If you want to attract or identify birds in your garden, Feed the Birds could help. Designed as a resource for beginners as well as experienced birdwatchers, the book details 196 bird species attracted to backyard bird feeders with explanations about their behaviour and how they adapt to the environment. It also discusses a wide variety of feeders and seed types. Each … [Read more...] about Feed the Birds book features 196 species
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Leave some seed for birds
After a season of hot, dry summer weather, the garden often looks like Tobacco Rd. — worn out and ready for a cleanup. I start to cut back spent perennials and remove exhausted annuals slowly and in phases, trying to neaten plants that are truly finished for the year, while leaving anything still green and vigorous to prolong the season through fall. While some of these plants … [Read more...] about Leave some seed for birds
The birds and the bees
Drifts of little birds are busy in the shrubs and atop aging perennials, efficiently gleaning seeds to build up their insulation before frost sets in. Tall stems of Hosta sieboldiana flowers have gone to seed, and the cardinals get on these, bobbing about as they pull the black seeds out. In similar fashion, goldfinch partners (the yellow and black males, and their more subtle … [Read more...] about The birds and the bees
