Wildlife Refuge

Hummingbirds eat nectar and small insects.  

"If you feed them they'll come..."  That is true to most of nature.  Living things can sense the direction of the source of good things and tend to gravitate towards it.  Life was designed that way for survival.  In the case of plants, their roots grow toward moist areas and the leaves towards the light.  If plants that seem so immobile can get to the food how much more to those that are equipped with wings and legs?  

Yes, I'm referring to the birds and other small mammals that now seem to reside in our garden because we have been regularly giving them food.  In return they give us entertainment and they help with pest control by eating aphids, larvae, slugs and snails that have found their way to my garden.    

There are so many wild doves in the area but we got our resident ones.

All of these birds can be attracted to a garden depending on the plants growing around.  However, in the absence of plants they can be lured by providing them feeds and water.  During summer time, water is as important as the feed in attracting them to the garden.  

He's cute but he scares the birds from the feeders.

The other thing that make a garden bird-friendly is the presence of bushes that provide shelter and cover from predator.  In our garden, the boxwood hedges provide just that to the finches when the hawk tries to get to them.

Broken saucers can still serve as a feeder.

Old breads are not wasted.  

When the quails are around, they bring down the snail population.

If you want to make your garden more interesting this season, try attracting more birds into it. 

Even doves enjoy the hammock in the garden

Birds are good boarders, they pay their fees in terms of entertainment and pest control.

The Robin and the Worm

An American Robin (Turdus migratorius) gets the worm - early in the morning.

"I think we consider too much the good luck of the early bird and not enough the bad luck of the early worm."   Franklin D. Roosevelt

New Residents

Mrs. Quail sits under the canopy of a lettuce plant.

Quails don't walk slowly when they know I am in the garden.  They fly away.  When I saw Mrs. Quail walk quietly away from the vegetable garden, I knew she was hiding something in there.  Like discovering some treasure, I found ten speckled eggs nestled under the ruffled lettuce leaves. 

We have been gone away for a long time this summer.  Mr. and Mrs. Quail decided that the garden was a promising place to raise a family.  Here they found food, water, and shelter. 

Ten tiny speckled eggs.

A few years ago, we had another quail nest in a pot of ivy geranium.  My children looked at the mother quail sit there every day.  Then one day, all they saw were egg shells.   My kids were very sad.  However, a few days later, we saw a family of quail with twelve chicks cross the lawn in a single file.  They were so cute!

This time my younger daughter visits Mrs. Quail every morning.  She hopes to be able to see the chicks when they hatch and before they leave their nest. 

Planting of the next vegetable crop will be delayed until the eggs are hatched.

Hummingbirds: Domesticating the Wild

A place to watch the birds.

With the addition of two hummingbird feeders on both ends of the arbor, we have attracted more hummingbirds to reside in the garden.  The arbor provides a shady place for us to observe them. 

Perched on a tiny branch in between feedings.

Feeling content with a bountiful supply of food.

Hummingbirds are territorial - they drive each other away

Sign of victory:  Feathers on the beak after a fight.

Insecure - still watching over the feeder. Why can't they share? 

Hummingbird formula = 1 part sugar + 4 parts water