For the Birds

One of our goals in our new house is to create a backyard habitat for birds, butterflies, and bees. I am going to be using this article as my inspiration this Spring and Summer, but for now we are focused on the birds.

Unfortunately, our new yard has only two young trees, too small to support our heavy feeder. To address this problem, the kids and I found a fallen limb out in the woods with several smaller branches to hang feeders on. We attached a couple of log “pancakes” to the branches to rest bird treats and bowls of warm water on (for the wintertime when water is frozen elsewhere). My husband used a post hole digger to make a deep, narrow hole to anchor the limb into the ground. We chose a spot near to our garden and to several small bushes, which can act as protection from birds of prey.

All-in-all the project took us less than an hour and zero dollars and will provide birds with a safe habitat for winter feeding.

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If you are interested on how and what to feed birds, this is a good article from the Humane Society.

If you want to turn your backyard into a wildlife friendly place, here is another article on how to do it. Or you can read either of these books by Douglas Tallamy: Bringing Nature Home or Nature’s Best Hope: A New Approach to Conservation that Starts in your Yard.

– Hannah