Creating A Bird Sanctuary In Your Yard

March 5, 2005 | sweetliberty

[sweetliberty]

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As it turned out, the previous thread on this topic generated a lot of interest and several people recommended doing it as a regular thread, so here is the second installment.

How you go about creating a bird sanctuary in your yard, or outdoor space, will depend on a number of givens, some which can modified, and others over which you have no control. One of these is geographical location or climate zone. If you live in the Colorado Rockies, you are not going to attract Cardinals, no matter how many black oil sunflower seeds you put out, and if you're on a beach in Florida, it's a pretty safe bet that there will be no snow buntings visiting your yard, the cornucopia of insects notwithstanding. Of course, if global warming keeps encroaching on us, we may soon find Alaska overrun with Parrots and Flamingos, but, I digress.

Within any given area, there are a variety of habitats, so no matter what your specific location, it is possible to vastly increase the types and numbers of birds in your immediate environment by modifying your habitat to make it more bird friendly to a wider array of birds native to your region.

Another "given" is your available space. If you live in a cottage in the woods by a stream, you will obviously have a lot more options available to you than if you live in an urban apartment with nothing more than a small porch or balcony. Of course, I think the majority of us live somewhere between those extremes. The point is, even if you have nothing more than a porch, you can still make it bird friendly, thereby increasing your enjoyment of these highly entertaining creatures. If you don't even have so much as a porch, I would suggest moving!

The purpose of this thread is to share ideas for maximizing our outdoor spaces to make them appealing to birds and butterflies, to share our experiences and knowledge or expertise, photos and resources. The discussion is pretty free-flowing and may expand to include gardening, landscaping and related topics. The direction the thread takes will really be up to the FReepers who post on it. We can focus on a different topic every week or two, or just keep it open and casual, updating the thread periodically. The main thing is that we learn and have fun.

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Link to previous thread: Attention Bird Gardening Enthusiasts

[GodBlessUSA]

Hi Sweetliberty,
That sounds fun! I hope you bring your camera! I hope the liberals don't tax seeing the Ivory Billed. LOL!

[sweetliberty]

"I hope you bring your camera!"

Absolutely! ...such as it is. I never go anywhere without it.

[Ditter]

I have an interesting thing to discuss with my bird watching freeper friends. I still have a Robin in my yard on almost May 1. I have been watching him for a week and today I was with 4 feet of him while he ate an earthworm. He is definitely a Robin and the Robins usually come thru Houston on their way back north in about Feb or March. Why is this bird still here when his friends have been gone a long time. Is he lost, will he stay all summer?

[sweetliberty]

I'm not sure on your robin. There are quite a few here. One article I read said that where a robin stays is dependent on an abundant supply of their favorite foods more than on any other factor.

[MamaTexan]

92 I read you had. Wow, Hot days already?

Yep, and last night a norther came through and dropped the temp 20 degrees.

It was flat cold this morning, but the rain cleared up to be a rather beautiful day.

Keeping my fingers crossed. I know you'll get hummers, but it does sometimes seem to take forever for the little guys to show up. :)

[Ditter]

Robins are transients on the Gulf Coast. They pass thru in groups on their way south and then again on the trip north. I never remember seeing one on May 1. He is lost.

[MamaTexan]

Just a fly-by post of some of this morning's visitors!

Peek-R-Boo!......I see you!

Can't tell by the pic, but this is the biggest Cardinal I've ever seen (equal in size to a Mocker)

It's funny that even though woodpeckers are one of the bigger birds, they're also the shyest!

Well, that's all for now. The weather is cooperative today, so gotta go get busy with yard-work!

I'll check back later. :)

[sweetliberty]

Nice pictures of the squirrel and the Cardinal. Nice here today; still cool, but that's a good thing for yard work. I am so completely intimidated by my yard it's unreal. So much potential; so little time and resources. It just isn't in my budget to invest a lot in the yard, and it does take a lot. I have other priorities which take precedence right now. Grrr....and even if I could make the investment, I have so little time of my own, I'd have to pay someone else to do the work. That has it's own problems. No one else ever does it the way you would yourself.

[Dysart]

Good point about Red Bellied WP; they are larger, more powerful than most backyard birds but they will shy away from any conflicts at the feeders. They enjoy the walnuts I put out for the Blue Jays but pick their spots carefully to grab one.

[MamaTexan]

Boy, can I sympathize about the yard-work!

I can do a good part of the grunt-work like rock hauling but I have to wait for hubby to get any major construction things done. (and 'spare' time is something he just doesn't have a lot of)

Love to have lots more bushes, trees, ornamental pots and such, but DANG!

Last time I was shopping for that type of stuff, I was so shocked by the prices I actually asked one of the staff if somebody was smokin' somethin'.

LOL!

[Dysart]

just looked up on Google images. That didn't help. Other bird eggs come up. LOL. Have you seen the parents? I know the Robins, here last year, took the babies elsewhere. A predator came in the night. One baby didn't make it. They moved them since the predator knew their location. Possibility? Isn't it neat how all their eggs are decorated differently. I love it! Nature is so beautiful. Hey, I thought you were going to post 100's of pictures. LOL! Come on Dysart, Post some more pics. :)

I think the eggs are the Brown Thrashers'. They seemingly built the nest and quickly and mysteriously abandoned it a couple weeks ago. I shall renew posting 100,000s of pictures when I get some worth posting. My sanctuary is still overrun with Grackles and Starlings. I'm trying to get a closeup of one of my Mockers chowing down on the peanut butter. Patience...

[sweetliberty]

Oh, the prices are awful, and I pretty much outdid my limits on birdfeeders, etc. already, not to mention the sheer volume of food I go through feeding them. I think their grocery bill exceeds mine.I really DO have a lot of other things I need to do, but it would be really nice to do more with the yard. I need a part-time husband. LOL!

[Dysart]

Here's a Blue Jay wondering where the peanuts are. She is currently caring for a pair of fledglings. I'm glad to see them with some success because West Nile really wiped out much of the population a couple of summers ago. I picked up a dozen dead ones just on my property.

[sweetliberty]

Really nice picture. I am loving all the Bluejays. And they DO love their peanuts. I go through a lot!

MamaTexan, I laugh whenever I think about your comment about the "hummer wars." That is just what my yard is like now. Their numbers are increasing and when several of them get going at once they remind of a battle scene out of Star Wars. LOL! And they "chatter" now, and bait each other. The two feeders in the front yard which are quite far apart each has its own sentinel. One sits on the wire above where the feeder hangs, dodging Goldfinches, and the other perches on a tree branch near the feeder that hangs on the tree. Every so often, one of them will make a pass at the other's feeder. It is hysterical. I have this action going on in the front yard AND back at the same time sometimes.

One of my Mockers has finally starting eating the cranberries. And today I put a little wedge of watermelon on the feeder. One of the Mockers discovered it this afternoon and was having a feast for hisself.

[Dysart]

Here's the bane of my sanctuary. You wanted pics, right? This is just a common Grackle but I've got a huge colony of Great Tailed Grackles too. I figure I'm spending $20 weekly to feed them. I really look forward to their exodus to Mexico after the breeding season.

[GodBlessUSA]

Hi Dysart
Lovely shot! The Blue Jays are one of my favorites. They are such characters.

I had found a few, different times, who came here to die here a few years ago. Seemed one right after the other. I suspected West Nile. It was very upsetting.

[GodBlessUSA]

I love your pictures! That Cardinal has such brilliant plumage! I love having the Woodpeckers around too. It's great sitting outside and listening to their calls. They are such different sounds from the others. Their calls make me feel like a part of me is in the wild. LOL! :)

Did you get a lot of Yard work done? :)

[GodBlessUSA]

LOL! Great picture! Grackles do make some nice pictures though. I have a few shots where they look so mysterious. :)

Well your not alone. I'm feeding a lot of the pest birds lately too. The Starlings are out in full force making me crazy. I have a critter attacking and pulling my suet down at night. LOL. They are hanging up and I'm amazed at the talent of this critter getting it down with the way I have it tied up. I was amazed that after putting out apple pieces they were gone. Mocker didn't get to enjoy.

When my son is with me and I see food gone in short time, I say Starlings. Like Jerry Seinfeld says, Newman. :)

[MamaTexan]

ROFL! Hummers DO kind of look like little X-wing fighters, don't they? It amazes me they only collide with other hummers on purpose, but never on accident. How in the world do they do that? LOL!

Guess I need to stop forcing all the big birds to do contortions on the regular feeders and just set them up a platform. The problem will be placing it so the birds use it, but the squirrels don't.

Maybe a free standing platform that I can grease the pole on.....hmmmm.

[MamaTexan]

Nice pictures!

(Even if one was of a not-so-nice bird :)

Yep, it's funny about the shyness of some birds, even the ones like the woodpecker who looks more than able to defend themselves!