Vernal Equinox activities!

In honor of the first day of Spring, (which, unusually for these parts,was in the upper 70's!!) we decided to make bird seed feeders. There was this cute tutorial I found online, and since I noticed that we do hardly any crafty type things I decided that the Vernal Equinox was cause for something craft-like. Craft-like that would end up mostly outside is my favorite...

 Behold:

We bought bird seed the day before...

Here is Lily modeling our gelatin being, um, gelatinous

Bruce's written directions, and a cookie cutter lined with foil, both oiled and ready for the bird seed mixture

Bird seed and gelatin in more water to get all mixed up and ready to roll

quite a bit later, it seemed to be combined enough to put into the cookie cutters. We stuck those straws in there to make a hole for some twine. Then we stuck these (and the leftovers, of which there was a bunch in not as cute form) into the freezer.

Post dance class, we popped the seed out of the cutters, and put twine in where the straws had made a hole!
Here's Bruce's heart shaped feeder

a bird shape bird seed feeder by Lily

hanging up waiting for birds. or, in reality, it  turns out to be waiting to melt and fall on the ground.....

Ollie's heart shaped feeder

Ollie's had a perfect spot with a built in perch for birdies. In theory....

Eliot models his feeder

our nature binder with pictures of birds which we anxiously awaited

The downside to these mostly easy and adorable feeders is that Spring was acting like summer so they were getting melty fast. We moved them around a few times to try to make them as bird friendly as possible and to keep them in the shade. Alas, no birds fed off them before they hit the ground. Later when I was out getting the laundry I spotted some robins feasting on our seed laden ground. Bruce and Lily were able to come see for a moment.

Today we upped the anty and put the bird seed in one of those mesh onion bags and tied some colorful felt around it and tried to make it mor visible. We are happy to report we got some birds in the yard, but they still prefer to peck at the seed that fell on the ground. We're trying not to be discouraged that we can hear birds EVERYWHERE but only a few are coming into our yard. We're blaming the squirrels...Also, we might need to make a more traditional feeder.