Pro trick: Go with different friends each time so nobody notices you’ve already been there. 🎃😂🐦

Happy birds! ❤️
@peakbeakwild

#backyardbirds #trickortreating
#birdfeeder #bsfl #birdseed

I make Beak Treats a few times a year, and fall migration is always one of those times.

Migration takes an incredible amount of energy. By October, colder temperatures mean fewer active insects are available, just as migrating birds are using enormous amounts of energy to rest, refuel and continue their journey. I like offering nutrient-rich supplemental foods that are easy to find and quick to grab.

Fall brings all kinds of movement to the backyard. I’ve already noticed an uptick in American Goldfinches at my feeders, which fits their seasonal movement and tendency to gather in flocks this time of year.

Some birds are simply passing through the Great Lakes Bay Region, and using the area as a stopover to rest and refuel. Others may linger longer before continuing south. I was still seeing Rose-breasted Grosbeaks at my feeders into mid-October last year. And then there are fall arrivals like my beloved Dark-eyed Juncos that come south to spend the winter in Michigan.

When Peak Beak Wild sent me their black soldier fly larvae, I couldn’t have been happier with the timing! @peakbeakwild

I used them in my Beak Treats, along with sweet potato, birdseed, suet, peanut butter, mealworms and native flower seeds. These cookie-inspired treats provide a combination of fat and protein along with familiar foods my backyard birds already enjoy.

I also made a suet mix for my cages and a seed cylinder with Peak Beak Wild BSFL, and I’m planning to use them in my annual Snack-o-Lantern too. 🎃

I finally made the pumpkin chili I mentioned last week.
I love it! Sharing my recipe. It’s my regular chili recipe adjusted for the added pumpkin puree.

Chili is one of those foods that everyone adjusts to their own taste. I grew up on a very basic chili and worked on different ingredients that I liked versus the 3-alarm type of my youth. 😁 This chili is medium spicy, forwardly sweet. Very easy recipe to adjust to your own liking.

Whenever I make chili, I make a big batch. My crock-pot died recently after many years of heavy use. I was trying to decide if I wanted a multi-pot or just a slow cooker. I decided to buy another 10-quart crock-pot. Harder to find!

You can see how I crazily chopped my sweet potato. I cut it raw to build character and done is better than pretty.

The chili in half-gallon mason jars is not pressure-canned. Typically, I leave one jar in the fridge and I freeze the remaining. No, I’ve never had one break in the freezer. And Yes, I know the straight-jar is the standard and is recommended for freezing.

Yes, you have peeped that my jars are not the straight jars. 😇 Don’t stress for me. 😂 It’s fine. I’ve frozen soups and spaghetti sauce the same way. If you don’t like living on the edge, then simply don’t do this. 😂

I spoon the chili into the jars using a funnel. I let them cool a bit, and then I put them in the fridge overnight. Then I put them in the freezer. I leave headspace, so there’s room for expansion.

When I want some, I pull a frozen jar and thaw it in the fridge. I have thawed it in a cold water bath in the sink too.

One might question why I don’t pressure can or use plastic containers or Ziploc bags.

Just because!

I love mason jars and have many in various sizes. They’re handy. I prefer glass over plastic. And I don’t stress. I can always make something else if it doesn’t thaw fast enough.

Obviously make and store whatever way works for you!

If you want some recipe suggestions, I can share some easy ways to adjust this recipe and make it your own.

#pumpkinchili #autumnchili #bigbatchchili #chili

Today’s lunch: sunflower seeds with a side of sad leftover sunflower seeds and hulls. 😂

New QTBird series. 👩‍🍳
Beakfluencer™
Bird seed, treats & backyard bird essentials, tested by pecky eaters. ❤️

Pro sneaky tip: To expand a juvenile bird’s food palate, serve tiny, low-pressure portions and pair new foods with familiar favorites. 😂😜

Return as I expand the flock’s palate and explore more backyard bird essentials to keep them coming back.❤️

#whatmytoddlereats #backyardbirds #beakfluencer #birdfeeder

It’s fall, but there are still plenty of pastels to be found.

These are a few of the flowers in my gardens that still look and feel like summer, even with a 42-degree morning.

Featured Blooms: Pink rose, purple aster, fuchsia & sedum
Featured Wildlife: Bumblebee & honeybee
Featured Bird: Juvenile Northern Cardinal
Location: Backyard Wildlife Habitat, Meadowbrook Woods, Michigan (Zone 6a)
Weather: Woke up to 42 degrees F. Cloudy and High of 67. ☁️🥶

Today’s series is a little nod to summer on this chilly morning, with soft pinks and purples still scattered through the gardens and the bees still busy among the asters and sedum.

Yesterday I added fall decor to the front porch, so while the garden is still showing a little summer, I’m officially getting ready for spooky season. 🎃

And at the feeder, this juvenile cardinal made an appearance with the tiniest little crest. 😂 That little crest gets me every time.

Happy Friday! ☀️

#honeybee #fuchsiaflowers #backyardbirds #sedum

Fall is here, and there’s no mistaking it.

Some of the best fall interest in a garden comes from fruit, seed heads, cones/pods, and foliage, not just flowers.

Featured Blooms: Hardy hibiscus, begonias, roses, zinnia, sunflower and butterfly bush
Featured Foliage: Coleus and holly
Featured Fruit: Cornelian cherry dogwood fruit, Kousa dogwood fruit, rose hips and developing holly berries
Featured Wildlife: Red-spotted Purple butterfly and white-tailed deer
Location: Dow Gardens, Meadowbrook Woods backyard wildlife habitat, Michigan (Zone 6a)

Cooler air, berries, rose hips, pine cones, changing leaves and the sound of acorns dropping every day are all part of the season for me.

There’s so much happening outdoors lately! Early fall isn’t only about waiting for peak color. Flowers are still feeding pollinators, various fruits are at different stages of ripening, and while some seed heads are still drying, I’ve already collected others for next year.

I’m also not done planting bulbs. 😮 The cooler temperatures finally make it feel like the season is settling in.

Butterfly season is winding down here in Michigan too. Red-spotted Purples don’t migrate. 😢 The adults have such short lives, while the next generation spends winter as tiny caterpillars tucked into rolled-leaf shelters before becoming active again in spring.

The holly berries are still green, but once they ripen, they’ll provide winter food for the birds and other wildlife. They also have 93 days to get ready for Christmas!
😂🎅🎄

Cornelian cherry and Kousa dogwood fruit are both edible when ripe, and rose hips are edible too. Holly berries, however, are not for people.

Has anyone ever used Cornelian cherry or Kousa dogwood fruit for jam, jelly, preserves or anything else? I’d love to hear what you made.

#fallyall #rosehip #zinnia #kousadogwood #deer

I may have found a new neighborhood regular. 💙

Featured bird: Great Blue Heron
Location: Snake Creek, Meadowbrook Woods, Michigan

A couple of weeks ago, I spotted a great blue heron in a neighbor’s front yard, but it flew away before I could get my camera out. I was so stunned that it took me a minute to process what I was seeing. I’m the same way when I see people outside the context in which I normally see them. 😂

My street has a creek behind the homes on both sides, so it may have been moving from one creek side to the other. But I’m in the Great Lakes Bay Region and close to a river and nature center too.

Yesterday I looked down the creek at the street view access point while headed to the store and saw a great blue heron again. I can’t know whether it was the same one, but I’d like to think it was.

It started walking toward me, then stopped and stood almost perfectly still. I started to take the video which is shaky. Also a dreary day, so excuse the potato quality.

Great blue herons often hunt this way, patiently waiting for something to come within striking distance. There are fish such as small mouth bass, northern pike, and channel catfish in this creek, but there’s frogs, crayfish, salamanders, insects, and snakes that could be on the menu, too.

Maybe it was waiting for a frog to make one very unfortunate move. 😂

It was really a special moment to be so close to it.

#greatblueheron #creek #michiganbirds #waterbirds

Yellow for a rainy September day.

Late-season bloomers like dahlias, wax bells, cockscomb, marigolds, Japanese anemone, turtlehead and Helenium can help keep the garden colorful well into fall.

Featured blooms: Dahlias, Yellow wax bells, cockscomb, rose, yellow archangel, Jerusalem sage.
Featured bird: Northern Flicker
Featured foliage: Persian shield
Location: Community garden and backyard wildlife habitat, Meadowbrook Woods, Michigan (Zone 6a)

I chose yellow flowers that came together visually like a sunshine bouquet on a dreary day.

With this lineup, a goldfinch really would have rounded things out nicely.

Instead, I’m sharing a Northern Flicker because I was so happy to see it!

Northern Flickers are only casual visitors to my backyard, which makes seeing one feel special.

I never know when a flicker might turn up, and there can be quite a stretch between visits. The last visit was when the rain filled the Pyrex pie plate with rainwater for the first time. I was serving cherries before it rained, so it ended up a little fruit infused birdbath. Flickers were loving it. That was in early August.

They’re hard to miss when they do arrive. They’re larger than the other woodpeckers I usually see here, and their spots and markings are so beautiful. Even from a distance, they really stand out, and then there are those flashes of color when they take flight.

Leaves are scattered everywhere after the rain. I went and collected some acorns. 😊

Sometimes the backyard gardens feel like a magical little woodland world. 🍄‍🟫It’s my favorite place to be. I love the unexpected gifts from nature. 🍃🎀🌿

What late-blooming flowers do you love?

#northernflicker #yellowflowers #backyardbirds #michigangarden #yellow