{"id":1921,"date":"2023-03-16T16:22:54","date_gmt":"2023-03-16T20:22:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/urbannaturestore.blog\/?p=1921"},"modified":"2023-03-16T16:22:54","modified_gmt":"2023-03-16T20:22:54","slug":"its-all-about-spring","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/test.mppdev.net\/index.php\/2023\/03\/16\/its-all-about-spring\/","title":{"rendered":"It\u2019s All About Spring!"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

We\u2019ve changed our clocks giving us that extra hour of daylight, and spring officially arrives next Monday. Even though winter hasn\u2019t been too bad this year, the majority of us are all looking forward to spring. Spring also invites beautiful songbirds as migration progresses through the coming months. The red-winged blackbirds always lead the way along with the grackles and brown-headed cowbirds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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There are plenty of things we can do to welcome our feathered friends back to our\u00a0yards and gardens.\u00a0 Decide which feeders are going to attract the species you enjoy and set aside some time to give them a good cleaning.\u00a0 You can do this by adding 1 part bleach or vinegar to 9 parts hot water.\u00a0 Wash all parts of the feeder, don\u2019t forget about the roof, perches and feeding portals.\u00a0 If some of these parts are hard to access, cleaning brushes come in handy.\u00a0 Rinse the feeder thoroughly and let it air dry thoroughly before filling.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Over the years, we have had customers ask us if there is a way to deter large birds such as Grackles so the small birds can feed without being chased away.\u00a0 This is possible by removing any hopper, flythrough, or platform feeders offering a sunflower mix.\u00a0 Safflower seeds<\/a> can be added to one of these to accommodate cardinals, house finches and rose-breasted grosbeaks.\u00a0 Nyjer feeders with small openings will also discourage large birds while attracting our goldfinches and indigo buntings.\u00a0 Fine sunflower hearts, nyjer seed or our finch and friends mix<\/a> can be offered in these feeders.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Caged feeders<\/a> are also available in different styles and sizes for seed and suet.\u00a0 You can continue to offer sunflower seeds\/hearts in the seed feeders, and a variety of suet in the caged suet feeders.\u00a0 Don\u2019t worry about hairy and red-bellied woodpeckers, they can feed from caged suet feeders with their long tongues.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Birdhouses should also be cleaned before nesting season begins.\u00a0 You may need to partially take the house apart with a screwdriver if there isn\u2019t easy access for cleaning.\u00a0 Remove any old nesting material or debris from the feeder.\u00a0 You can use the same formula for cleaning feeders, or if you have a wooden house, it may be easier to clean with a mild dish detergent rinsing well with hot water.\u00a0 Check the inside of the house for splinters or loose hinges to prevent any injuries to nestlings and their parents.\u00a0 Make sure the birdhouse is completely dry before mounting or hanging.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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You can also leave nesting material out for the birds.\u00a0 This is easy to do because natural is best.\u00a0 Before raking up the lawn and cleaning up the garden, collect small twigs, leaves, pine needles, moss, strips of bark and plant fluff.\u00a0 These items can be left in small piles in the corners of your yard, or hung inside of suet cages for the birds to collect.\u00a0 Please do not put dryer lint out for them as it could contain fragrance or chemicals from dryer sheets.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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This is also the time to change old window alerts and replace them with new ones.\u00a0 This will prevent bird strikes and help birds navigate safely through our neighbourhoods.\u00a0 Last, and certainly not least, please keep your feline friends inside.\u00a0 Cats don\u2019t need to kill birds to survive, we feed our pets with food choices to suit their special needs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Enjoy the return of spring with all it has to offer.  Take time to listen for different bird songs, the silence of our winter months are over!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Happy Birding,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jane Paradis<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Urban Nature Store Brand Ambassador<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We\u2019ve changed our clocks giving us that extra hour of daylight, and spring officially arrives next Monday. Even though winter hasn\u2019t been too bad this year, the majority of us are all looking forward to spring. Spring also invites beautiful songbirds as migration progresses through the coming months. The red-winged blackbirds always lead the way […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1934,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[61,95,76,30,17],"class_list":["post-1921","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uns-birding-blog","tag-canadawildbirding","tag-springbirds","tag-unsbirds","tag-unsblogs","tag-urbannaturestore"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.mppdev.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1921","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.mppdev.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.mppdev.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.mppdev.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.mppdev.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1921"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/test.mppdev.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1921\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.mppdev.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1934"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.mppdev.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1921"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.mppdev.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1921"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.mppdev.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1921"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}