At this time of year, your dog will be starting to shed its winter coat. Save all the 'fluff' and hair you remove and put it in hedges or wherever is handiest. The birds love it for lining their nests! Alternatively, if you have lots, stuff it into one of these fatty ball containers and hang by your bird table.
Photo added by editor.
Source: We've always done this, although the idea of using a container came from a bird seed catalog.
By marion davidson from Scotland
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Provide nesting material for songbirds - for free! Make a basket out of wire. I recommend a smaller mesh than chicken wire - half-inch "hardware cloth" works well. Include a mesh lid to keep the contents from blowing away. What are the contents?
We enjoy watching birds build their nests and raise their little ones in the nest boxes, trees, and shrubs in our yard. My fondness for growing plants and flowers has turned out to be quite beneficial to the birds searching for nesting material.
I have several wire feeders that I put suet cakes in during the Winter to feed the birds. Just as nesting season comes, I fill them with cut hair, colored pieces of string or yarn, dryer lint and shredded paper strips.
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Don't throw away all that hair that you brush off your dog. I place mine in the yard and the squirrels, chipmunks and birds go crazy using it for nesting materials.
