Birdscaping: Standing Snags

[ysabetwordsmith]

I got to talking about snags and their value for birds, and I figured more folks would be interested in these resources.

We had a big standing snag for about 10 years before it fell to become a log. Currently I have a maple that's dying, and the woodpeckers love it.

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Seed Shopping

[ysabetwordsmith]

Today I set up the first order targeted for self-replicating seeds. These include landrace, grex, wild-collected, old garden, mixed, etc. options. Some of these are primarily for insects, some for birds, some for humans, and many for multiple users. :D I want to see if these types grow better than commercial varieties, especially after last year's frustrating experience of planting several packets of sunflower seeds to get only two (admittedly gorgeous) plants. I also want my garden to have a happy hippie sex life with promiscuous pollination. Promiscuous plants tend to have open, accessible flowers that produce lots of pollen and nectar to attract pollinators.

Regarding birds in particular: black-eyed Susans, coneflowers, and sunflowers are among their favorites in my yard.  The finches hang all over them in late summer to fall when the seeds ripen.  I'm lucky if I can get any to throw around the prairie garden.  Occasionally I see hummingbirds at the cypress vine, which has tubular red flowers.  I finally managed to get one pawpaw seedling to survive, but it needs a sex partner; they won't self-pollinate.  This would be an asset for fruit-eating birds.  

Note that I bought the minimum quantity of each; some are also available in larger packets. Most of these are $3-4 packets.

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Birdfeeding

[ysabetwordsmith]

Today is cloudy and cool.

I fed the birds. I've seen a flock of sparrows in the forest garden, a starling on the suet cage, and a fox squirrel on the hopper feeder.