Bear's Head Stuck In Bird Feeder

The big story about bird feeding this week is about a Wisconsin bear cub that got its head stuck in a bird feeder. Authorities had a dickens of a time trying to separate the cub from its protective mother in order to remove the bird feeder from its head. Don't worry, all ends well for the bear cub, you can read the full story here. You can see more photos here.

Now...I wonder which brand of feeder this is?

Another Threat To The Cost Of Sunflower?

They've found another use for sunflower seeds...a means for delivering caffeine.

SumSeeds has found a way to not just put caffeine on the sunflower shell, but they have actually caffeinated the seeds themselves. "A lot of people chew sunflower seeds to stay awake and give them energy, and we just thought we'd combine the two of them," said Tim Walter, president of Carpenter-based Dakota Valley Products.

I will be interesting to see if this product takes off and affects the availability of seed for birds.

Birdola Going For A Record!

From The Grand Rapids Press:

Birdola Products' seed cakes are meant to be hung from trees, but the one made to set a world record is a bit too heavy for that.

To mark the Northwest Side company's 20th anniversary, a 700-pound wildlife seed cake will be unveiled Wednesday at Blandford Nature Center, where birds, squirrels and other critters will do the real celebrating.

"We expect it to last three months," said Kristin Tindall, ecology education coordinator at Blandford, whose desk faces the feeding area where titmice, chickadees and woodpeckers gather with chipmunks and squirrels. "It's like a picture out of 'Snow White' here."

The privately held company's goal is to convince the Guinness World Records to recognize the 5-by-4-foot, 14-inch-thick seed cake in a new category.

Becoming the first seed cake record-holder might be fitting for the company, which says it invented bird seed cakes and now sells more than any other company nationally.

"We've grown considerably in the last 20 years," said President Frank Hoogland, who owns Birdola with Grand Rapids businessmen Dan Pfeiffer and Rich Postma.

"We continue to develop new products and pursue new markets. We hope to keep that trend continuing."

Birdola's employees, who number 30 to 35, have the capacity to manufacture up to 14,000 seed cakes a day at its Broadway Avenue NW plant. And during busy times, it does, Marketing Manager Rick Savino said.

The seeds are held together by a vitamin-laden protein binder the company developed when the founder, the late Don Metz, searched for a way to reduce mess and waste at bird feeders.

Today, truckloads of sunflower seeds come in from the Dakotas, peanuts from Georgia, millet from Colorado and nyjer seed from Pakistan, Myanmar and India.

Cherries and blueberries sometimes come from Michigan, but with prices up "tremendously" for all commodities, Savino said, the company tries to find the lowest prices at the right standards.

"Like anyone else, our margins are squeezed," he said. "Sales are a little bit soft right now."

When it comes to the choice of feeding wild birds or the dog during tough times, Birdola's "bird granola" gets left on the shelf.

But the company sees several hopeful signs.

First, more people are staying home, often gardening, and may pick up bird watching as a way to enjoy their yards. Second, the population is aging, and it is the settled-in segment that feeds birds.

Savino adds it is more important than ever to feed birds because their natural habitats are decreasing.

Meanwhile, large national chains and mom-and-pop stores are carrying Birdola's 45 products. Locally, Meijer, Family Fare and D&W Fresh Markets carry the lines, including the best-selling, 2-pound Birdola Plus Cakes that hold together even when pecked.

National chains that sell their products include Petco, PetSmart, Lowe's and Menards.

Company officials hope a world-record cake will bring a little more attention to their products.

At the very least, the birds will be happy.

"It will give all the birds a feast for the balance of the summer and well into the fall," Hoogland said.

Bird Feeders Are Like Relationships?

Well, now I've heard everything. This article by Benna Sherman of The Capitol Gazette could make for an interesting conversation piece with customers as she compares finding a bird feeder to finding a mate...I would refrain from referring to your spouse as a suet feeder:

When I first wanted to feed the birds in my yard, I asked a more bird-experienced associate for guidance on what bird feeder to buy. When she met me at the store, she started to ask me questions about what I wanted in a bird feeder. I started to enumerate what I wanted, based on the preparatory reading I'd been doing.

I told her that I wanted it to have perches for the perching birds, as well as a platform for the birds that preferred to stand on a solid base. I wanted it to attract the big birds and the small birds, those that fed standing upright and those that fed hanging upside down. I wanted it to serve sunflower seeds, thistle and suet to cover different birds and different nourishment needs. I wanted it to swing free for those birds that liked movement, and be stationary for those who needed the security of something immovable.


At first she'd listened carefully, working to imagine a bird feeder that would meet my requirements. After awhile I noticed a sort of open-mouthed disbelief, which was followed by outright laughter. I stopped and asked her what was so funny.


"You're crazy. There is no single bird feeder in the world that could do everything that you want this one to do. Some of your requirements are mutually exclusive. If you want to do all these things, you need several different feeders. Some of these features could be combined in one feeder, but not all. If you're going to have only one feeder, pick the features that are most important to you and not mutually incompatible with each other. If you need other features, add additional feeders."


I'd been really excited to buy the feeder. But as I wandered the aisles of the store, I saw that there were different kinds of feeders for different purposes; some combined features that I'd been looking for, but none tried to be a feeder for all birds and all birds' needs. How could I possibly choose the right feeder?!


I thought back to what she'd said - "add additional feeders." I finally got it - one feeder couldn't and, more importantly, didn't have to do it all.


In a marriage, we often think of our partners as the one person who is going to meet all of our needs. It's really no more realistic for partners than for bird feeders. No, this isn't a call for polygamy or infidelity. It is, in fact, a call for the idea that you shouldn't be expecting any one person to be every person you need in your life.


You might want to marry the person you feel is the best partner for getting things done; or the person you feel the safest with; or the person you feel is the most fun or the most socially adept; or the person who is most like the people in your family or who most shares the values with which you were raised. All of these criteria are legitimate, but they may not all be found in the same person. This is especially true when we expand the criteria to include the person who shares your taste in books or movies, who enjoys the same museums or mud wrestling that you do, who likes the Dolphins but boos the Patriots. The more criteria you add, the tougher it is to find it all in one person.


So maybe you choose to marry the person who's the best working-together partner. Does that mean that you have to give up the mud wrestling or the Patriots just because that partner is an art museum and Dolphins fan? An alternative is to find other same-sex, nonromantic relationships to meet those needs. If you want to read and discuss historical fiction and your partner thinks books are mostly to be used as paperweights, find or create a book club. If you want to watch chick flicks and your partner thinks that "Fight Club" is romantic, find a friend with whom to watch chick flicks. If you prefer shoot'em-ups and your partner likes Swedish-with-subtitles, encourage your partner, too, to develop connections with people who share those tastes - a colleague from work, a neighbor down the street, a cousin, whatever.


The point is that no one person can do and be everything for and to you.


I ended up with three bird feeders and two suet cages in my back yard. I also have a husband and a collection of women friends with whom I share additional and diverse interests. Although these people all tend to have some qualities in common, they all also have their divergent interests and personalities.


My husband is unquestionably my main partner, a role he fulfills remarkably well. And he's grateful that I don't require that he also be my shoe-shopping, jewelry-lusting, beach-going buddy. My life is enriched by having more than one person to connect with and to be supported by. That's what friends are for.


Dr. Benna Sherman is a licensed psychologist in private practice and her Web site can be found at www.DrBennaSherman.com