On Thursday 12 October we had fun at Loose Valley Care Home making cute hanging bird feeders from pretty china cups and saucers, in the hope of attracting small birds to our garden to stay a while outside our residents’ windows.
Doug, Irene, Ada, Maureen, Doreen, Barbara, Evelyn and Janet with her sister Rosemary put on some gloves to keep their hands clean while mixing up the sticky mixture of bird seed, nuts and cheese together in a small bowl. They then put the mixture inside the cup and packed it inside, spilling some around the saucer. Ribbons were finally attached so that we could hang them up once completed.
Ada said “They are so pretty!” and she really enjoyed making hers, whilst Doug commented that he would like his outside his window on the fence so he could see it.
Our residents chatted and said how beautiful the china cups were. Charlotte from our Recreation and Well-Being Team had been given a job lot of them; the remainder will be used for our Pink Tea Party this week.
The day after we had hung them in the garden, Doug informed us that a squirrel had been to the china cups and enjoyed eating the yummy seeds! He said “A jackdaw and a pigeon have all been chased away from the feeders so that the squirrel could get all the lovely feed!”
We managed to get some photos of the squirrel feeding – Doug named him ‘Sydney Squirrel’, but it wasn’t a ‘he’, it was a female! How could we tell it was a mumma squirrel? She had milk ducts and had either given birth recently or was still pregnant! (Doug said “Its name is now Gladys!”).
We are now keeping the cups filled up and have put a squirrel’s favourite food in them – peanuts!
