Some problems have no simple solution.
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help as a Sponsor and
to tell us what to post next from our library
All we can do is to share the pain and ease it a bit with
laughter. For instance, whyizzit that:
We design the whole yard for birds but make one minor change and
they desert?
V.H. called to say, "I hope you can help us. We love the
birds in the yard and we've fed them for years, decades. All of a
sudden recently, the feeders are ghost towns and we're very sad.
What can have happened?"
From the call, came these topics:
The importance of staging areas
Polling the birds for an
answer
A test, and a call for
comments
More backyard bird topics
Right: We might miss seeing the hawk lurking in the thicket
but you can be pretty sure the songbirds in the area have noticed
and spread the word. Only very desperate need will bring them out
in the open while the hawk's around.
We talked a bit, about things such as how a hunting hawk can make
every bird in the area lay low. ("We've had hawks here
forever," V.H. assured us. "The birds just hide a while, then come
back out later.")Then because prey animals are creatures of habit,
rightfully cautious of and unsettled by every change in their
environment, we asked about recent landscaping work in or around
the property.
"Oh!" said V.H. "We did have a hedge pulled out. It was
overgrown and full of weeds. But we planted more, and there is lots
of other shrubbery and trees on the property."
Above: For many birds, the ideal supplemental feeding
station is one in a clearing ringed with perches where a wary
little bird can scope out the situation from a few angles before
committing to a final approach.
The importance
of staging areas
That's good that the yard wasn't laid bare in the change. There
are few things more likely to discourage wildlife. Nonetheless,
that hedgerow may have been where the birds were staging. Staging
areas are where birds stop in their approach to scope out a feeding
station to be sure the coast is clear.
Above: Like many birds, the cardinal uses a tip-top
surveying perch to announce its claim on a property (left) but
stages (middle) for the feeder a bit less conspicuously, lower in a
plant. There are often multiple staging areas around a feeder. This
downy woodpecker (right) scouted the situation from a neighbor's
crabapple before moving to this "on deck" spot on the arbor right
next to the feeder. (We may never be able to replace that decrepit
arbor since winter would be when we have time to do that job yet
it's the worst time to spook the birds -- in winter feeders make
the most difference to birds' survival.)
So we've suggested to V.H. that they try what worked for us when
a client had a similar problem after new neighbors removed a big
tree. Nothing could be done to immediately re-establish the shade,
offer new high-rise perches for announcing territory or replace the
three story nesting level. But after we planted where the birds
told us they would stage, most of the bird traffic returned.
Polling the birds for an
answer
Here is what we did:
1) First, we bought a lure: A multi trunked
tree, about 8 feet tall -- 10 feet including its big root
ball. What it gave us was a wide top with a selection of landing
spaces, big enough for at least a few birds to share spots just
below the top (like the one the robin's assumed, at right), and
leafy enough to create some hiding places within. We could have
used a shrub for this, if we could have found one that size. We
also discussed using long, much-branched limbs cut from trees but
decided against it since that would have complicated steps 2 and 3,
and we were going to need new plants of significant size,
anyway.
2) We set the tree temporarily. We picked a
place where that tree could one day be planted, in the same
direction away from the feeders as the lost tree had been, and set
the new tree there. We didn't plant it, just set it on the
ground and put blocks under the root ball so it wouldn't tip.
(Making it upright and sturdy is the part that would have been
difficult to do with a cut tree branch.) We covered the root ball
with an old blanket to help it stay moist, asked our client to keep
it well watered and to check it every day for bird droppings.
3) We moved it until the birds said, "Yes!"
After a few days, if there were no droppings or other signs that a
significant number of birds had perched there, we dragged the tree
to another spot. We moved it three times, none of them particularly
big changes. We hit the right spot the third time, and planted the
tree there.
Above: It may seem like you have only a few birds if you
watch a feeder for a short time every day. So how can signs of
their passing (please forgive the pun) accumulate in a staging area
in a few short days? If it's summer when large birds like grackles
are around in numbers, one visit per hour can add up! In winter,
small birds may make a great number of trips to and from a feeder
each day. A three year study in southern Wisconsin where chickadees
with their high energy demands have to feed almost continuously to
survive the cold, calculated that at 0°F these birds need the
equivalent of 250 sunflower seeds per day (60% of their weight) and
probably take 20% of that from feeders, one seed at a
time.
(Click here to download that study published by
www.birdfeeding.org and made available by Shaw Creek Bird
Supply.)
A test of that approach, a
call for comment and suggestion
V.H. is going to try the same approach. Meanwhile, we've started a topic on the Forum where we hope
others will share what they've done to re-establish bird traffic
after a change, or have noticed will spook the birds, to help the
rest of us bird lovers avoid any set-backs.
More backyard bird
topics
We've written many other articles about the birds that share our
gardens. Here is a list of those you might be interested in, about
designing for the birds, feeders and natural
foods, providing water, the importance of all kinds of shelter, and the inevitable undesirables. Some of these articles
already available here on our site, so there are links ready to go.
Others are still staging, which means we'll have them here soon and
link them in -- they have an *. They can be called forth most
quickly via Sponsorship.
Designing for the
birds: Food, water, shelter
Birdbrained design; Trees and shrubs
for birds; Menu planning for wildlife. What's
Coming Up 95 pp. 1- 6
Hummingbird garden design: Growing
Concerns 157*
Living the wild life in a
garden: Birds, Butterflies and you. Michigan Gardener
September 2009*
Reconciling need for neatness, desire
for birds.
What's Coming Up 144 pp. 8-9
Winter interest and wildlife, too. BHG
Summer 2004*
Plus: Sponsor a Green Thumbs
collection of bird attracting tips:
Can't have it all -
birds mean less Viburnum berries in winter. Growing
Concerns 680*
Christmas trees with
southeast face as birds' windbreak. Growing Concerns
338*
Don't ignore birds during big
snows.
Growing Concerns 603
Evergreens at a home's
southeast corner are for the birds. Growing Concerns
553
Feed chickadees for aphid
control. Growing
Concerns 550
Foresters advise leave snags
when pruning. Green Thumbs section, Growing Concerns
366*
Hummingbird in the
greenhouse. Growing
Concerns 579
Hummingbird votes for
Dianthus. Growing Concerns 670*
Perennials best for bird
feeding. Tips section, Growing Concerns 314*
Why water and stamped snow
mean a less buggy spring. Tips section, Growing Concerns
391*
Below, left: Junco tracks in the ornamental grass garden.
Design spaces for different types of birds. Juncos are perky
additions to any northern landscape in the winter but they need
open space on the ground to feed, often jumping up to knock seed
loose from short ornamental grasses such as prairie dropseed
(Sporobolus heterolepis).
Below, right: Designing for wildlife takes in a whole ecosystem,
including aspects you might overlook, such as the importance of
overhead wires as staging areas. We sometimes consider rerouting
"eyesore" overhead wires into underground conduit, but look at this
use first where birds are important. This is "just a starling" but
we counted a dozen species staging with it on those wires.
Importance of food diversity:
Feeders and natural foods
Scarlet tanagers (above, right)
and robins (right) feed more on fruit and insects than on
seed.
Bird seed makes a good gift. Gift what you covet:
For the birds
Drunken birds?! What's
Coming Up 95 and
Growing
Concerns 581
Importance of bird feeders in winter. What's
Coming Up 125 pgs. 4-5
Insects are vital bird food. Quotes: Wildlife and
ecology
Late summer hummingbird attraction. Growing Concerns
162*
Ornamental grasses as bird feeders. Gardens enrich pets' lives:
Organic bird feeder
Serviceberries for the birds. Robinberries
Seedy perennial garden one great bird feeder.
What's Coming Up 151, pg. 16
When grocery money's better spend on bird food: Insect control.
What's Coming Up 123 pg. 10*
Which Viburnum best for bird food? Growing
Concerns 727*
Chickadees and juncos (below,
sharing a feeder) move every day between many feeding stations, man
made and natural. Knowing many, they are less likely to starve if
any one source dries up. Feeders do make a difference in wild bird
populations. One study concluded that chickadees with access to
feeders had a 69% winter survival rate, compared to those
without feeders, which had a 37% winter survival rate. Some
backyard birds are with us a long time. Blue jays have been recorded in the wild at over
16 years of age, even though 1-1/2 years is more typical for the likes of
black-capped chicakdee.
To learn more about various species' food preferences,
check used book sellers and jump at American Wildlife &
Plants: A Guide to Wildlife Food Habits, by Martin, Zim and
Nelson. It's an out-of-print Dover Press book that reprinted a 1951
USDA study.
(Click here to download a study that includes
information about winter survival and longevity, published by
www.birdfeeding.org and made available by Shaw Creek Bird
Supply.)
Clean, safe
water
Bevy
of bird baths
Mist sprinkler for the birds, invitation to eat leafhoppers.
Growing Concerns 724*
Shelter for
protection, moving about, raising young
Above: It isn't only nesting boxes that birds need but safe
places to hide, or southeast-facing perches to warm up on a cold
morning with the sun on their breasts and dense cover
behind.
Grampa gave them shelter, they ate all the hornworms. What's
Coming Up 50
Keep your eyes open, wildlife all around. What's
Coming Up 50, pp. 7-9
Perennial messiness has an up side: Bundle & stack healthy
cuttings to feed birds, shelter overwintering beneficial insects
Growing Concerns 630* and Garden enriches pets'
lives
Pros & cons of leaving perennials up for birds's sake.
Growing Concerns 695*
Robins may herald spring but also stay in winter.Forum: Robins all winter
Our sensibilities say "Keep things neat" but the cardinal
needs this thicket, and the marshy area surrounding a redwing
blackbird's nest is essential.
With the
good guys come the undesirables
Some of the undesirables are not only a headache for the
gardener and competition to the birds, but predators of the birds.
This is a busy spot for goldfinches, sparrows and others including
a cat and a hawk.
Dogs grubbing under bird feeders. Bug eating dogs
Geese not wanted, eat corn gluten meal.
What's Coming Up 142
Hawks eating the songbirds. Bird worry relief: Worried about
our birds and What's Coming
Up 132 pg. 8
Squirrels! What's Coming Up 30* and What's Coming
Up 47*
Some gardeners try to fine tune the environment to invite
the birds they want but close the door to others such as starlings
and pigeons. And of course there is the squirrel problem, and
eternal battle. We think a diverse landscape with niches for all
can broker a balance between the lot of them.
