Native Plants and Wildlife Gardens
Healthy Gardens. Healthy Planet
Hedgerows are important habitat for birds, mammals and a wide variety of species, providing nesting places, food, and safety. That said, not all hedgerows are created equal. Traditionally hedgerows were edges of fields allowed to fill in with ‘wild’ plants. Today, many hedgerows are comprised of a single plant species, usually an evergreen, designed as […]
Just writing the name House Wren Troglodytes aedon, stirs up angst within me. Dogged little creatures, these birds, like all native songbirds, are protected and it is illegal, according to the Migratory Bird Treaty Act of 1918, to remove their completed nests of twigs, snake skins, spider casings, and feathers even when placed on top of murdered bluebird […]
In mid-June we proudly related the exciting story of Prothonotary Warblers nesting on our front porch. Now, in mid-July we are bursting as the “proud parents” of four successfully-fledged chicks! As we wrote in July, the parents were feeding the rapidly growing young every few minutes with all the insects and caterpillars they were finding […]
The male Northern Cardinal (Cardinalis cardinals) is the last but more easily recognized bird of the Cardinalidae family found here at Flower Hill Farm. My Bestiary continues with the namesake of this family. Cardinals, long after most birds have migrated, contently rest upon naked branches outside our heated homes and visit bird feeders, especially those filled with […]
Just one of the many reasons why we garden for wildlife: Prothonotary Warblers breeding on our front porch! Imagine our excitement on May 17th when we heard the distinctive and emphatic song of a Prothonotary Warbler: “Sweet! Sweet! Sweet!” We each grabbed binoculars and headed out to see where it was and found it singing […]
Continuing on with the Cardinalidae family as life is bursting open here on our southeast facing New England hillside habitat. The rich red of the Scarlet Tanager (Piranga olivacea) complements the fresh greens of spring when he returns via his flight across the Gulf of Mexico from South American wintering sites. Complementary colors of red and green are […]
Rose-breasted Grosbeak (Pheucticus ludovicianus) is a stoutly built songbird of the Cardinalidae family. The male’s beauty of black, white, and red is surprising especially below the black throat where red escapes a bib and trickles down the center of his breast like paint flowing free from form on a canvas. What is not visible in any of the portraits featured […]
Last month my post showed the power of love in my native plant and wildlife garden with photos of an array of mating critters. This month it seems the seeds have been planted, so to speak, and the eggs are arriving. Most obvious would be the bluebirds, that have had several broods each year since […]
Thirty-nine months later and the birds keep flying into my A Bestiary — Tales from a Wildlife Garden. Return migrations are underway and this author is longing to see and hear our returning resident birds when the mountains of snow have melted. When spring rescues all the inhabitants, indoors and in the wild, from the grip […]
On our sister site, Beautiful Wildlife Gardens, I discussed gardening for desert birds. On this site which is more about native plants, I an going to discuss a few of the plants you can consider for your bird garden. The plants can fall into two categories – plants for food, and plants for shelter. Like […]
