Homemade winter feed for wild birds

Wild birds bring so much joy to our lives. In spring we watch them hurriedly build nests and hear them welcome the new season with beautiful song, in summer we are gently woken by their dozy morning calls, in the autumn they keep us company while we dig the garden and in the winter they brighten bare landscape as they try and make it through the cold months ahead.

The cold weather and covered ground of late have been hard on the birds, so in an effort to help wildlife and save money, last week I decided to have a go at making some fat cakes for the birds.

To make fat cakes mix any hard fat (we use lard) with any mixture of bird seeds, peanuts, dried fruit, cheese and oatmeal. A ratio of 1:4 fat to feed mix by weight works well.

 

 Put in a large bowl and squish with your hands (a willing volunteer/child labour is useful for this).

 Then roll into balls or put into containers and turn them out when ready to use, we store ours in the freezer to keep them fresh for longer.

We have been putting our fat cakes on bird tables and the ground for ground feeding birds and they really can't get enough of them. Bon appetit little birds!