A Backyard Mystery from the Good Old Days
September 14, 2025
Source: Reddit
When we first moved into our new home in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, I anticipated a few surprises – loose floorboards or atypical light switches. I didn’t think I would find a few metal suet bird feeders at the bottom of the fire pit’s ash remnants.
I noticed the fire pit probably hadn’t been used in years. The ash was nearly a foot thick. As I cleared away the years of ash, I came across metal. At first I thought it was scrap metal laying in the ash. But, every time I tossed a handful of ash away, I would uncover the same item – 3 small, rusted wire cages. These old suet feeders were the kind used to hold the fat-based bird cakes.
Someone had cared enough here to put out food for the birds. And judging by how many were buried in the ash, I guessed it wasn’t just a one-off thing. This was an ongoing thing- more like a habit – quietly apart of the every-day.
Feeding the Birds Through Harsh Winters
Those old wire suet bird cages were the standard in older, colder climates. People put them onto trees or fence posts, where they held suet—a high-fat mix of seeds—to feed birds and help them survive the harsh winter weather.
People didn’t require instruction. They kept bacon fat, packed it into the seed cake, and put it outside. The birds came. Chickadees, woodpeckers, nuthatches. Easy, it worked.
In the Upper Peninsula and rural areas, people fed the birds not as a hobby but as a habit—something passed down and woven into the seasonal rhythm of life.
Why Were the Feeders Found in the Firepit
They may have rotted or rusted enough to become damaged or unusable. It’s also possible that someone burned off the suet to clean them and reset them. Or more trivial, were discarded from some yard clean-up. When I found them buried beside the ash, I surmised that a long time had passed.
Presumably someone stood by the window every morning and saw the birds eat. A few times like I did, maybe the person tapped the window to break up squirrels eating the suet, or tapped on glass and pointed out a downy woodpecker to their children. The suet feeders were not just scrap – they also suggest that piece of life – just buried and barely visible.
Rusted Remains Relating to the Everyday
You don’t have to find every piece of the past in an attic. Sometimes, they are at the bottom of a fire pit.
Finding old suet bird feeders at the bottom of the fire pit was a discovery of much more than forgotten metal. It concerned with a way of life – quiet, seasonal, and slow – or thoughtful – when the person feed the birds. Everyday. In winter. In the snow. Because they cared.
I’ve cleaned out the fire pit now. But, I kept one of those bird feeders. And in winter, I’ll hang a new one.
Someone will take take their its pictures years from now.