Birds

[CathyA]

This has been a great birding spring here on our property.......which is really growing up. Tonight on our cart ride, I saw a kingbird, cedar waxwings, yellow-billed cuckoos, yellow breasted chat, and 2 pileated woodpeckers. It's great feeling like our property is making a good nesting site for all these birds. Oh, and I saw a deer too.
The mulberry trees are really doing great this year, and it attracts lots of birds. I'm having fun!

[Francie]

We have a lot of birds that come to our feeders -- love the red-winged blackbirds! -- and I do watch a lot of osprey nests online, plus red-tailed hawks, peregrine falcons, and kestrels. Lots of opportunities to watch online, and it's really cool! We have an osprey nest we keep track of locally, but no camera on it. Cool stuff.

[Tussiemussies]

That is so nice Cathy that you get to see all of these wonderful birds and know they can make a safe haven on your property!

I only have a small yard now which has woods on either side and I am afraid to put out bird food since we have had bear at our house four times in the last year, so you are lucky you don't have these types of obstacles!

[Tiam]

I do like watching the birds that come to the feeder. I live in in the middle of the lowest part of town. We don't seem to get as many birds as I see just a couple of miles away. That makes me sad.

[razz]

In my new home, there are neighbouring conifers of a about 40 feet and the variety of birds that live there and visit my feeders and birdbath is wonderful. I have planted a butterfly garden and the shrubs will have to grow for a few years before the birds will nest in them. Spring is a wonderful time for viewing nature and the lovely rain that we just had washed the world so beautifully clean.

[Float On]

I love all the varieties of finches (gold, purple, house) that visit the yard and feeders right now. On occasion a road runner visits and those are super fun to watch. They only moved into the area about 8 years ago. Woodpeckers (hairy, red bellied, downy, pileated) are a favorite. Once a female summer tanager visited...I've been waiting to see one of those again. And once I saw a quail which gave my heart a flutter. I grew up eating quail because they were so plentiful and common and now they've become the rare bird due to changes in farming and loss of habitat. When I'm kayaking there are lots of herons, green are my favorites, and kingfishers. And owls, another favorite. I guess I just like all birds more than I think I do. Guess we better not start on ducks...

My younger son almost applied to Cornell to do the ornithology dept. I'm amazed at his knowledge of birds. He decided it would make a better hobby than career.

[pinkytoe]

We only seem to have great variety during migration times unless we travel outside the city. Our standards are cardinals, western bluejays, screech owls, carolina chickadees and mockingbirds. The most recent invasive birds are the green monk parrots. Although pretty to look at, they appear to be very territorial and I fear they are keeping other birds out. And I don't like their parrot screech. I try to keep our yards as native as possible to encourage more variety.

[flowerseverywhere]

I have two teal winged duck,families on our pond. Also, there is a little blueand great blue heron, baby great horned owl and numerous red wing blackbirds, meadowlarks, bluebirds,anhingas, a Sandhill crane family and cormorants. We have mockingbirds which makes it hard to identify birds by their call as they mimic everything. I saw two whooping cranes earlier this year as I live not to far from their southern nesting grounds. In the winter, there are white Pelicans, hooded mergansers and crazy coots to amuse us. We never know what is going to fly in. I have had seven monarch butterflies hatch this season. I have planted quite a few different host and nectar plants for other species too.

I feel like it is my responsibility to plant as many native species for food and cover. We have to help our songbirds and butterflies.

I also,have alligators in the pond so it is survival of the fittest here

[CathyA]

Wow......sounds like it's a great birding spring for a lot of you! I would LOVE to have a pond. The "ponds" I have are teeny-weeny......just for a couple plants/frogs/snakes. A couple weeks ago, DH and I were riding the cart through a new trail that DH mowed in the field, and we accidentally scared up about 7 woodcocks. Tonight, in another area, 1 woodcock flew out of the grasses. They are such interesting looking birds!
I'm hoping for a better butterfly year this year. Last year was sort of a bust. I'm not sure what happened, but we hardly had any butterflies. I let some volunteer milkweeds grow up in my garden, and they got to be about 9' tall! ........but hardly any butterflies. If you want to plant a plant in your yard for butterflies, plant Joe Pye Weed. It's great!