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Dalton
Roberts |
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There’s an erroneous idea floating around out there that birds do not need us in the spring and summer, including the notion that warm weather feeding “spoils” the birds. Birds are not like humans who get so accustomed to handouts they can lose the desire to work. You simply cannot spoil birds. They must hustle up their meals every day. You may certainly make it easier for them but easy or hard, they will find something to eat. The good part about spring and summer feeding is that you and I can make sure their food is healthy and accessible. So many areas have been stripped of the dense foliage and wetlands that attract insects, larva and worms. Even weeds are unwelcome in subdivisions and many birds dine on weed seeds. Birds that nest in the trees of these denuded subdivisions must travel long distances for food for their broods. Another thing to remember is that birds of a feather do flock together. Crowds of birds hanging around your feeders announce to transients, “Hey, dinner is being served here. Come on in and pull up a chair.” It’s the transients that create the most excitement for local birders. One way birds need us more at this time of the year is for the calcium that builds good, strong, healthy eggs. Starting this month and through April, save your eggshells. When they are dry, crush them up and throw them on the ground under your feeders. You will be rewarded with healthier babies. If you do decide to cease feeding in warm weather, wait until June and you will get to see some of the transients that tend to come through when spring is becoming summer. The same is true in the fall. Start your winter-feeding program back up in October. One bird passing through as these seasons change is the Tennessee warbler, a beautiful little bird with big bug eyes. Even Roger Tory Peterson’s Field Guide to the Birds of Eastern and Central North America fails to point up the bird’s unique eyes and that is what made it so spectacular to me. I saw this bird and other transients more dependably when n I lived on Benton Drive where my property abutted thirteen acres of woods. It’s my guess that transients feel safer stopping over in large wooded areas. Mr. and Mrs. Tennessee Warbler visited me on their way to Canada in the spring and enroute to Mexico and Venezuela in the fall. They love peanut butter. I bought a wire screen peanut butter feeder but you can drill a bunch of holes in an old limb, fill the holes with it and it works just as well. The starlings also like it but it is worth the cost twice a year just to have these gorgeous little birds to stop over. One tip about peanut butter: it can actually choke birds. Mix it 50/50 with cornmeal. If you have hedges and almost any kind of berry-bearing shrubs, you will have birds all summer. The cedar waxwings love the little hard green berries on our hedges. We had a wall of them along one property line at the old home place and they would attract swarms of waxwings. Mother would squeal with delight every year when these masked berry thieves with yellow-tipped tails came through. If you have no berry shrubs, you may want to talk to the experts at our two Wild Birds Unlimited stores (East Brainerd Road and Hixson Pike) about the best bets for this area. The last issue of Audubon Workshop’s catalog (www.AudubonWorkshop.com) contained a tremendous selection of plants for spring and fall plantings. I am a 12-month feeder of the birds for one reason: I love them and I want them around all the time. I cannot imagine a day without my birds.
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