My First Bird Garden

     I reminisce about the time when I began watching birds, it was just after I was out of high school. I first hung up my feeders on a pole with a lot of hooks because I was using many types of feeders. I filled the feeders and waited for the birds to come. First I had to find a way to prevent the squirrel(s) from eating all of the seeds, so I read about it. I read magazines, books, online, until I decided on the squirrel baffle which I wanted to purchase. I placed it about halfway up on the pole and it took care of the problem.
     After that, the birds increased at the feeders little by little.



     Soon after that, I was reading in Birds & Blooms about birds taking pleasure in gardens and getting natural foods from them. Plus things like shelters too. So I began planning on where I could put a shelter. I looked around the yard for the best area to plant my flowers. I had the feeders in the side yard a good area from the trees. I started with a bird bath within my budget in the back yard (in a walkway) and the yard was kind of small. I did not think that the front yard was a very good choice. So I finally decided on making a circle of flowers around the pole for the bird feeders!. The birds loved it when I was finished!
   

Hmm...I chose my birds, I chose my plants, now how do I plant them?

     "I see in my mind a vision of flowers for birds -- or have I? Is everything there? Is anything missing? Maybe I will drag it on until I am sure."

     As I had spoken of in a previous blog, do not wait. Begin with a few starter plants and then add to them. You may make a decision to put up feeders or place the plants first. Whichever you choose you should also add a water source - bird bath, pond, etc. - even if it is a small garden.
     When I started feeding birds I had a large yard that had trees lining the outer portion. I hung up the feeders a good distance in from them and then I laid the flowers in a ring, or circle, around my feeder pole below the feeders. The birds seemed to like them there. That was the side yard. I had a bird bath and hedges in the back yard and another bird bath in the front yard. Like I said, it was a large yard and all of this planting took time. We all do not have this same sized yard. Look at your yard and calculate a starting point - guess where you think that you want the yard to 'grow' to.
     Start small; go to WalMart or Home Depot, or a related store, to pick out flowers and young trees. Find out which trees will be short and which ones will be tall. It is good to have a few of both. As I have said, just make sure that they for planting in your zone.

What is the State Bird? (NC-TX)

The state bird list continues...

• North Carolina - Northern Cardinal (male is red), Cardinalis cardinalis, was selected as the stated bird in 1943. A year-round resident of N. Carolina, it is one of the most common birds in their gardens, meadows and woodlands. The male Cardinal is red all over except for the black around its throat and eyes. Male and fmale have a crest on their crowns.
• North Dakota - The Western Meadowlark, Sturnella neglecta, was adopted as the official state bird in 1947. 
• Ohio - Ohio designated the Northern Cardinal (male is red), Cardinalis cardinalis, as official statebird in 1933. 
• Oklahoma - The Scissor-tailed Flycatcher, Tyrannus forficatus, was officially adopted by the State Legislature in 1951 as the Oklahoma state bird. It has a very long tail and does a famous "sky dance", so that no other bird is more identifiable in Oklahoma. It folds/closes its tail when perching. It has a pearl-gray nape and a white breast, with wings that are sooty black and it has a touch of scarlet on the shoulders.
• Oregon - The Western Meadowlark, Sturnella neglecta, was chosen by a popular vote of Oregon school children in 1927. In the same year, Governor I. L. Patterson issued a proclamation naming it the state bird of Oregon.
• Pennsylvania - The Ruffed Grouse, Bonasa umbellus, was adopted as Pennsylvania's state bird in 1931, tthe same as the state tree. It was championed by Mrs. Harry J. Shoemaker, Chairman of birds and flowers and the officers of the State Federation of Women's Clubs. 
• Rhode Island - The Rhode Island Red Chicken, Gallus gallus, in 1954. These hens remain excellent farm chickens and they lay between 200 to 300 eggs per bird in twelve months and can start at six mo.'s of age.
• South Carolina - The Northern Mockingbird, Mimus polyglottos, was made the state bird in 1939; until 1944 when the Carolina Wren took its place.                                                                                                   S. Carolina chose the Wild Turkey, Meleagris gallopavo, as their game bird in 1976. These birds are hunted only during the spring on game management lands.
• South Dakota - The Ring-necked Pheasant (male), Phasianus colchicus, was adopted as the official state bird of S. Dakota in 1943. Female is mottled sandy brown with a shorter tail.
• Tennessee - The Northern Mockingbird, Mimus polyglottos, was selected as state bird of Tennessee in an election by Tennessee Ornithological Society. This was confirmed by the General Assembly in 1933.                                                                                                    The 'Bobwhite Quail' (Northern Bobwhite), Colinus virginianus, is the official state game bird of Tennessee. It seems to have been adopted in 1988 but it my have been in 1987.
• Texas - The Northern Mockingbird, Mimus polyglottos, I have been told, has the prettiest song of any bird native to No. America. That is possibly the reason why the "mocker" was adopted as the state bird of Texas in 1927. 

Winter Feeding Time

     Even though I do not get snow at least not since I have lived here. Except for one quarter to one half an inch that lasted a day at the most. But that was only once in several years. Even if I do not get the snow the temperatures get cold enough - frost - to make the plants die and the insects go underground - or wherever they go.
     The birds still need to find food so they will be very happy to see feeders in the winter. (Actually they are happy to see them all year, more on that later). It is one of the ways to attract them to your yard in the winter, with the feeder(s) and a heated birdbath. You can have one feeder to many feeders depending on the size of your yard - or the size of your wallet.
     When I first started feeding and watching birds I had a large yard and after I really got going I bought a hanging pole with about five or six hooks. There were trees only bordering the yard, nowhere else. I buried the base of the pole in the center of the lawn a good distance from the trees and from the house. The birds gradually started coming to the feeders I had placed on the hooks.

My story for starting my birdwatching

     I remember back around 1996 when I first started birdwatching was because of the house and yard that we moved into at that time. (Of course, I was unaware at the time that one bird was able to make so many sounds.) The yard had these lovely sounds, I never heard so many.
     I started becoming very curious about them, (I was always wondering about things).  I could hear the sounds coming from various areas up in the trees, only I could not see what made them. I kept searching for them though. Eventually I had started gardening and when I was sitting, or kneeling, on the ground for a while in the same spot, these sounds came out of hiding.
     I finally saw what a few of these sounds were. They were birds.That drew me towards watching them. I would stop what I was doing and just sit as if I was entranced by them. I do not recall the order this was in but I began searching on my computer and buying bird books, magazines, feeders/birdbaths, binoculars, etc. Stretched out over some time, of course.

     Some of the sounds were squirrels. At the time, squirrels were cute to watch. I did not know until some time later that squirrels would be trouble at the bird feeders. I eventually found ways to handle them though.

     I also opened my large garage door and went inside to work on bicycles. Again, while I was doing that I would see the birds come land nearby, (feeders, birdbath, so on), and I would stop the work to just stare at the birds and study them. So it was the sounds that got my attention first.
     It is many years later and they still do because one of the main things that I used to practice was hearing sounds & placing the correct bird with the sound(s) until I learned it/them.  Since one bird can make one sound, or many sounds, depending on the bird.
   
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