Posted on 08/02/2022 6:47:22 AM PDT by Oldeconomybuyer
As I write this, I can hear a cardinal trilling in the backyard. I don’t have to look out the open window to confirm the source of the sounds that come through it; I’ve come to recognize the songs and their singers. I know it’s the mourning dove whose cooing wakes me in the morning and the sparrow whose repetitive chirps complete the sunrise chorus.
Watching birds perched on a branch or visiting a feeder imparts a certain connection to nature that little else does, and, for me at least, listening to their melodies alleviates stress.
Birds are also the most cost-effective way of reducing the number of pests in your garden. Their young are ravenous consumers of insects, including aphids, whiteflies, cabbage worms, cucumber beetles, grubs, earwigs, stinkbugs and, especially, caterpillars.
According to Doug Tallamy, a University of Delaware professor of entomology, one clutch of chickadees, for instance, requires 6,000 to 9,000 caterpillars, delivered by their parents, to sustain them from birth through first flight, which is just over two weeks. That’ll clean up the garden, to say the least.
To attain these pest-control benefits, you don’t have to be an expert birder. All you need to do is create a bird-friendly habitat.
Using native plants in your garden will feed native insects, which, in turn, will attract hungry birds. Select a mix of plants to provide berries, nectar and/or seeds year-round. The Audubon Society’s Native Plants Database is an excellent source of bird-friendly plant suggestions for your region. Just plug in your zip code to get started. (https://www.audubon.org/native-plants)
Allow flowering perennials to stand over winter, when food is scarce; their seed heads will feed non-migratory birds. As a bonus, your garden will retain vertical interest through the winter.
(Excerpt) Read more at apnews.com ...
“What’s a garden without birds? Create habitat so they thrive”
...that’s nice AP. What’s a city without decent law abiding people? Create habitat so THEY thrive. I’ll worry about the f’n birds some other time.
+1
Birds bring me a lot of joy. I have hummingbirds and at least 10 other species in my small yard. Had an owl swoop over our patio the other night. We used to have Martins but the foliage encroachment drove them off.
Nice of AP to take a break from its usual belching out of political propaganda, brain washing and pedophilia for a minute! Tweet tweet.
What’s a garden without birds?
unblemished?
We have done this over many years. This year not a single pest in our veggies. Always have a clean birdbath and back off or quit feeding the seed eaters. The insect eaters sit on our garden stakes and patrol every day.
A garden without birds is a garden that doesn’t have its seeds eaten.
For one thing it's a garden where your tomatoes don't have holes pecked in them before they get a chance to ripen.
I have some birds who apparently think that my garden is their personal smorgasbord, which is fine by me. Seems to have really kept the bug population down.
A garden without birds is a garden I can grow tomatoes in
Also, what’s a garden without a cat or two. Oops!
We live rurally, on a wooded 2-acre lot, and for the past 35 years, I spent lots of time/energy battling the ants using all the commercially available products like Diazinon, with limited results. We have carpenter, red/black and red ants. Every year, they reappeared, in force.
Then I discovered something. Woodpeckers (Pileated, Downy, Hairy, Red-Headed, YB Sapsuckers, I have them all!), when they’re not wolfing down the suet at my feeders, are chowing down on ants. If you’ve never seen a woodpecker “anting”, it’s comical to watch. After they roll and loll in the ants (reason unknown), they set about to gorge on them. I’ve seen 4 birds attacking an ant nest at the same time. It’s a raucous fury! We make a point now of rolling over downed limbs to expose the colonies, and let Woody and his pals do the rest!
Combining that, and periodically sprinkling borax around the foundation, I haven’t seen hardly an ant all season!
Backyard + bird feeder = rats
My wife and I used to have a tree called a weeping mulberry in our backyard. We eventually had it cut down. The limbs grew in a strange way and were all gnarly and entangled and difficult to prune. Also, the birds would eat the mulberries and poop purple bird poop all over the deck. It was nice to get rid of the nuisance tree, but I did enjoy sitting on the deck during fall and winter (the only time it’s cool in Texas) and listen to them chirp and watch them cavort among the leaves.
Until a hawk swoops down and grabs a few. Gruesome— it cured me.
Must’ve been a sharp-shinned or Cooper’s hawk. Those are usually the ones that go after other birds.
We have at least a dozen species, too, not including the ones that migrate through. One year after we moved to this place, someone we know mentioned getting one’s yard certified as a wildlife habitat. Since we have a variety of animals that we’ve seen in our yard, we checked into doing that. Turns out we naturally have all the things needed, because our lot is wooded and there’s a creek out back. We added a birdbath, and provide multiple feeders for the different types of birds we have, too. So now this yard is certified.
Sometimes the critters bother me (chipmunks and moles wreck my lawn and garden), but most of the time I can deal with it. It took me a few years to woo the bluebirds into staying year round here, but they have, and now we’ve seen at least 8 successful broods of them fledge. I’m still hoping to capture the perfect shot of them doing that. They’re finished this year, so maybe next year I’ll get lucky.
Maybe the author needs to move out of the concrete jungle.
I love the hawks. They frequent our yard. One nabbed a cardinal once while we were eating supper. The owls are special as well.
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