Archive for April, 2009
Have Fun and Be Functional Too
There are a lot of things about feeding the birds and providing them with housing options and a water source that are rewarding. I like having fun, being decorative and having functional bird houses in my backyard too. Gee, it even creates a conversation piece as well when you add a novelty birdhouse to your landscape’s decor. These houses are pretty simple and yet have a way of creating a natural pardise.
They add a whimsy bit of fun and functionality too. It’s never too late to add one either. There are so many species of our fine feathered friends who have at least two families a year - some even more. You can enjoy a decorative bird house all year long.
So often connecting with Mother Nature is not that easy to do. Start thinking of your backyard as an extension of your home, and you will start connecting more and more. One thing about our bird friends, is if you take the time to attract them, they will come. Magic will happen if you put a couple of bird feeders, a bird bath out there with your novelty bird house. It will open up a whole new world to you. Invite your feathered friends into your back yard, enjoy the natural beauty and delight that they will add to your life and your back yard. Sit back, relax and enjoy it all.
Back Home With The Birds
Life is too short to waste. Dreams are fulfilled only through action, not through endless planning to take action.” David J. Schwartz
And it is precisely for that reason that I have not posted for a couple of days. In order to take some the action, I had to be away from routine and my computer. And now, the catching up!! It is good to be back, and I discovered when I returned that the Purple Finches that are nesting on my front door are in the process of raising their young. It is amazing how quickly the process is completed.
We are having a heat wave here in Eastern Pennsylvania. And for April it is pretty unbearable with the temperatures in the 90’s. This is the third day in a row and I think we are in store for another couple of them before it breaks back to normalcy. And with the bad, comes the good. The hummingbirds have found their feeders and have been visiting regulary. It doesn’t matter how many years they come back, or how many there are. I am always like a little kid every year when I see them at the Hummingbird feeders.
Here are a couple of things I that I will pass on if you are trying to attract Hummingbirds to your backyard. They are more attracted to feeders in the shade than in full sun. It is best to change the nectar every 5 days when the weather gets warm, as the nectar has a tendancy to get rancid in the heat. If you are mixing your own nectar, you should boil 4 cups of water and add 1 cup of sugar. Let the sugar dissolve and the water cool completely before filling the Hummingbird Feeders with the nectar. Keep any unused portion of your nectar in the refirgerator. I make it up a gallon at a time, and just keep it in the refrigerator. You do not have to fill the feeders to the brim with nectar. The Hummingbirds can only drink so much of it and if you are following the 5 day rule for changing the nectar, you will be throwing a lot away if you have overfilled the Hummingbird feeders. The ports should be kept clean, so every time you change the nectar make sure you get a bring and clean out the feeding ports. One more little tid-bit I will pass along. If you are having trouble getting the Hummingbirds into your back yard and to your feeders, make sure you get the feeders out early and wrap the pole, or hand nearby some bright colored artificial plastic flowers. They will be attracted to the reds and yellows the best and once the color gets them there they will easily find the nectar and will keep coming back for it.
It only takes a few minutes every few days and you will be entertained and thrilled with the results.
A Walk After The Storm
I love great quotes, and the simpler the better. Rose Kennedy once said, “Birds sing after a storm; why shouldn’t people feel as free to delight in whatever remains to them? “ Well here in this area of the country, we have had lots of storms the last week or so, and I can testify that the birds do sing after each storm. One of our more windy and violent storms last week had me inside the house just a bit too long, and I started to think about the rest of what Rose Kennedy had said.
I grabbed my bird watching binoculars, and put on my sneakers and headed down the road toward the creek. The wind had died down some, and the sun was starting to peak through the remainder of the storm clouds, but before I even reached my destinataion the volume of the birds singing had increased ten fold over the sounds in my backyard.
As I stood quietly by the wooded creek under the trees, binoculars still in hand, I not only became entranced with the sounds, but with the sights. A hawk flew out of one the pine trees that was still dripping and towering high above and a male and female blue jay were dancing in and out of two of the white pines. The sound of the owl was so prevalent above the other chirps and peeps, though I couldn’t catch a sigting of him. Three bluebirds were perched on a bare branch of a dogwood tree.
It stormed today, and I will just bet you can guess what I did after the storm. The experience is amazing, peaceful and I am already looking forward to our next storm. I’m definitely not putting the binoculars away yet!
“Spring would not be spring without bird songs.” Francis M. Chapman
And For A Splash of Red - Cardinals
The Cardinal is really not a hard bird to please. Provide his favorite seeds - black-oiled sunflower seeds- and Cardinals will often be the first bird at your feeders in the morning and the last in the evening. In the spring, you’ll enjoy watching the male Cardinal offer the female a carefully selected seed as part of their “mate feeding ritual”.
Cardinals are ground feeders, however they will also feed on flat surfaces. Thus, a platform bird feeder placed five feet or so above ground level are ideal to attract them. If you want to use a tube feeder, the perches on them are not large enough for Northern Cardinals to comfortably feed, so you will need to attach a seed tray that will hang from the bottom of the tube.
The Cardinal will not use nest boxes. It’s best if you have some viney, fruit bearing shrubs. Cardinals are just about everywhere. they are found throughout most of the Eastern and Central states, the entire south, and much of the arid Southwest. They prefer a dense , shrubby habitat. They nest in the shrubs and viney tangles at least twice during the season. Cardinals are one ”red light” you want to attract. If the shrubs provide fruit - all the better! Try junipers, dogwoods, honeysuckle and viburums.
It’s Hummingbird Feeder Time!
It is an absolutley gorgeous day. The skies are blue, and the temperatures are headed for the upper 70’s. I am sitting here with my morning cup of coffee, and can almost watch the grass grow and threes sprout their leaves. Spring is such a wonderful time of year, when it is impossible not to see God’s miracles in something every single day.
Last Month I placed the hummingbird nesting material in one of our flowering pear trees. And, now, it is really important to get the hummingbird feeders out. I caught sight of my first hummingbird of the season about a week ago on a cool rainy day. So they are here and will be looking for great nesting places and sources of food to hold them throughout the summer. They will add so much enjoyment to your upcoming late spring and all summer long!
You will use 1 cup of sugar to 4 cups of water to make your own nectar. Just be certain that the sugar is completely dissolved.
How To Attract Finches To Your Yard
If you’ve put up birdfeeders in your backyard but have been disappointed with the results, consider adding a finch feeder to your yard. In general, finches are considered one of the more common types of birds, and they are very often drawn in multiple numbers to these feeders. To avoid any fighting over your food source, make sure there is more than enough seed available. Don’t let it get too low at any point, or you might have some angry finches on your hands.
If you’re unsure what to fill the feeder with, you can safely add many different kinds of food. For one, you can add the tried and true breadcrumbs, sunflower seeds, and fruit pieces. But you can also add some less known bird food such as crushed eggshells, thistle seed, and salt. Try these simple techniques with one or more backyard finch feeders, and you’re sure to be delighted by the results.
Protect Your Bird Feeders From Squirrels
Get any group of bird-feeding individuals together and squirrel stories will come up. If you want to keep the squirrels from your feeder, most will tell you “good luck” and God bless”. However, through a little attention to feeder placement and the proper use of baffles, you can minimize squirrel usage and enjoy the type of feeder you want. And, there are a lot of squirrel proof feeders to choose from to help the matter as well.
Check out the squirrel fact below and you will see wy protecting your feeder from raiding squirrels is such a challenging task. All feeders must be at least 8 feet from any horizontal jumping off stop. many squirrels can and will jump that far. The bottom of your feeder should be at least 4 - 1/2 ft. off the ground. If using a 4″ x 4″ post or iron hook, you should place a baffle immediately below the feeder.
Whatever tactics you employ, we are confident if you utilize the products and methods we described, you can protect your feeder from the squirrels and allow the birds you love to feed in your backyard.
SQUIRREL FACTS
- Squirrels have litters of 2 to 4
- Squirrels can eat their weight in seed in one week
- Squirrels front teeth grow 6 inches per year and wear down by eating & gnawing
- Squirrels can jump up to 6 ft. and straight across at least 8 ft.
- Squirrels can run as fast as 20 mph
- The peak activity time for squirrels during mild weather is the first 2 hours after sunrise, and in winter, around noon
Finches in the foyer AND…
We had dinner guests on Easter Sunday, and we opened the front door to let them out, Momma Purple Finch who is making her home in the planter on my front door decided to be scared and turned around and headed straight into the house.
At first I panicked, my heart was racing and I was afraid that she would abandon her eggs if something went wrong on getting her out of the house. What transpired was utter chaos! We were back and forth from the kitchen to the family room and back again for at least 15 minutes. About then, I realized that she was more afraid than I possibly could be. And, my little feathered friend was just plain tuckered out!
I retrieved a fly swatter from the pantry, and we chased our uninvited guest around for a few more minutes until she decided to just perch herself on the top rim of one of my window valances. In sheer desperation, I quietly moved toward her with my fly swatter and calmly placed it under her feet.
Momma finch just climbed right on board, and while 3 people kept saying “You’ll never make it to the front door”, and “She will be all over the living room and then upstairs next”, my little passenger just hung right on her floppsy little perch and enjoyed the ride. Slowly, slowly I moved across the family room and down the hall and finally arrived at the front door. I put her down and a couple of seconds later - off she flew into the dark of night.
I admit, I lost sleep wondering if she was OK. And lo and behold, the next morning she was proudly perching on her eggs in the nest, and later on Monday morning I saw both Mom and Dad at the thistle feeder in the yard.
Chickadees
Across the US, Chickadees are frequent backyard visitors. In fact, they are often the first visitors to a new feeder. The most common Chickadees include the Black-Capped and Carolina. TheChickadee is a delightful member of the “clinger” family we wrote about the other day.
Place a nest box near a wooded area and it may become a home to a brood of six chicks. The youngsters are perfect miniatures of Mom and Dad, complete with caps and bibs. Chickadee nests are easy to identify, since they always use a next box or natural cavity. The nest is a cup of woven grass lined with soft green moss. Chickadees are delightful and entertaining to watch and are well worth the effort to attract into you backyard.
AMAZINGLY the Chickadee
- Can remember where they found food eight months earlier
- Can enter a torpid condition on a cold night that drops its body temperature 20 degrees and slows its pulse and breathing 30%
- Can gain 7 to 11% of its body weight each day and lose that same weight during a long winter night
- Is likely to be the first to find and try a new birdfeeder
Entertain Yourself by Attracting Clinging Birds
The clinging birds include those with strong feet, making it easy for them to run up and down a tree trung or grasp onto a small surface to retrieve an insect or gnat. Woodpeckers, Titmouse, Chickadees and Nuthatches are part of this group. Many people refer to the last three families of Clingers as the polite birds, as they often take one seed, fly off and eat or store it, and then come back for another. For this and other reasons, clingers are often some of the most entertaining and desirable to attract to your yard, patio, deck and even window. As a group they are naturally curious and will often be the first visitors to your feeders.
These birds all use and will respond to the nest box placement in your yard - especially when dead standing timber is in short supply. By doing some of the things to attract them, Woodpeckers will soon be providing a rhythm section in your yard with their drumming, while the rest of the clingers will entertain you with their acrobatic antics.