"Marvel Meal" Provides Year-Round Bird Treat An excellent substitute for beef suet to feed birds has the coined name "marvel meal." It is easy to make, the birds like it and it can be fed to them all year. One of life’s greatest satisfactions is knowing that you are communicating with and often helping people favorably – and occasionally even unfavorably. But at least you are getting through to others and affecting their thought processes. One of our friends of long standing living in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, Martha Zipsie, responded to my recent "Squirrel-Proof Feeder" story with some very practical advice learned through much experience. She has been sharing her "safflower solution" with other people who feed birds and who are having difficulty trying to outsmart the squirrels. Martha discovered long ago that squirrels do not like safflower seeds but that birds including cardinals, rose-breasted grosbeaks, chickadees, nuthatches, mourning doves, house finches, white-throated sparrows and others do. Report has it that European starlings and house sparrows won’t eat safflower seeds either, and that’s good news! She has a pocket-size yard and has around 20 feeders there, 11 of which contain nothing but safflower seeds. Martha also offers copious amounts of black oil sunflower seeds, white millet, Niger seed and cracked corn in various feeders and areas to satisfy the variety of tastes. Needless to say, she enjoys watching large numbers of wildlife. You’ll have to hunt around for a source of safflower seeds. Perhaps a good feed mill may be able to get it for you, or a store that specializes in food for birds. People in the northern part of the state, where black bears reside, may be interested to know that they too are known to avoid feeders containing safflower seeds. Yes, bears have a reputation for doing great damage at people’s feeding stations. Don’t expect the birds to suddenly rejoice over your offering of safflower seeds. It may take some time for them to learn to accept and eat it. Our friend of past years, Miss Emma Toft at Baileys Harbor and Mud Bay, offered her wild birds peanut butter year around. Her peanut butter feeders consisted of two-foot lengths of two-inch thick cedar trunks on which the slightly upward-angled branches had been cut off at around two inches, thereby offering perches for the birds. Above each perch was drilled an inch-wide and an inch deep hole into which the peanut butter was smeared. These feeders were suspended vertically from a stout wire. Several years ago we learned of an excellent substitute for beef suet, which on hot summer days becomes drippy and turns out to be very hard on the facial feathers of birds that are attracted to the suet. Flies are also attracted to it. It was John Terres, long-time editor of the Audubon magazine, who devised what he called "marvel meal" and which was eagerly consumed by at least 35 species of birds in his North Carolina yard. We used Terres’ recipe for a few years and then learned in "Bird Watcher’s Digest" what we feel is an improvement on its ingredients. It is simply called "No-melt Peanut Butter Suet" and can be fed to the birds year around. Here is the recipe: two cups crunchy peanut butter, two cups lard (no substitutes), four cups "quick cook" oats, four cups yellow corn meal, one and one-half cups white flour, and two-thirds cup sugar. If the mixture is not fairly stiff in consistency, add a small amount of corn meal or oats. Melt the lard and peanut butter in a pot over very low heat – it can burn quickly. Remove from the burner, pour this into a large bowl and stir in the remaining ingredients mixing them well. We spoon this mixture into several small plastic containers and simply store where it is cool – in the refrigerator in summer. Use your ingenuity in offering this food to the birds, including all of the woodpeckers, chickadees, nuthatches, and even the tree sparrows who take to it occasionally in winter at out place. I use a piece of 2x6x12-inch rough-sawn cedar. The six holes are around one and a half inches wide and an inch deep. I attached pieces of rough wood with saw kerfs in them at the sides of the feeders to offer good foot-holds for the birds, and an extension of around a foot at the bottom of the feeders on which the woodpeckers, especially the pileated woodpecker, can prop their tails for that important third point of support. Regardless of what you may have heard or read, keep up your winter bird-feeding program, not only to help birds survive the severe weather but also to get close enjoyable looks at these amazing creatures. This column appeared in the Door County Advocate on 01/24/2003. © Copyright 2003 Roy Lukes. All rights reserved.