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The Backyard Bird Lover's Ultimate How-To Guide: More Than 200 Easy Ideas and Projects for Attracting and Feeding Your Favorite Birds - Softcover

Roth, Sally

 
9781605295190: The Backyard Bird Lover's Ultimate How-To Guide: More Than 200 Easy Ideas and Projects for Attracting and Feeding Your Favorite Birds
Softcover
ISBN 10: 1605295191 ISBN 13: 9781605295190
Verlag: Rodale Pr, 2010

Inhaltsangabe

The Backyard Bird Lover's Ultimate How-to Guide by Sally Roth is a comprehensive A-to-Z handbook for the foods and feeders, plants and projects that will guarantee a bird-friendly backyard

One of the joys of spending time in the backyard is observing the birds. This acorns-to-wrens guide helps readers create a backyard that's right for them and right for their local birds.

The book targets all skill levels, offering new birders plenty of basics while intriguing longtime birdwatchers with new ideas. Here readers will learn:
• which birdhouses are a smart buy and which ones to leave on the shelf
• how to choose a birdseed mix to attract colorful songbirds—rather than pesky crows
• why easy homemade suet blocks are irresistable to hungry birds in every season
• how to offer shelter to species dealing with disappearing natural habitats

Along with the ins and outs of feeding, behavior, nesting, and gardening advice, each of the 200-plus entries is sprinkled with super-simple step-by-step projects, bird treat recipes, and planting ideas, along with plenty of fascinating bird lore and Roth's own observations on bird behavior.

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Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

SALLY ROTH is author of many books on gardening and birding. A lifelong gardener, naturalist, and sought-after public speaker, she lives in New Harmony, IN.

Auszug. © Genehmigter Nachdruck. Alle Rechte vorbehalten.

A Whole New World

The big, wide world starts right in our own backyard.

Every time I buy a bag of seeds or a few blocks of suet for my backyard birds at the store, it seems someone will remark on it.

"Getting a lot of goldfinches?" the fellow in front of me asked the other day, as I slid a sack of niger onto the checkout counter.

"Just starting," I noted. "But I want to be ready when they come in."

"So far, mine are more interested in the cosmos flowers than the feeders," he laughed.

As we chatted about our birds, several people nearby and the checker herself joined in. What's the best food? What can I do about wasps at my hummingbird feeder? Do you think it's too late to plant zinnias for the finches?

Whether you've been feeding birds for a while or you're just getting started, it's easy to tell that the business is booming. New feeders, new foods, a whole aisle in the discount stores, and even entire shops dedicated to wild birds are all signs that we're a force to be reckoned with.

Unbelievable as it seems, one out of every four adult Americans watches birds in his or her backyard.

We number a grand total of 46 million, or one out of seven men, women, and children all across the country, according to 2009's The US State of the Birds, the first comprehensive report of US bird populations, coordinated by the US Fish and Wildlife Service with the help of many bird conservancy groups. No wonder we keep running into fellow bird lovers everywhere we go! Whether it's in my little hometown of New Harmony, Indiana, or the Boston metropolis, there are an awful lot of us feeding birds.

And, boy oh boy, do we spend the bucks: hundreds of millions of dollars on our seed, feeders, birdhouses, and other supplies, every year.

A force to be reckoned with? You better believe it.

And just in the nick of time.

All across the country, the woods right around us and in wild places, too, are becoming mighty bare of birds. Scores of species are in decline--wood thrushes, blue-winged warblers, chestnut-backed chickadees, and many others are dropping in such numbers that they've left a noticeable gap. May mornings just don't sound like they used to, and neither do the dusky evenings, when thrushes on every side once sang the day to sleep.

The grasslands aren't as full of lark song and bobwhite whistles as they once were, either. Field sparrows no longer fill our meadows of goldenrod and wild asters with their sweet twittering. And along creeks and around ponds, willow warblers and flycatchers are harder to find.

Our deserts, sagebrush, and other dry lands are even worse hit, with canyon wrens no longer echoing off every rock, and nearly three-quarters of species showing significant declines.

On the other hand, our feeders are booming. Though we're noticing some gaps- -where are the white-crowned sparrows this year?--most of us are hosting more birds than ever before. We're even seeing some new kinds of birds come to visit our feeders for the very first time.

What's happening?

The world is changing. And birds are feeling the effects, big-time.

Success Story: Eastern Bluebird

Problems: Lack of nest sites; food shortages

Solutions: Birdhouses; feeders

Bluebirds are so beloved--and so noticeable--that they quickly got attention when their numbers dropped dramatically after a few bad winters in the South in the 1950s and a couple of big blizzards in the mid-1960s.

An unusually severe late-winter storm takes its toll on bluebirds because they're very early nesters, and insects are their food of choice. The cold itself can kill the birds outright, and the lack of food can starve the adults or nestlings.

Bluebirds usually rebound after a bad year, but numbers kept dropping because another factor was at play: habitat destruction. The birds nested in cavities in dead wood, and dead wood was fast becoming an endangered species itself.

Old apple trees, one of the birds' favorite nesting sites, were being tidied up, decaying limbs removed. Wooden fence posts were being torn out and replaced by metal. And introduced starlings and house sparrows, who also nest in cavities, were competing for the ever-scarcer homesites.

Simple solution: birdhouses, and lots of them.

Lawrence Zeleny started the North American Bluebird Society (www.nabluebirdsociety.org) in 1978 and began an energetic educational effort to spread the word about bluebird trails. He and other friends of the bluebird campaigned tirelessly to increase nest sites by building "bluebird trails." The trails of nest boxes have proved a big success. In 1978, bluebirds were so few and far between that many people had never seen one. By 1998, just 20 years later, they were being seen frequently wherever the habitat suited them.

Today, these lovely birds are common visitors to our own backyards if we're lucky enough to live near bluebird country. Whether your bluebirds are residents or only passing through, you can help them by providing the soft foods they like best: mealworms, peanut butter dough, and other bluebird feasts.

Tipping the Balance

Every day, an incredible balancing act is going on all around us. Jiggle the balance, and countless other plants and animals have to readjust because every living thing on Earth is connected to everything else.

Change is natural. Nature is always shifting, as plants and animals grab their share of space and resources. It's been going on for ages on our planet, in countless big and small ways.

Nature's been doing a great job of balancing things out. But as our own impact on Earth has become bigger and bigger, the changes have piled up. Too much change too fast causes that balance to swing in ways that can swamp whatever's in its path.

What's tipped the balance? Three factors add up to a great big loss of birds:

. Habitat destruction . Pesticides and pollution . Climate change

And now, many birds have started a slide that could be disastrous.

The good news? We can help Mother Nature tip the scale back the other way. Remember, there are 46 million of us bird-watchers.

Our humble backyards can save the birds.

Millions of Safe Havens

What a difference 46 million backyard bird sanctuaries would make to our friends!

We've already got a good start, with our feeders brimming with seeds and our birdbaths brimming with water for a refreshing drink. Many of us have added berry bushes for songbirds, nectar flowers for hummingbirds, birdhouses for wrens and chickadees, and other niceties that make our yards more welcoming.

Let's give ourselves a big pat on the back: Nearly all of our most familiar friends, the birds we see every day at our feeders or in our backyards, are thriving.

Birds of cities and towns, which are long accustomed to living right alongside us year-round or traveling only a short distance in winter, are doing fine, thank you.

Robins, blue jays, house finches, American goldfinches, black-capped and Carolina chickadees, downy woodpeckers, white-breasted nuthatches, and many others are all A-okay.

Why? Three big reasons:

1. Our backyards, city parks, and other "civilized" places have become part of the birds' natural habitat. Our feeders and plants, as well as the trees along our streets, have given them a helping hand or a place to call home, and they've made the most of it. 2. These birds are generalists, not narrowly focused specialists. They eat different kinds of foods or use a variety of plants and habitats as nest sites and can switch to other resources when they need to. If it's a bad year for acorns, they'll turn to other foods to take up the slack-- including our sunflower seeds. 3. And--important factor!--these familiar birds don't migrate long...

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Verlag
Rodale Pr
Erscheinungsdatum
2010
Sprache
Englisch
ISBN 10 
1605295191
ISBN 13 
9781605295190
Einband
Taschenbuch
Anzahl der Seiten
316
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Verantwortliche Person
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