Bingo, age 8, has been nurtured since birth as our close friend. In the warmer months he leads his band of merry Western Scrub Jays, ruling with an iron fist, and dining on bags and bags of the unsalted peanuts we eagerly hand them. But when winter comes, the birds need extra fat in their diet beyond what the peanuts offer, so Kathleen makes her bird-famous suet recipe shared here.

Birds here in the west find food gathering more difficult, particularly if there's snow on the ground as most of our mountain birds are seed eaters, therefore ground-feeders. The king of our birds is the Scrub Jay, among the most intelligent of wild birds, and they are "caching" birds - which explains how quickly our peanuts disappear into their underground hideaways, and why they need extra food that isn't buried under the snow.

To enrich their winter diet, Kathleen makes up her "recipe" which contains the things all birds love, plus the valuable fat they need. Putting this outside in a tupperware tray nailed to the top rail of a wooden fence, or mounted on a pole, will please our flying friends enormously (and, unfortunately, squirrels so take that into your locating consideration!). We highly recommend placing it outside a window you frequently look out of for both the joy of taking pictures, just watching them feed, and to monitor the squirrel comings and goings as they will empty a suet feeder quickly! (In our yard, we good naturedly call them "the enemy.")

BINGO'S SUET RECIPE

In a pan: 2 cups boiling water 1 cup cornmeal (or Masa Harina is cheaper/better) Follow package instructions. You'll want the cooked product to be stiff, not runny. Remove from heat and stir in: 1/2 cup "quick oats" (salt free) 1/4 cup shortening (Crisco or similar, which provides the fat content) 1 cup Wild Birdseed. Store it in the refrigerator and start by putting out a cupful at a time, to monitor how fast it disappears. Suet is enjoyed by most birds in your yard, particularly the groundfeeders, but, surprisingly - as is our experience here in the mountains. We have juncos, towhees, sparrows, goldfinches, house finches, purple finches, gorgeous great northern flickers, red tail hawks, and even our neighborhood golden eagle at our snack bar. Everybody needs a little extra fat in their winter diet. Ever notice how you crave bacon when it's cold? Even if you live in a warm southern climate, birds, flying there to overwinter, will need to build up their fat reserves for the trip northward in the spring.