A family activity for Saturday’s winter solstice

By Sheila Cubick

OSU Ext. master gardener volunteer

The shortest day of the year, the winter solstice — Dec. 21, will occur Saturday.

The waning daylight as we approach the solstice can be a difficult time for both people and wildlife. While people can weather it in their snug homes, wildlife can have a much more difficult time surviving these dark, cold days.

Winter is a good time to feed birds since their food sources are more limited. Our family provides several feeders around the yard, and my son has always helped fill them.

We also like to do fun family things to feed them. When my son was a preschooler he loved the story “Night Tree” by Eve Bunting and wanted to do something special for his wild friends during these bleak days.

The story details the Christmas Eve tradition of a family who drives to the woods at the edge of their town and takes a night hike until they reach their adopted tree. They hang bird treats they have made over the preceding weeks, such as strings of popcorn, whole apples and oranges, and suet balls rolled in seeds. After the tree decorating, they sip hot chocolate and admire their tree while singing Christmas carols before heading home.

That year and for several afterward, my son and I made bird treats and hung them in our spruce tree, but we decided to celebrate the solstice, instead of Christmas Eve, with our feathered friends. We made a mixture of vegetable shortening and peanut butter in equal parts and formed it into balls around a piece of looped twine. We then rolled the balls in our birdseed mixture. Sometimes we added birdseed and dried fruit pieces into the shortening-peanut butter mixture before rolling into balls.

Another bird favorite was attaching a twine loop around a pine cone and smearing the mixture into the pine-cone scales.

We also placed the balls into ice cream cones by boring holes in opposite sides of a cone and tying a long loop of twine, then pressing the balls into the cups.

Our least-successful treats were popcorn chains and mini-bagels coated with peanut butter. The birds wouldn’t eat our popcorn, and pecked at the bagels, but took a long time to finish them.

Oregon State University Extension advises not to feed birds bread products. They don’t provide adequate nutrition and mold easily, which can cause birds to get sick.

Making bird treats is an easy and wonderful activity to share with the children in your life.

Start your own solstice tradition and help wildlife.