Christmas for the Birds

Saturday, December 24th, 2011 by Jenny Watts
    • Living Christmas trees make a fine tradition. Slow-growing Colorado spruce trees can be used for 3 to 5 years before they need to be planted. Water them every other day while indoors.
    • Spray for peach leaf curl with copper sulfate. Peach and nectarine trees may suffer from this fungus disease without a protective spray.
    • Wind chimes make wonderful gifts that fill the air with music whenever the wind blows.
    • Water living Christmas trees frequently while they are indoors, and put them outside after a week or ten days.

Make this Christmas One for the Birds

Watching birds feeding, bathing and playing in your backyard is a joy for almost anyone. The birds are beautiful, of course, but their visits serve an important purpose, reducing plant damage from insect pests. Birds are a welcome addition to the garden.

You can attract birds to your yard with bird feeders, bird houses and bird baths.

There are different types of bird feeders. The best all-around type is the cylindrical plastic feeder. Fill them with a good birdseed mix and they will attract a wide variety of birds, including nuthatches, chickadees, juncos, rufous-sided towhees and sparrows.

Window feeders allow you to watch the birds close-up from inside the house. They stick to the window with suction cups. They are especially nice during bad weather so you can still enjoy the company of your feathered friends.

Niger seed feeders, or thistle feeders, are tubular plastic feeders with very small holes for thistle seed. They are especially popular with goldfinches who will entertain you all day long as they squabble over the perches.

The feeding table attracts larger birds that like to dine together. Robins, finches and evening grosbeaks will gather happily at backyard feeding tables.

Hummingbird feeders are filled with sugar solutions that supplement their diet of flower nectar. Anna’s Hummingbird winters in this area so will come to feeders year-round.

Oriole feeders are bright orange and attract brilliant orange-yellow orioles to the garden, where you can enjoy their distinctive whistle along with their colorful plumage.

Birdbaths will attract birds throughout they year, both to drink and to bathe. Watching the activity at the birdbath can be very entertaining, and there are styles of birdbaths to go with any garden decor.

Birdbaths made out of concrete are very stable and make an attractive addition to the garden as well as providing water for the birds. Hanging birdbaths may work best in some locations. Site your birdbath near trees or bushes where the birds can retreat to dry off and preen in safety.

In addition to food and water, birds need a safe place to raise their young. Nesting boxes, or “bird houses”, will encourage the birds that visit you in the winter to stay. The size and type of the nest box and its entrance will determine which birds use it, because different species are attracted to boxes of different dimensions. Specialty boxes are available at stores which handle bird supplies.

Make this Holiday one “for the birds.”

Bird Gardens

Friday, October 16th, 2009 by Jenny Watts
    • Garlic cloves can be planted now. Keep them watered and weeded through the winter and you will harvest healthy large bulbs next June.
    • Chrysanthemums are the brightest flowers for the fall garden. Plant some now.
    • Naked lady amaryllis have lovely, fragrant pink flowers that bloom in late summer with little or no care. Plant the bulbs, available at local nurseries, now.
    • Seed slopes with annual ryegrass to prevent erosion and improve the soil for later plantings.
    • Fragrant hyacinths make a colorful display in a garden bed, or can be grown in pots. They come in red, pink, blue and white and can be planted now.

Attract migrating birds to your garden

Many different birds pass through our area each year, sharing their colorful plumage and distinctive songs with bird watchers. Birds offer us our best chance to observe wild creatures close at hand. To attract birds to your garden, you need to create a habitat that contains the resources that they need: food, water and shelter.

The best way to attract birds is to offer them something that they have trouble finding in your neighborhood. If there is no water around, put out a birdbath or build a small pond. Birds are strongly attracted to the sound of running water. A small fountain or tinkling little waterfall is sure to bring them to your yard.

If there are no winter berries in your area, plant a pyracantha or holly bush and they will come. If you have an open yard, plant shrub borders along one side and trees beside the shrubs. Create an island of trees, shrubs, and flowers and add a birdbath and you will be providing birds with a wealth of food, water and cover.

Plants offer birds food, shelter and nesting sites. Birds favor areas where different kinds of vegetation come together. Trees, shrubs, flowers, grasses and vines offer a variety of advantages to birds.

Seeds come from annuals, perennials, grasses and evergreen trees. You will have to let your flowers dry and go to seed to make food for the birds. Gloriosa daisy, purple coneflower, asters, coreopsis, sunflowers and ornamental grasses are excellent seed sources. Cone-bearing evergreens attract finches and crossbills.

There are many shrubs that have winter berries. Nandina, holly, viburnums, pyracantha, Japanese barberry, privets, dogwood, hawthorn and crabapples, to name a few. A few vines make berries that are attractive to birds. These include English ivy and Virginia creeper. As vines get large and bushy they provide a pleasant place for birds to take cover as well.

Of course there are a wide variety of bird feeders to attract birds also. Nuthatches, titmice and chickadees visit seed feeders, suet and even seed tables and ground food. Sociable finches love niger thistle, which needs a special feeder. Robins and towhees will come to feeding tables and are attracted to peanuts and dried fruit.

Whether you are creating a new landscape or making changes in an old one, try to attract the birds to areas where they are visible from a window. Most birds prefer shaggy shrubbery, so let the plants grow naturally.

Few birds are comfortable feeding or drinking in the open for very long. Most birds prefer to have cover nearby to hide quickly from dangers. Place bird feeders and baths so the birds can reach shrubbery in a moment but not so close that a cat can pounce on them from a hiding place.

Fall is a good time to create a bird habitat, or to make plans for planting one next year.