Archive for May 2008
May 24, 2008 | 
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I wrote an earlier post where I showed pictures of how I built my hummingbird garden. I started out with maybe half native plants, half non-native. I have since learned that native plants attract and support wildlife SO much better than non-natives that I have been changing out plants in my hummingbird garden over the last two seasons. Let’s look at some before and after photos… Read the rest of this entry »
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I’ve just finished reading an excellent book written by Douglas W. Tallamy, called Bringing Nature Home: How Native Plants Sustain Wildlife in Our Gardens(2007). Tallamy does an excellent job of explaining how each and every person can give back to nature what we have altered or taken away entirely. Tallamy’s main focus Read the rest of this entry »
What a handsome bird! The Red-bellied Woodpecker (Melanerpes carolinus) is a common visitor to my backyard. It is one of the larger birds that frequent my yard and has a call that, to me, sounds like a laugh. Here is an audio clip of Red-bellied Woodpecker calls from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology’s site, All About Birds. Neat, huh?
The female is easy to distinguish Read the rest of this entry »
I was watching television last night and saw a commercial for 3M post-it notes where squirrels are devising a number of plans to raid the bird-feeder. Hah! Of course, this way works too- Read the rest of this entry »
Believe it or not, my love of birds started with my desire to feed the squirrels. I know, sounds backwards. I love creatures of all kinds and like many people, enjoy the antics of the squirrels that play and forage in my backyard. One day the idea of putting some food out for the squirrels came to mind. I went to my local feed store and bought some corn-on-the-cob. It seemed like the logical choice and I had the perfect spot at a corner of my fence. I even had fun making my simple corn-on-the-cob feeder. It didn’t take long and I had many visitors, like this little guy:
After a short while, I started noticing that birds seemed to be interested in the corn as well. Read the rest of this entry »
