How many birds are in your yard?

You certainly don’t see every single bird that visits the area of your yard, so how do you get a rough headcount? Experts disagree on details, but they’re in the same ballpark. Count the birds you see in your yard in a typical ten second span (count those at your feeders, flying nearby and those just watching). Do it several times and take the average. Multiply that average by 5 or 6 (that’s where they disagree) for a very approximate number of birds who look to your yard for support. his method figures in the birds you don't see - those that are deep in the vegetation, in a nest or high in a tree.

Be as ignorant of property lines as the birds themselves. They could care less about who owns a certain tree or hedge. “If you can see it, you can count it” should be your guideline.

Birds like plenty of space for feeding, and it prevents the spread of disease.  Jockeying for space probably increases a bird's stress level, making it more susceptible to disease. While images of dozens of birds crowded onto a single feeder are attractive, the likelihood of contact between sick and healthy birds grows. To prevent overcrowding, use feeders that minimize physical contact between birds, and provide additional places to feed.  Increase the number of feeders too. By far your most important task is to keep both the feeders and the feeding site clean.

Create a brushpile to attract all sorts of birds

 

A few years ago, trying to rediscover our youth, we spent all of a rather long day wielding pruning shears and saws.  No shrub or tree in the yard was safe. Needless to say, we left a trail of assorted cuttings behind as we let things “fall where they may”.  We’d read about recycling green things on-site and the evils of adding a bunch of prunings to the landfill. So we hauled the brush to an out-of-the-way corner of the yard, thinking somehow it would compost rapidly and magically turn into garden soil.

Curved-bill Thrasher

It didn’t.  Instead we had a 5-foot tall pile of brush that is now totally brown.  (It’s now 7 feet tall, too).

It wasn’t going to disappear, so we thought of a “controlled burn”. After all, it was all dead, dry wood and would burn away to nothing. It would work, if only open fires didn’t create pollution, and weren’t illegal in Denton and most othr north Texas citires.

About then, I saw a rabbit poke its head of the brush pile, and duck back in when he (she?) saw me. Then, being quite still for several minutes, I saw half a dozen Mockingbirds (or did I see one Mockingbird six times?) fly into the brush pile with beaks full of who-knows-what. A noisy little Bewick’s Wren guarded a home in there too. There were probably lots of other creatures in there as well.

No way could we burn the brush pile.  Since then we’ve seen Cardinals, Wrens, Chickadees, Mockingbirds and several birds we didn’t recognize go into, or leave, the brush pile. Once a Roadrunner sat on top of it for a few hours, probably hunting down lizards.

The brush pile (actually, what’s inside it) is now something to be proud of.  If we had it to do over again, we might contain it more decoratively, but certainly wouldn’t get rid of it. Every yard should have one, if only to provide a mini bird-sanctuary. Here’s how;

A brushpile is just a random pile of branches. Ideally, the first foot or so should be made of branches 3 to 6” in diameter, criss-crossed to leave lots of empty spaces inside. Above this, pile trimmings randomly leaving plenty of nooks and crannies for birds to find. It only works if you exclude small stuff like lots of leaves and grass clippings.                That’s all there is to it!

Leave Swallows' mud nests alone !

Barn Swallows

      Barn Swallows and Cliff Swallows make mud nests each spring in Texas, to lay eggs and raise a family. The nests are probably still in place, and often are used as a “home base” for the active, insect-eating birds. (Purple Martins are a species of swallow, too).  Inconveniently, sometimes the nests are built under the eaves of your house, so rain doesn't wash them away. Wherever they are, it is illegal according to the Migratory Bird Treaty

Cliff Swallow

Act to remove or disturb an active nest by any means - including washing it away with a hose. Best advice:  wait ‘til early September.

 

What to do with old coffee grounds        I recommend used coffee grounds as an organic fertilizer.   Not only are the grounds organic, but usually are free. The diluted coffee itself is an excellent organic fertilizer too, especially for orchids. The grounds also have another important use. Broadcast the grounds around troubled plants to control slugs, snails and pill bugs. To run off these pests, use anywhere from 2 to 5 lbs. of old coffee grounds per 100 square feet.

Coffee grounds contain vital trace minerals and stimulates the growth of beneficial microbes.  At the very least, save your own coffee grounds at home. Or just ask your local restaurants or coffee shops to put them in a container you provide.  

Inviting Texas Wrens into your yard is simple

Carolina Wren

         

Bewick's Wren

    Wrens are easy birds to attract…they may already be in your yard, in fact, because they’re often attracted by the way we live.

          Our native Wrens are the Carolina Wren and the Bewick’s Wren. Bewick's are a little duskier than the sand-colored Carolina species. Both are slightly huskier than other Wrens, and probably won’t be able to get into a mass-produced, “one-size-fits-all” wrenhouse which are usually built for House Wrens (rarely seen in Texas). 

          Wrens have shared their living space with humans for ages.  They’ve learned to use our house exteriors, garages, etc. as homes, although they prefer old woodpecker holes, birdhouses, or dark, natural cavities. If nothing else is available, they’ll construct their own home – a globular cave of sticks, grasses and leaves with a small entry hole. They’ll make their nests in unusual places. (Last year, a Wren built a nest in a hanging basket. Until the nestlings fledged, we watered the basket with ice cubes...they melted slowly enough not to soak the nest.)

          It’s not just human housing that attracts them; it’s also the countless tiny insects found in the exterior nooks and crannies of all our houses. These insects are their food supply – Wrens rarely eat seed. The slender bill is slightly curved, enabling them to get at food that most other birds can’t reach.

          The first key to attracting Wrens is having plenty of nest-building material around.  Small twigs, long grasses; even fur from a family pet.

          The second key is a brushpile; it's just a random mound of branches and logs with lots of “cubby holes” on the inside. In bad weather, it’s a comparatively warm, protected and sheltered place to roost or build a nest. A brushpile also provides safety from animals that would like to have a Wren for dinner.

        Water is essential year ‘round too. A shallow birdbath (2” at most) is ideal. Wrens like to poke around in “messy” vegetation near water – that’s where the insects and tiny snails are.

 

Attracting more than your share of Hummingbirds

Hummingbirds usually start appearing in north Texas in mid-March and leave around the end of September.  Here’s how to attract them to your yard. 

Put up more than one feeder – There should be several. Enough spots for Hummingbirds to sip nectar without waiting in line. Put feeders far enough apart so a “bully” Hummingbird can’t stand guard over several of them. Hummingbirds are attracted to all bright colors. Nectar feeders in your yard, if not colorful already, can be made more enticing simply by fastening a piece of bright ribbon to them.

Keep nectar fresh – Fresh nectar attracts them, and stale repels them. If they get a sip of stale nectar at your house, they won’t bring fledglings or friends by. Nectar gets stale quickly on a super-hot Texas day. We change nectar every 6 or 7 days normally. But when it’s really hot, we’ll go to every third day. And keep nectar clear - no red dye!

Plant large masses of hummer plants – Hummingbirds look for nectar from flowers in addition to feeders. Some plants have sweeter nectar than others. Birds know this, and are drawn to them (so are butterflies) and often encourage their youngsters to feed there. I strongly urge you to plant masses of plants (a clump of least a dozen) since hummers may not bother if all they see is just a plant or two.

Water source –  Just like humans, Hummingbirds need something to drink with meals. Water from a dripper or mister on a birdbath is ideal (a dripping faucet works too). They’ll use it to drink, to bathe, and just to play in.         

 

Save your money for things that work        Things like fake owls and fake snakes don’t scare away nuisance birds – except for maybe the first half-an-hour after you put them up. It’s well known that birds quickly get accustomed to inanimate objects, whatever they’re shaped like. What an effective “shoo” device needs is a second component, in addition to the visual. Unpredictable motion! Balloons or old CDs hung on a string have movement when they blow in the wind, which makes birds nervous.

July10-W; Birdseed does NOT cause that bare spot in your lawn

Does birdseed cause a bare spot under feeders?

 

Probably  not. Birdseed accumulation prevents grass from growing – birdseed by itself does not.

Birds eating at feeders, when they eat a seed, simply drop the inedible seed hull on the ground, and grass doesn’t grow right there. So there is a widespread suspicion that the thin, woody hulls of sunflower seeds inhibit widespread plant growth. To be perfectly honest, I thought so too – until we did some research.

Lots of people with better brains and more college degrees studied this situation. They found that sunflower hulls (the most common seed) do not present a chemical barrier to germination and seedling development. Rather, an accumulation of seed hulls can function as a mulch. Sunlight can’t easily reach new growth or seeds through the mulch. Also, the empty hulls (as they get mashed into the soil by foot traffic, animals, even a good rain) reduce the amount of real soil available to any plant trying to grow there. Also, the empty hulls take nitrogen from the soil as they decompose, which all plants need to grow.

There is a scientific term for a plant’s producing a chemical that prevents other plants from growing nearby;  allelopathy. In north Texas one of the plants that is allelopathic is the walnut, which produces the chemical juglone that prevents other plants from growing (this is more than you want to know, isn’t it?). Sunlowers aren't allelopathic, however.

 

To prevent accumulation, I recommend that you clean the seed hulls from beneath feeders about once a week. A simple broom and dustpan works perfectly. I’d also rake the area lightly, dislodging any missed hulls. With no accumulated mulch of empty seed hulls, the area beneath your feeders will do just fine. Also, using fresh birdseed minimizes the amount that birds just let fall to the ground, uneaten. Dumping extra water on a bare spot in hopes that grass will grow, may actually have the opposite result - killing grass via root rot.

As an alternative, you can put a few large stones beneath your feeders, or a patch of gravel. I’d avoid putting ornamental plants directly under feeders however. They’re a hindrance to ground-feeding birds like doves, juncos, thrashers and true sparrows

 

 

Why Hummingbirds can use spider webs in nests, without getting stuck.

Hummingbirds quite often use strands from spider webs to build nests. The strands can be very sticky, however, to help the spider catch bugs. The Hummingbirds keep from getting the webs stuck all over themselves and their nestlings by selecting only certain strands. True – much of a web is sticky. But certain structural strands are non-sticky. Hummingbirds know which is which.  Hummers do use the sticky strands for the outside of the tiny nest, so they can affix flakes of lichen or bark as camouflage.

 

Birds’ beaks adapt to their food source   A bird that eats insects, and one that eats seeds have evolved with very different beaks. The type of beaks they’ve developed will help them locate, grab and swallow the specific food that their digestive system can handle and that's around them.  In north Texas you can see this most clearly in the large, cone-shaped beak of the seed-eating cardinals versus the narrow, pointed beak of the insect-eating wrens. And beaks that are massive and powerful like Grosbeaks, or Hummingbirds' long, narrow beaks for getting deep into flowers, where the nectar is.