Backyard Birding

Finally!!  Two straight days of sunshine!!  Not terribly hot, but I'll take the sunshine over all the rain we've had lately.  This is the view out my back door yesterday morning (after a wicked thunderstorm the night before ... complete with murderous lightening and pounding hail!).  I love sitting out in the backyard early in the morning in the summer.  If it's a little chilly, I take a small quilt with me to wrap around my legs, and I sip hot tea on the patio ... so relaxing.

 

For the last couple of weeks, the backyard has smelled heavenly from the mock orange bush (left side of photo).  Unfortunately, I battle with aphids on this bush every year.  I checked our local nursery for ladybugs to release into the bush, but they were right out.  I cut off the branches that were the worst and I may have to go and buy some sort of powder to dust over the poor bush.  I'd hate to lose it.  Does anyone have any known remedies for this?

 

One thing I really like to encourage in my backyard are the birds.  I grew up in a virtual bird paradise at my childhood home.  We lived beside some overgrown woods that hadn't been disturbed for ages.  Vines grew over lots of the trees, and there were huge mature maples dominating the forest.  A large creek ran through the woods as well.  There were great blue herons,  green herons, kingfishers, great horned owls, several varieties of woodpeckers, warblers, grosbeaks, grouse, hawks, turkeys and turkey vultures ... just to name a few!  I learned a lot about birds living there, and I learned to recognize them by the way the flew and their songs.  I started a bird watching list when I was young, and my mother and I would love to add a new bird to the list as the years went by.

 

Then I moved into town when I got married.  I always thought I would get back to the country eventually, but it's been 25 years now, and I'm starting to lose hope.  If I can encourage the birds into my  yard, though, it does make me a little bit happier to see them.

 

I put seeds out for the birds in winter time, and they really appreciate it.  Especially the smaller birds like chickadees and juncos.  Once the bugs start to appear and the birds can fend for themselves, I stop putting the seeds out and let the birds feed off the bugs on my lawn.  Some summers I put out the niger seeds for the goldfinches and other small seed eating birds, but the squirrels usually tear those feeders to pieces when they can't get the seeds from the tiny holes.  Did you know that if you put out a bright yellow feeder, it will attract the goldfinches?  I found this out when I bought my first yellow feeder when I moved to town.  The packaging claimed that the goldfinches would appear within hours of putting the feeder out, but I was skeptical.  I hadn't even seen goldfinches in the area, but within an hour or so there were about six on the feeder.  I was so surprised!

 

This pretty little mourning dove can't decide whether or not to make a nest in this weeping pea tree beside my patio.  I believe there is exactly one twig underneath the dove as it's sad attempt at nest building.  Dove's are pathetic nest builders and this one really lacked motivation.  The nasty storm hit us the night after I took this photo, and the few sticks this bird and her mate had spent all day collecting were swept out of the crook of the tree.  I put them all back into the tree the next morning, and the dove tried to re-arrange them, but it seemed like too much work for her and the "nest" has now been abandoned. 

 

 

 

Another thing the birds like is water.  I've always had a bird bath for the birds, and they come and bathe in it and drink from it every day in the summer.  The key to the bird bath is to put it in a place where the birds are going to feel safe.  I have mine beneath my lilac bush, so if there's any danger of hawks or cats, the birds can fly right up into the branches quickly.  

 

 

We have lots of mosquitoes here in Ontario (and more than usual this year with the wet weather).  I make sure I empty the water from the bird bath every day, scrub the basin with a small brush and fill it with clean water again.  This keeps mosquitoes from breeding in the water, and the birds seem to like having clean water (if the water is murky, the birds don't stop in).  The base of my birdbath broke a few years ago, so now I just stacked up some bricks and set the basin on top of that.

 

 

It's good to have a birdbath deep enough for the larger birds (robins, grackles) to really get in there and get a good soaking.  Mine is about one and a half inches deep in water, and the little birds will get in there too.  The birds don't seem to like basins with a smooth finish like glazed ceramics.  My basin is concrete that came with a white finish (which has now worn off on the inside).  It's rather rough, and flat on the bottom so the birds don't slip when they step in for a dip.

 

Maybe you would consider adding a birdbath to your yard if you haven't already.  The birds will love you for it!

 

Thanks for stopping by!

 

Wendy