West Virginia Wildlife from Eyewitness News

Holiday Bird Feeders

Wild birds need a Christmas feast too, find out how to set the table for them.

December 20, 2006
Reporter: Patrick McMurtry
Videographer: Brad Rice

EYEWITNESS ONLINE WEBCAST VIDEO
C L I C K T O P L A Y

Christmas season is here and that means it's time to open presents and have a big feast. At the Shomo household, it's also time to set around the table and put together a feast for the birds.

"You just have to put the needle through it, you tie the string aournd the needle and now we'er putting cranberries on it and string them."

Logan and Kristen are hard at work making sure the birds make it through the hard West Virginia winter ahead. This is actually a family tradition passed along by their mom.

"I used to do it as a child with my mom and dad. My dad is a big wildlife person who loved the outdoors and so we used to sit when I was a little girl and string popcorn and cranberries and take them out in our front yard because we had a big pine tree out there and we would decorate it for the birds. It's kind of a family tradition I passed to my kids and hopefully they'll do it to theirs."

"You can also put Cheerios on there, things like mockingbirds, blue jays. There are some birds who eat the fruit, others will eat the popcorn and cranberries."

The Shomo crew will add things like oranges and apples to spice things up for the birds. And as beautiful as the string turns out, there are some other tastefull ideas they use. Logan is quick to show and old guy like me the ropes.

And then it's off to put out the food. The Shomo's don't have any big trees in the new yard...yet...so they do the next best thing. It won't make much difference to the birds who'll flock to the Shomo house for Christmas dinner.

LEARN MORE

W. Va. DNR

MORE WILDLIFE NEWS

WCHS-TV8 Online brings you the current Fishing and Stream Conditions Report updated every week.

Hunting Report updated every week in season.

No video? Get Flash Player from Adobe. (It's Free!)