most destructive defoliating insects there.”
Have your family seen “beetle kill forest” of gray snags & stumps? The top of Santiam Pass has this depressing site now and I never seen this devastation growing up in the 1950s?
Nature’s cycles are allowing an overpopulation of tree boring beetles to kill sickly forests to prepare them to burn down and start over? The ancient’s ashes re-vitalize or fertilize a stagnant forest landscape. A forest fire scar turns remarkably green quickly and all boring beetles are all gone – for now.
Oregon readers make good use and you have some fun this 2011 Christmas & Winter Solstice! ENJOY YOUR PRESENT-Moments of life. Never waste them! It’s a Great Gift from someone Greater gives you to enjoy your life!
OTHER QUOTES TO CONSIDER:
*It’s really easy to complain. If you’re not careful, then you end up complaining about your whole life. Concentrating on the good things is really good. Catch people doing good.
Lisa Williams, Bloggers In Love, SXSW 2006
*“What lies behind us and what lies before us are small matter compared to what lies within us.” ~Ralph Waldo Emerson
*So many of our dreams at first seem impossible, then they seem improbable, and then, when we summon the will, they soon become inevitable.
Christopher Reeve, From speech at Democratic National Convention, August 1996
*Where there is hatred, let me sow love. Where there is injury, pardon. Where there is doubt, faith.
Saint Francis of Assisi
Italian monk & saint (1181 - 1226)
*Did you know that today will never be tomorrow.
Jay London
*Do you know it was a year a ago today?
Jay London
*A story should have a beginning, a middle, and an end... but not necessarily in that order.
Jean-Luc Godard
*The reader knows what is most important in their lives. Classic Newspaper story pyramids simplify the writer-editor task!
Dave Sandersfeld, OSU Journalism Degree, 1994
Please click on”subscribe” or “Follow” button over this article to receive free email notifications of future articles by this Oregon Outdoors author.
Author’s new “In-depth” books: BBQ, BAMBOO & SPICE BEDS, DEER PROOFING LANDSCAPES, OLD GLORY GARDEN–PATRIOT’S EDITION, and PACIFIC COAST PIRATES & SPANISH GALLEONS are now available on AMAZON:
LINK - http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1463755910
MY AMAZON NEW BOOKS: http://www.amazon.com/Dave-Sandersfeld/e/B006H3CPOS/ref=sr_ntt_srch_lnk_1?qid=1322932589&sr=8-1
& E-BOOKs READY @ Kindle store!
http://www.amazon.com/Dave-Sandersfeld/e/B006H3CPOS/ref=ntt_at_wpl_p12_s...
© Copyright 2011. Dave Sandersfeld.
Permission is granted to include extracts of this article on websites and email lists with a link to the original. This article is copyrighted © and should not be added in its entirety on other websites or email lists without author's permission. For Article Comment sharing - Please contact Author at: FatherNature2@gmail.com.or www.fncbooks.com.
The secret to this fun website is clicking on photos for transport to another website!
"
Comments