Mrs. Ichabod asked me, "How did you get so interested in birds? Was it your mother?" I will try to explain.
Growing up, I thought birds were boring, because our homestead in Moline was filled with very old trees, the maple being the largest I have seen. The elms in our front yard were for climbing, so birds did not care to nest in them.
The current Ichabode is a paradise for birds, simply because the front yard is all garden and the backyard combines bushes, kiddie pool birdbaths, and mulch. Besides, the front porch is ideal for observing Creation, from the casual bunny stroll to the hummingbirds, cardinals, hawks, robins, and cardinals. The backyard has mischievous squirrels, starlings, grackles, cardinals, crows, juncos, mourning doves, blue jays, goldfinches, common finches, and chickadees.
Yesterday we were drinking coffee on the porch when a female cardinal zoomed right past us, at eye level, a few feet away. A hummingbird sipped some food from one of four feeders in the garden. Best of all, the female cardinal stopped to rest in the nearby clethra (Cinnabon Tree), which is little more than a slender bush and leafing out.
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| Clethra, or Summer Sweet, or Sweet Price, is a slight bush, perfect for birds to land, too fragile for most cats or squirrels. |
When Andrea's family was here, the cardinal called out so loudly in the backyard that they thought the bird was in the house. I was being scolded by the cardinal for not having more food out. No matter how much a mother prepares food for her family, she still likes some take out.
Bringing birds closer for observation is a lot of fun:
They need baths, so a shallow birdbath is a great attraction, but it needs to be kept clean. We have two kiddie pools in the back, three shallow birdbaths in the front. Sassy uses the concrete one I got on sale for $7.
Start with one bath and one feeding place. Expect little activity for two weeks. Birds are cautious.
Provide food twice a day on open, flat feeders like our garbage barrels.
Grow seed plants, like sunflowers.
Save stale bread products and extra fruit for the flat feeders.
Raise fruit bearing plants, such as wild strawberries, beauty berries, and Poke in the south. Poke Weed is scorned as a weed but attracts more species than any other plant. We have a beautiful specimen outside the back door, heavily mulched, and watered from the rain barrel.
So far, a cardinal and a starling have dashed in to grab food while I would pouring it on the top of the recycle barrel. Ranger Bob says, according to Indian lore (Osage tribe, Oklahoma) - cardinals in the yard are a good sign.
