birds

Great Backyard Bird Count

~ McArtor ~ Leave a comment
woodpecker

Chickadees and woodpeckers dine at our homemade pine cone bird feeders.  We look forward to counting them in the next Great Backyard Bird Count on February 17 to 20, 2012.

The Great Backyard Bird Count website has lots of information about birds and fun activities to help kids develop birdwatching skills.  The site explains why the count is important for scientists, has a video that describes how to participate in the bird count and generates a list of the birds you may find in your area.   Would you like to join the count? You could win a prize!

Strawberries

~ McArtor ~ Leave a comment
strawberries under netting

Strawberries are abundant and ripe now!  We have two supply sources for fresh picked strawberries..our backyard and at our community garden plot. The strawberries in our backyard have less damage this year because we covered them with netting.  Only the bugs have access to the fruit, not the birds so our yields are greater.  We already picked two and a half pounds from our backyard patch.   Last evening we picked another 2 and a half pounds from an abandoned plot in our community garden. A woman saw my son getting into mischief in our plot so she asked him if he wanted to pick the strawberries from the unclaimed plot next to her. The plants were rambling into her garden space and loaded with berries.  We picked and picked.  The strawberries in the community garden were not covered with netting and did not seem to have damage from hungry birds.   Could it be because the birds  have more natural food sources at the Howard County Conservancy than in our backyard?

What organic methods do you use to protect your strawberries?

Our Polite Mourning Doves

~ McArtor ~ 1 Comment

PLEASE, YOU eat first.
This pair of doves visit our feeder regularly early in the morning or afternoon. They are a gracious couple. They seem to wait their turn at the feeder. House and purple finches, chickadees, starlings, woodpeckers and tufted titmice come to our feeder for a frenzied quick nibble then they disappear. The mourning doves don’t eat and fly away, instead they hang out for awhile before and after they eat. Sometimes they will even sit on the feeder tray or on our deck railing, tuck their heads between their shoulders and take a nap. Their soft song of cooOOoo-woo-woo-woooo, reminds us to check if our feeder needs more safflower seeds. There are benefits to being present, patient and polite!

(Note: we use safflower seeds because squirrels do not like its bitter taste)