Bird Watching Raffle Basket

So as you know I am the leader of the Team Clover 4-H Club.  Each year so far we have had a Local Basket Part  to help cover the cost of our community service project.  We raffle off baskets that are not just you typical raffle baskets but rather large overflowing baskets and some things are not even baskets at all.  For example we have a chainsaw carving of a bear,  A Bluestone garden bench and more.  Each basket has a theme and each basket has to be "big" by my standards to make it into our basket party.  Why?  Well if you are looking to have a big return give away big, so we do.

One of those "Big" baskets that has been part of the last few years is the Bird Watching Basket.  Why bird watching?  Simple our first 4-H year was themed around birds so we chose that as a basket the first year and it did wonderfully for us and again last year.  So yes we will do it again this year.  Guess we are going with the if something isn't broke don't fix it motto.

Being in the country we have lots of access to bird watching by simply looking out our windows.  And although most of the time you do not need fancy feeders to see birds here, myself and I'm sure like most bird watchers we still have them.  So the basket party gives them a chance to get some of those nice supplies for almost no cost and helps out their community as well. 
What would you put in a bird watching basket?  There really are lots of choices from seed to binoculars.   Our bird basket has lots of donated items and each year the Hubby and I put our brains together to design and make a large feeder to host as the "basket" to store all those wonderful items.  Last year it was a log pedestal feeder, the year before that was the large hanging feeder and this year we have the Metal Framed Garden Shelf Feeder. 
Each year we also like to add some one of a kind items to our basket like our DIY Hummingbird Feeders.  These are feeders that we made in the club the first year but had such an amazing response to them we make one to add to the "basket" each year.  This year we went with the "beach" theme in our design.  We also add lots of bird feed from suet cakes to seeds and even supply some smaller feeders too.  We also have some pretty amazing houses for the birdies too.  The gourd house is my favorite of all the types of houses we have done for the baskets by far.   We were donated gourds last year to the club that we made into bird houses.  This was an extra gourd and since we all liked them so much I decided to make one up for this basket.  Just another one of a kind touch that gives our baskets such a great response.
Are you planning a Basket Party (raffle)?  Then the Bird Watching Basket might be a basket to consider.  You don't have to be handy and make your items as we did but if you are in an area where bird watching is available this basket could turn out to be one of your best ticket sellers.