Native plants & beautiful video on bird migration

Birds, and their ancestors going back thousands and thousands of years have

depended on the area’s plants.  These natural, native plants are what they’re used to.  Planting native plants in your yard is a great way to attract north Texas birds.   It’s also a great way to help them get through their daily lives.

WHY?    The plants that grow here naturally have synchronized with the entire environment, including our birds. The plants do all the things they do (flower, go to seed, make nectar, wither etc.) at exactly the right times for our native birds to make use of them. (Or maybe the birds have adapted to the plants’ timing.) Whatever it is, it took many, many centuries for the plants and birds to evolve and get synchronized.

A non-native plant may look nice to you and me, but to a north Texas bird it may as well be a chunk of concrete – of almost no value in his daily life. So he may just fly off to another yard.

My advice, if you like birds, is to ask if a plant is "native" before putting it in your yard.  (There are thousands of native plant species)

 

A friend sent me a beautiful. informative video on birds' migration across the Gulf of Mexico. I've put the web address here:  http://gulfcrossingmovie.com   It's not short, but well worth the time spent watching.

If that address doesn't work on your computer, try the youtube version at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e20qNjdcSUk