we've a kindred spirit
snapped thru my window ~ one of my neighbors dining upon another neighbor
;^)
Posted on 02/12/2005 9:27:14 AM PST by sweetliberty
With Spring just around the corner, at least here in the southeast, it's time to think about spending more time outdoors and making our yards and porches more pleasant places to be. FReepers have such a wide variety of interests and talents, I thought it might be fun and educational to do a thread for bird and garden enthusiasts. I see a fair amount of discussion on some of the threads about gardening and landscaping, but not too much that is specific to gardening for the birds.
I've pretty much always had a bird feeder or two around, and that number has grown since I moved into a place last summer that has a big yard. I have a fair variety of birds and I have begun to think about developing it specifically to attract more species, not only for the enjoyment of watching the birds, but also to control natural pests that are prevalent in this part of the country, without resorting to pesticides. I know that the right combination of flora can discourage certain pests and also attract birds that will help keep the pest population down. I would love to hear from FReepers who are experienced at creating such a balance. I think it would also be fun to have a place to share our experiences as we develop them. I know there's lots of links out there with useful information and I make use of them from time to time, but it's just not the same as having discussions on a forum where we have experts on everything. And I don't know of any place else on the web so animated by wit, along with wisdom, on just about any topic.
Oh, I feed the little critters, too. I keep a pan of corn, sunflower seeds and peanuts out on the back porch, and I have a couple of squirrel feeders as well. Sometimes they will go for awhile without bothering the feeders. I have a squirrel guard on one of them. I'll probably end up investing in a couple of the more costly feeder set ups for the sake of keeping at least one good-sized open platform feeder that the squirrels can't get at, and I may add one of those roller gizmo feeders just for pure entertainment watching the little buggers gets tossed on the ground. I've also taken to dumping the excess from one of the feeders on the ground when I fill the feeder. That way, the squirrels and some of the ground feeders get more. I used to try and avoid it because I didn't want a bunch of weeds sprouting up all over the place, but I've pretty much given up on that.
Nice. I would love to be able to get good detail photos with a zoom. I will make darn sure with the next camera I get that it has a great deal more capability than the current one. It's not at the top of the list though. I have several other higher priorities right now.
Read later.
We have a lot of Coopers and Sharpies visiting fall/winter. They are beautiful birds. I just hate that they are stalking my regular feeding birds! They go north in the spring. I'm rather relieved. They leave just in time for the birds nesting and bringing their juveniles to the feeders.
Those shrubs I listed will do many things for you and the birds: privacy, beauty, flowers, fragrance, color in the fall, berries for the birds. Who could ask for any more?
"They are edible, just don't get an old one. You can boil them all day and they're still something akin to eating a pot of rubber bands."
I grew up in Oklahoma eating squirrel and dumplings (like chicken and dumplings). I married a Louisiana man so now I prefer squirrel gumbo. We've got a lot of them here in Southwestern Missouri, but my husband never seems to have time to knock a couple down for me to cook.
It's rainy and cool here today. A big pot of gumbo would really hit the spot!
Ping the moguls
We live in Iowa and last year on Feb. 15, hundreds of robins came to our house. They stayed a few weeks. They would leave our area sometime in the am but always return around 6:10 pm each evening. I had never seen that before. We always see a few in the yards each spring but not flocks of them.
Me too! For some reason I've been really cold today, although it's 49 degrees right now, and I'm inside with the heat on. Must be psychological.
Sounds great. I will definitely check it out. I have a couple of nurseries close by.
I saw a flock of robins like that once in Colorado. It was the strangest thing. The ground of our local park was literally covered with them. There probably wasn't a square foot of the grass without a robin on it. Haven't seen anything like it since. I did have quite a few in the yard at once a couple of weeks back, but nothing like that.
I love birds..I've been out watching a flock of goldfinches feed today.
The goldfinches are funny. They are so territorial for being so tiny. I have 2 finch feeders outside my kitchen window, and despite the combined 12 perches, they will often run one another off and try to have a whole feeder to themselves. They weren't quite so bad in the summer and all the perches stayed full much of the time, although there was still a lot of jockeying for position. Tiny? Did I say tiny? Well, they started out that way. Now there are a couple of them that seem like they could roll right off their little perches.
Yep, sounds like a lazy freeloadin DemocRobin.......
LOL!
Hummingbirds are very territorial..I have seen 10 birds trying to get at one feeder..when there are other feeders just alike nearby. Others(male) stake out one feeder as "theirs" and attack any hummingbird that attempts to feed from it.
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