Backyard Birding

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The fifth edition of Learning in the Great Outdoors is up. One entry that caught my attention was My Backyard Wildlife Habitat. Tiffany takes a look at getting her yard certified as a Wildlife Habitat from the National Wildlife Foundation. She even shares a slide show of her habitat. To be qualified you need several things in your yard. I’ll highlight what is in our habitat:

* Food Sources. For example: Native plants, seeds, fruits, nuts, berries, nectar
* Water Sources. For example: Birdbath, pond, water garden, stream
* Places for Cover. For example: Thicket, rockpile, birdhouse (shrubs, woodpile)
* Places to Raise Young. For example: Dense shrubs, vegetation, nesting box, pond
* Sustainable Gardening. For example: Mulch, compost, rain garden, chemical-free fertilizer

If you are interested, check out the National Wildlife Federation’s website and get started. There is a $15 registration fee, but there are other benefits besides the plaque to hang in your yard.

Do you provide more for your birds than food and water? Have you ever considered NWF certification for your yard? It seems like a wonderful way to introduce children to the concept of a habitat and develop a love and appreciation for wildlife.

Don’t forget the comment contest going on for the month of August here at 451 Press. Every comment counts!

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451 Press is having contest!

What would you buy with $300? Or even $200 or $100? Now is your chance to find out! Comment on any 451 Press site during the month of August and you could win! Three comments will be chosen at random to win a cash prize of $300, $200 or $100. The more you comment the more chances you have to win. So start reading and let those fingers fly.

You could visit some of the other blogs and talk about Lindsay Lohan, or politics or even parenting toddlers. But why would you do that when you can talk about goldfinches, bird seed and cleaning bird baths?

Here is a topic to get you started:

Would you ever consider aggressive measures to control house sparrows such as trapping?

We have had a bit of excitement at our feeders with the regular attendance of a family of blue jays. Their raucous youngster delights in its loud calls, and demands its parents continual attention. They dutifully bring their youngster seed after seed, despite the fact that it is sitting in the middle of the ground feeder, surrounded by seed!

A little catbird recently made an appearance. They are delightful birds. I spent some time playing with one in the woods when I was younger. I would call, and it would answer with its imitation. This one we merely watched from the picture window as it hopped about the base of the sunflowers.

A little house wren has also begun frequenting our little garden under the feeders. It is full of insects for it to hunt. It is quick, but not at all shy, making it a delight to watch. I have not been able to get a good picture through the window, yet.

The red-headed woodpecker and its fledgling have also made a few return visits. I am looking forward to watching the red feathers grow in on the youngster’s head!

We accidentally broke our finch feeder. The goldfinches will have to make due with sunflower seed for a few days until we get it replaced. We are contemplating a larger one, just because of the number of them which come in the winter. Last winter, we hosted a flock of over fifty individuals! It was quite a flurry of activity surrounding our little finch feeder which seats only eight.

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We had a new visitor to our feeders this week, and it has been coming regularly: a little house wren. These are not really feeder birds since they are insectivores, but they are quite a common site to backyards in North America. Our little house wren is looking through the forest of sunflowers for insects. Wrens are cavity nesters, and are very easy to attract to nest boxes. If you would like to set up a nest box for local birds, this is a good species to begin with. Your chances of success are great, and since the house wren is so small, a small hole is all that is needed to keep out sparrows and starlings.

House wrens will investigate several likely cavities before selecting the nesting site, and will defend them all. They often will pierce the eggs of other species in nest boxes and either take over the nest box, or nest nearby. The male adds sticks to the cavity for the nest and then attracts the female who makes the nest cup and lining. I found it interesting that young males nesting for the first time tend to nest close to more experienced males while older males tend to nest further away. Some think that the younger male is taking clues from the older and more experienced wrens to build his nest.

More information, including a recording of the song can be found at WhatBird.com, an online field guide.

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To appease our squirrels, we have a homemade squirrel feeder consisting of a board with two large screws in it. This is nailed to the tree where they nest. Ears of corn slide neatly onto the screw and it is fun to watch the squirrels hang out on the feeder, defend it from one another and occasionally take time to actually eat from it. The blue jays and red-bellied woodpeckers also love the corn.

To save a little on corn, we decided to try out a Squirrel Log, which promised to be the equivalent of 12-24 ears of corn. They slid onto the screws in the feeder nicely. It took a few days for the squirrels to sample it, but they seem to like it just as well as the regular corn cobs. The blue jays haven’t touched it, but the red-bellied woodpecker still frequents the squirrel feeder. And our white-breasted nuthatch has returned! I haven’t seen it since Spring began and now it visits the squirrel feeder daily.

The only difficulty we have had is that the squirrels tend to eat the center out of the log. The end then falls to the ground. We either need a different design for our feeder, or longer screws which go completely through the log. They definitely last a lot longer than the ears of corn, so I think it is worth looking for a solution. For the moment, we are just throwing the ends of the logs into the ground feeder for the squirrels to munch there. I may try putting them on the screw on the platform feeder as well.

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