Winged Wednesday - Backyard Birding Basics

Wisconsin is one of the nation's hot spots for birding. The flyways for migratory birds along the Mississippi and the Great Lakes, as well as some fabulous lakes and wetlands bring many species through the state. If you are just getting into birds, here are a few tips to help you get started in your own backyard.

Indigo Bunting checks out our tube feeder.

Find a decent bird book you can use. A good guide will help you identify the birds you already have. I recommend something fairly small, perhaps one which doesn't have all of the species (you are unlikely to encounter all of North America's vast area of birds in your lawn), and make sure it has some really clear pictures. I strong recommend Stan Tekiela's Birds of... books. These field guides are broken down by state, are compact, and organized by color which makes finding the birds a snap.

Set reasonable expectations. Read through your guide and understand the birds and habitats. If there's no water nearby then you are unlikely to see much waterfowl; if there are few mature tress in your neighborhood then birds like Woodpeckers will be harder to come by. Knowing these things may drive your decision making on the next steps.

Feed the birds. Feeding solutions vary widely. You will need to decide what kind of feeder you want to use and what type of food to provide. Black oil sunflower is a pretty good catch all seed and can be fed from a variety of feeders.(See other posts on feeding the birds)

The American Goldfinch loves Coneflower and Black Eyed Susan.

Water the birds. Birds need water to bathe and drink. If you decide to setup a bird bath be sure to keep it clean. This can be a trying ask when keeping up with algae or messy birds. You may also decide you want to heat the bird bath during the winter.

Shelter the birds. There are a host of different bird houses which can be purchased to fit the needs of different species. Evergreens and woody shrubs also provide good cover for nesting or roosting birds. (Read more about bird houses.)

Landscape for the birds. Trees like Oaks which produce acorns can be very attractive to birds like Blue Jays, Woodpeckers, and Chickadees. Trees and shrubs with fruit like Hawthorns or Serviceberry may be attractive to Waxwings, Robins, or Gray Catbirds. Native wildflowers may attract Finches, Sparrows, and Hummingbirds. ((See our favorite plants for attracting birds)

Pace yourself. You don't need to all of these things at once, and some of things may simply take time. Trees don't mature overnight, and even after putting up a feeder it may take time for the birds to recognize that it's there. Be patient and enjoy.

First Flowers of Spring 2014 - False Indigo, Blue Lupine, and Columbine

After three years, our great backyard experiment is really starting to pay off. We started off the spring with cool, rainy weather, and we finally saw warmer weather in mid-May. The first plants to add color to the yard were the Serviceberries and the Eastern Redbud. These flowering trees and shrubs are regularly the first to bloom and add a splash of color. The Wood Violets also flowered, but while the ornamental trees and violets flowered, the garden plants grew tall and green.

Our Redbud seemed to be particularly pink this year.

We've had a recent warm streak, which brought with it semi-regular rain showers and thunder storms. With the warm weather and rain, the plants have grown. Yard maintenance has been relatively difficult to keep up with. The benefit has been each time I head out to weed, mow, trim, mulch or prune, I find something new has flowered.

Columbine has grown wild behind our air conditioner since we moved in. Last year, we put down some Columbine seed near the existing plant in a previously unused flower bed. Two additional Columbines now grow with showy red flowers.

The Columbine which prefers to grow behind the air conditioner.

The flower bed in the front has its first Lupines. Last spring, we planted a half dozen Lupine plugs, but only two of the six came back after the long, cold winter. (We've seen similar results with the Little Blue Stems planted in the same bed.) We've added two more Lupines to the bed for now and noticed that some may have seeded themselves as some really little guys are also popping up.

I would have been very sad if none of the Lupine had come back. This one is a fighter.

After multiple years of rabbits chewing back the False Indigo, the fence has paid off, and we have some tall, attractive purple flowers in the main garden. So far, we have 3 of 5 flowering, and the Bumble Bees seem to e enjoying them.

A small victory!

These plants are well ahead of the other plants in the garden. It will still be awhile before the Purple Coneflower, Black Eyed Susans, or Butterfly Milkweed flower. The Columbine, Lupine, and Indigo add visual interest to the yard by providing dashes of red, blue, and purple. They also provide a food source for pollinators. We have seen Cabbage White Butterflies, Eastern Tiger Swallowtails, Bumble Bees, Honey Bees, and Large Carpenter Bees, and it's just the start of June. We're hoping to be able to report a record year for pollinators this year, and we'll be trying to focus on capturing each visitor digitally.

How are your gardens doing this spring? Anything growing particularly well?