Those photos are amazing. I've never seen so many birds in a yard like that! You have truly created a habitat for them. I got excited over all of the hummingbirds that have been visiting the feeder in my front yard. I would really flip if I had a scene like those in your pics. Thank you so much for sharing!
Thanks everyone for all your wonderful comments! Sorry for the long delay in responding, but I've been very busy lately. Petunia, As I mentioned in the initial post, we don't have nearly the #'s of birds during the summer. We have several that pass through in the Spring and Fall during the migration times though. I still have yet to post a thread for visitors during the migration and another thread for our summer residents...3 mated pairs of Goldfinches, 2 families of House Finches, a mated pair of Mourning Doves, a family of House Sparrows, a few Robins and our 25+ butterfly varieties too. Whew! Hopefully tonight I'll start working on the thread of summertime residents... Daisybeans, Hmmmmm, I don't know if most would deal with the ferel cats like my husband and I did, but it was becoming out of control here. I love all animals, and especially love cats. We don't have any yet because we just bought this house last year after renting it for 7 years. We couldn't afford to buy it til the house value wend down because of the economy going down...Blah, Blah, Blah... I mention that for a reason. We couldn't have pets while we rented...it was a part of the contract for renting...no pets allowed. Anyway, we have a neighbor that loves cats too...to the extreme. I'm a pro life advocate...even for animals, however, there are some that don't take into consideration the effects of their actions. You see, our neighbor has 3 indoor cats. They also started feeding a few strays/ferel cats. they started to live across the street in a huge evergreen bush along side another house. The problem was, the cats weren't "fixed" and not only were they multiplying fast...but they were all using our backyard/gardens as a litterbox! Of coarse the neighbor across the street isn't going to mind the cute cats with their adorable fluffy kittens resting and sleeping in his evergreen bush. There was no cost to him. He wasn't buying the cat food and there was no cat poo in his yard. The neighbors feeding the cats didn't see anything other than...what a lovely bunch of visitors we have...they weren't pooing in their yard either. Cats don't poo anywhere near their food or sleep areas...it's just a fact. So anyway, almost done with my story... So the cats went from being a single male and female around Febuary of last year, to becoming 14 by the end of October. Our backyard was a litterbox. There was no trying to reason with the neighbors...they didn't hear our pleas of stopping feeding the ferel cats. We wound up having to take matters into our own hands. My husband bought a trap and I bought lots of tuna in oil. All 14 cats were humainly trapped and the Humaine Society picked each one up. It took nearly 3 weeks to trap them all. It was exhausting. We have neighbors that think we are terrible people now...good grief! Can you imagine if we didn't trap the 14 cats, and the situation continued? there would be nearly 100 ferel cats this summer roaming our neighborhood... and most of them pooing in our yard. To me, that's insanity and so unfair on us. Hope that helps Daisybeans... Time to have some lunch. I'll respond to other posts shortly
Frank, Thank you for making my thread a "featured topic"...bless your heart! I truely feel honored... :-D Well, yes they feeding bill is quite expensive in the winter...but in the summer it's almost nil. So I guess on average, it's about $60 a month if I averaged it out. I only put out niger seed in 2 feeders during the summer. The 3 pairs of goldfinches, House Finches and a few House Sparrows go to the 2 feeders. The Mourning Doves eat the seeds under the feeders on the ground. The Robins eat the worms. Any other bird that visits our backyard habitat in the summer snacks on all the bugs in the garden...wish they'd eat more aphids than butterfly caterpillars though. The Cardinals will stop and visit to devour most of the Monarch caterpillers. Well, I could start a butterfly nursery, but I just allow nature to take care of itself. My husband and I did have several butterflies emerge from our gardens last year...so there are surviving caterpillars...just not many. On the positive side, the birds are getting their protein! Gardentoad, I appreciate all of your suggestions. Our backyard habitat has been a work in progress. I will happily try and address all of your concerns/comments/suggestions... Next month I had planned on buying the sign from the NWF for $25. I answered the 20 question survey already and we have passed with flying colors. We still need to get a bird house and incorporate an area for the birds to nest since we don't have trees in our yard. Our yard is not big enough to have trees. Our next door neighbors have trees. If you scroll back to my pics in this thread, there is a pic of all the birds watching me from one of their trees. Unfortunately, if we had trees in our yard, they would also shade all of our sun gardens we spent so much money and labor on building for the Hummingbirds/birds/butterflies. With a yard our size, everything cannot be incorporated, so one substitutes...like having honeysuckles for the birds to hide behind. I don't know if you saw the thread I started of our garden pics yet or not... Here's the link... http://www.gardenstew.com/about16105.html. You will notice that we have a whole row of Honeysuckles that produce berries that the birds love. the 1st set of berries on them are starting to ripen now. The honeysuckles didn't get big enough for the birds to use them to hide behind for cover/protection til this summer. I also just bought a new ornamental grass for the corner of our yard for the birds to hide/hunker down in/nest in (Miscanthus sinensis 'Gracillimus'). It's not that big right now, but over the years it will provide lots of protection. I have a $45 House Wren birdhouse our local wildbird habitat store is holding for me til I can buy it next month. I know that one can even build their own birdhouse, but I really want that one. As far as having a pond built in our backyard...LOL...our yard is too small. We don't wat trees in our yard or a pond. There is no room for a pond and to be able to have the feeders all lined up in the winter too. Although it can become exhausting refilling and cleaning the birdbath, I don't mind that much. I was just expressing how often it is and that it can be tiring at times. I think you'll need to refer back to my last picture of the link I attached so you can get a perspective on how big our area is. Total...front and backyards...and the land our house is on is less than 1/5 acre... I also have provided nesting materials for the birds too this Spring for all the birds...and recently balls of cotton/wool for the female Goldfinches....which they loved. All the finches love to eat the seeds from all our Coneflowers, Salvias, Liatris, and Sunflowers too. I'll post some pics of the birds taking nesting materials and enjoying the bounty in our gardens...but... Whew! I need another break 1st...coffee time!
