The most diligent take food to the birds not only in their yard but also in the forest, which may save, for example, woodpeckers from winter to spring. If you become a bird helper, you have to bear the responsibility for the whole winter.
A gray and rainy day is not the most beautiful weather for nature photography, but there is plenty of buzz at the forest feeding place for birds in Risö, Vaasa, at the mouth of Laihianjoki. There are a dozen or so automatic bird feeders.
At the same time, the hawk flies to a spruce branch.
Feeding the birds in the forest during the winter is important for the little six tit as well as the humpback and ruffed tit.
– Finland’s forests are mainly commercial forests, and there is not enough food for these woodchucks in the winter, Lumme estimates.
You don’t have to wait for the snow to arrive
Mäkynen does not delay the start of feeding until the arrival of the first snow, but he notes completely different things.
– I monitor insect traffic and make my assessment based on that. When the insects don’t fly much anymore, it’s time to start feeding.
Many consider the beginning of the snow cover as a suitable moment to start feeding.
– I understand it in formula areas. Seeds and other food waste dropped on snow-free ground may be collected by rodents.
In his backyard in the city, Pekka Mäkynen is also waiting for even colder weather before he starts feeding the birds.
– I offer mostly tallow balls, shelled sunflower seeds and rapeseed, which I also bring here to the forest feeding place.
– Home feeding is more modest than here in the forest, but it also makes you feel good and you see more urban species at the same time.
As long as you don’t puke
At his home in Södra Vallgrund, Raippaluoto, Timo Lumme offers the birds, among other things, tallow and nuts, which are always protected by a networked machine. This way the birds don’t get whole nuts out of there.
Lumme says that he has read that about ten million kilos of sunflower seeds are used for winter feeding of birds in Finland.
Birds are also partly precise in what they peck in their mouths. For example, oats have been brought to the forest feeding site in Risö, but it has not been suitable for the forest birds.
– Usually only yellow crickets eat oats, the others shake it on the ground, explains Pekka Mäkynen.
Automatic bird feeders should be protected from a wide variety of bird diseases.
– You should get an automatic that the birds can’t sit on or defecate on. I don’t recommend old bird boards that the birds sit on, advises Timo Lumme.
If you start feeding, continue throughout the winter
The most important guideline for winter feeding of birds – both in the home yard and in the forest – is commitment.
– If the birds get used to being in a certain place and if there runs out of food, it can be dangerous in the winter frost. Timo Lumme knows that if you start feeding in the fall, you have to continue it throughout the winter season.
Mäkynen and Lumme take food for the birds to five forest feeding sites in the Vaasa region. Hundreds of kilos are wasted on food in the winter. It takes time and money.
However, the men say they will come to the forest anyway. If you plan to photograph birds, they must be lured to the spot with food.
– A random walk in nature is suitable for landscape photography, but if you want a picture of, for example, an extremely timid tern, it does require arrangements, says Pekka Mäkynen.
At the same time that food for people has become more expensive, the prices of bird food have also jumped up. Pekka Mäkynen and Timo Lumme have procured food for the birds of the forest partly with the funds of the fund established in memory of the late nature and bird man.
– This is how his work continues in the winter feeding of birds, Timo Lumme compares.
\”Nice to watch both in the yard and in the forest\”
In Pekka Mäkynen’s ideal winter, the country would have about 20–30 centimeters of snow and five degrees below zero. In those weathers, the winter feeding of the birds would also go well. Different seasons offer joy to the nature photographer.
– Even at this Riso feeding place, the snow stays for a long time in the spring. I’ve photographed the rut here on top of the rutö pile for many springs.
Timo Lumme says that there are about 240 breeding bird species in Finland, and about 70 of them stay in Finland for the winter as well.
– Quite a lot of them come for feeding. It’s nice to watch them both in the yard and in the forest.