Friday, November 25, 2011

A Winter Treat for the Birds

My neighbor cut up a deer for one of his buddies today. I went over and asked him for the rib cage and he delivered it to me a couple hours ago. There's quite a bit of nice fat and meat still left on the bones, so this will provide lots of high energy food for the birds. I did this a few winters ago and the birds loved it! It looks kinda nasty, but the birds don't mind. Plus, none of my neighbors can see into my backyard, so no one else will be offended by this bloody carcass hanging in a tree.
And lookit where it is -- right outside the dining room window! As I'm sitting here at my computer typing this blog post, I have a fabulous view and can hardly wait until tomorrow when the birds discover this rare treat in my tree!

Holly got part of a tasty leg bone out of the deal too!

After I got my bloody carcass secured to the tree, I got a little bit more fall yard clean-up accomplished. The weather's been so mild lately -- quite unseasonable for the end of November in Minnesota. This little honeysuckle with a sheltered southern exposure has been fooled into thinking spring's on the way. Unfortunately, our forecast of rain and snow for tomorrow will certainly guarantee that these tiny buds won't be getting a chance to bloom this year!


10 comments:

Mama Pea said...

I've heard tell that old timers up here would hang the rib cage of a deer in the chicken house to give the hens some needed protein and fat and also to give them something to do in the winter months when they were confined to their house. Supposedly it kept them from picking on each other out of boredom.

Holly looks more than a little enthusiastic about her treat. I wonder if that's the first real bone she's ever had?

RuthieJ said...

Sounds perfectly logical to me Mama Pea. The last time I did this, by spring the bones were picked completely clean and the birds were sort of starting to shred them!
You know, I wouldn't be surprised if this was Holly's first bone. I'm not sure she had the best life at her other home. For sure she never got to go for regular walks because her feet were soft & smooth as a baby's when she came to live with us (plus she was pretty pudgy too!) Now she's a lean, clean, frisbee-chasin' machine! :-)

KGMom said...

Okay--you are tougher than I am...not sure I would so enjoy watching birds pick a carcass clean.
But, I do understand the benefits it offers.

Anonymous said...

I'll bet you will have a lot of birds, even the hawks will come for a treat. It is sort of gross but wait 'til the birds come and you better be taking some pictures to post for us to look at.
MOM

Kelly said...

When I saw the title of your post on my blog, I popped over expecting to see a cute chickadee sucking down some "Zick-dough" or something like that, so when I saw the bloody carcass instead it made me laugh! (Cute, cute dog!!!)

Ruth said...

I will be curious to see the pictures of your visitors...
Our fall has been very warm too and I am still picking Swiss chard and arugula from my garden.

Taos Sunflower said...

What a great idea, Ruthie. I look forward to seeing who you find snacking there!

Owlman said...

Looking forward to seeing who visits!

RuthieJ said...

Not sure toughness has much to do with it Donna. I just think it's pretty interesting seeing something from nature being re-used in nature. Actually there's a car-killed deer just up the road from us that I'd love to drag into the backyard to see if I can get the neighborhood bald eagles to stop by and pick on it......

Well Mom, so far, I've only seen a crow picking on it. Hopefully as winter goes on there will be more birds taking advantage of it.

Glad you could see some humor in that Kelly! Hopefully the birds will see it as a treat soon too.

Hi Ruth, so far only crows have taken advantage of this tasty carcass in the backyard. Maybe once we get some snow covering the ground the birds will take advantage of this unusual treat.

Thanks Martie. I'll be posting pics as I get them.

Me too Owlman!

stephen said...

Terrific idea with the carcass. As others have stated, it'll be interesting to see the variety of birds.