WINTER FEEDING OF WILD LIFE ON NORTHERN FARMS 



9 



wheat will serve as green food if the snow is shoveled away. In 

 general, experience and local farming practices are the best guides 

 to what to plant, purchase, or leave. If there is doubt, using a 

 variety is better than depending on any one crop. 



PERMANENT SHELTERS 



Many types of permanent feeding stations requiring more or less 

 attention have been successfully used. These are effective over long 

 periods if properly handled. The basis of most of them is some form 

 of shelter into which loose grain is thrown, and this shelter may be as 

 simple or elaborate as desired. A lean-to against a tree ; cornstalks 

 thrown over a brush heap ; straw, stalks, or brush piled over an 

 ordinary A-type brood coop; tepees; tar-paper shacks; fishing 

 shanties hauled up on land; and many other shelters have been 



Figure 5. — Lean-to with food hopper, being used by prairie chickens and sharp-tailed 

 grouse. (Courtesy Wisconsin Conservation Department.) 



used. Large, roomy brush heaps with straw piled over them are 

 especially effective for quail, and probably for Hungarian par- 

 tridges ; 3-sided lean-tos are good for pheasants and have been used 

 successfully for sharp-tailed grouse. It is not so much the type of 

 shelter that counts as its location and the care with which food 

 is supplied. 



Three-sided lean-tos (fig. 5) sheltering automatic wooden hoppers 

 have proved effective in feeding prairie chickens and sharp-tailed 

 grouse in Wisconsin, and are suitable for almost any species. The 

 hopper can be of such size as to serve for short or long periods. 



Feeding shelters for small birds may constitute attractive features 

 of the lawn or orchard ; they may be elaborate or simple, as taste and 

 time dictate. A rough board shelter on a window sill or in some quiet 

 place protected by shrubbery and trees is effective in attracting 

 juncos, tree sparrows, crossbills, pine grosbeaks, cardinals, blue jays, 

 creepers, woodpeckers, redpolls, and other winter birds, depending 

 on the region and the location of the station. Shelters may be 

 provided with such foods as apples, grains, birdseed, suet, nuts, 

 raisins, and bread. Suet tacked or tied on posts or trees is attractive 

 to the tree birds and will keep fresh for weeks. 



