Backyard Birding

If you feed birds, you will have dropped seed decorating your lawn. This may even account for some stray, unplanned plantings throughout your yard. While some spillage is inevitable, there are steps you can take to minimize the mess.

Feed your birds the seeds they want.

Many of the cheaper commercial mixes are full of filler seeds such as wheat and red millet which song birds do not eat. Instead, they sweep the undesirable seed out of the way to get to their favorites. We have found that even offering mixes of seeds they do eat such as corn, millet and sunflower seeds causes this sweeping behavior as they select their preferred foods.

Use a dark ground cover.

The ground under our feeders is black from all the sunflower seed hulls and Nyjer seed. If our garden were covered with white gravel, this would be much more noticeable.

Select low growing ground cover near feeders and small bushes.

These plants will hide the spent seed, but not provide a hiding place for cats. Plants also make the area more attractive, and if you choose them with wild birds in mind may also serve as an additional attraction. Birds like flowers, shrubs and even weeds near their feeding sites. But make sure that they have a clear view of any potential predators that may try to use these plantings to aid in stalking.

Buy hulled bird seeds.

These cost a little more, but it is an option if the quantity of hulls is creating an eyesore in your garden. Machines do the work of cracking out the heart of the seed and the waste is deposited elsewhere before you even purchase it. This has the added advantage of attracting birds that are not able to crack open the sunflower or safflower seeds.

Feed less.

Once birds have added you to their dining route, they will continue to come expecting food. If the feeders are empty, they will forage on the ground and pick up some of the mess they left behind. You can let your feeders go empty for a day once in awhile without fear of losing your regular visitors. If you only do this when the weather is fair, you do not need to worry about causing hardship in your birds due to the missing resource.

Or, you could choose not to worry about it.

We really enjoyed our surprise sunflower garden this year. So did the goldfinches when the sunflowers began to produce seeds. Birds at the feeder are interesting to watch, but goldfinches maneuvering on the ends of sunflower heads? They had an intensity I had never seen in them as they perched sedately on the tube feeder. As the flowers moved in the wind and under their weight, they also showed off their amazing agility, sometimes even taking seeds in flight. And all of that waste is biodegradable and provides wonderful fertilizer.

[birdwatching, birding, backyard birding, gardening[/tags]

I found some unlikely encouragement for my general lack of a green thumb in the book I am reading, “The Backyard Bird Lover’s Guide” by Jan Mahnken and Jeffrey C. Domm.

Cover is an important aspect of attracting birds to your premises. Indeed, I find one of the more engaging characteristics of birds is their scorn for absolutely immaculate yards. They consider your brush pile, the briar patch, and the tangle of weeds behind the garage totally irresistible. If you can provide some trees and shrubbery, so much the better. Birds are an ornament more common to a yard that is less than spic and span.

Ahem. So that mess in my yard is not a mess at all. It is wildlife habitat. Crabgrass, dandelion, thistle, milkweed and whatever that is that took over last year’s tomato garden…it is all part of a carefully planned bird landscape. I have it here in print. On page 8.

[tags]birding, birdwatching, backyard birding, gardening[/tags[

This is what three weeks of travel can do to your feeding station:

And this is what a lawn mower can do:

Initially, I wanted to weed the garden and preserve as much of what is supposed to be there as possible. As we got started, though, we noticed that there really was not much to salvage. The sunflowers had been picked pretty clean and everything else was weeds. There were some black-eyed Susans against the house, but it was too much easier to mow over everything than try to spare only a few plants.

So now my feeders are once again visible from the window of our sun room and are no longer a risk to the birds. Since it has been about three weeks since our feeders have been filled, I took my own advice about setting up. All except the part about being patient. I must have checked the feeders a dozen times, hoping one of the neighbor’s birds would notice that the cafeteria is open again.

The garden is a little bare. But I recently read that now is actually a good time to plant many types of flowers which bloom in the fall, so we may end up with some color, yet.

backyard birding, birding, birdwatching, gardening

After two weeks of traveling, we came back to a bird feeding station that is completely overgrown with weeds. This is how your bird feeding station should NOT look:

Not only is this garden unsightly, it poses a potential hazard to birds. I am glad that we chose to let our feeders run out of seed before we left. We were no longer attracting any birds to our feeders before we even left. It is a perfect hiding place for the neighborhood cats to stalk up on my birds. Last year, we had a cat which laid in a small patch of flowers and kept an eye on the birdbath. Early this year, I chased off another cat with a cowbird she had caught in a similar manner.

Birds appreciate nearby brush where they can find shelter when spooked. It is important, however, to provide a feeding area clear of undergrowth so that birds have a clear view of approaching predators so that they have a better chance at escape.

Needless to say, it will be another day or two before we set up our feeders. We have some serious weeding to do!

birding, backyard birding, birdwatching, bird feeding, cats

Whether pro or con is a matter of personal preference, but one side effect of putting out so much seed for birds is the inevitability of some of it germinating in your garden. This spring, our little feeding station was completely overtaken by sunflowers…and two corn stalks. I happen to love sunflowers, so I was quite happy. Our attempt at planting a “wildflower in a box” did not work out very well, and most of the area had been overtaken by dandelions and thistle anyway.

Last week, my children dissected a sunflower which was very interesting. We discovered an entire microcosm on the head of the plant. Numerous tiny insects were crawling over it, and one had burrowed into the stem. We saw the developing seeds and wondered how long it would be until they matured.

That question seems to have been answered. Our garden was full of American goldfinches today, busily combing over the sunflowers, looking for seeds. I wasn’t able to get a good picture because the sunflowers are growing up against the house so the birds fly off every time I try to get a picture. We’ll see if I have more luck tomorrow! More flowers which provide food for native birds:

thistle (goldfinches eat the seed and use the down in their nests…but your neighbors may not appreciate you much!)
dandelion (similar to thistle!)
a variety of berries (if you don’t mind sharing)
crab apples
honeysuckle
cone flowers
black-eyed susans

The other benefit of gardening with native birds in mind is that many of these plants are much hardier than ornamental plants. They do not require as much watering, are more resistant to disease and are less likely to be driven out by weeds.

gardening, sunflower, birding, backyard birding, birdwatching, goldfinch