I write quite a bit about the birds I see from my deck in Prescott and from my patio in Phoenix. In fact, one of the messages I like to spread on "Mike in the Wild" is that the wonder and beauty of nature is right outside our windows, or at least just a short distance off our porches.
At my mountain home I entice my feathered subjects with several attractions: three feeders filled individually with seeds, suet and nectar; a ceramic bowl where I replenish freshwater; and small piles of peanuts for the jays. As a result, last summer from the Fourth of July weekend to the fourth week of August, I identified almost forty individual bird species visiting my forested property.
In contrast, I only maintain a hummingbird feeder at my Phoenix home where I usually see the Anna's and Costa's varieties. My ten year-old cat has frequent access to my walled-in yard so I don't want to inadvertently set traps for other garden visitors. Of shocking concern, house cats are the number one threat to migratory birds, killing more of these long-distance travelers than window strikes, power lines and agricultural pesticides.
Nevertheless I missed watching and photographing the Prescott birds and decided to place some of the seeds I use in the forest on a high wall that divides my Phoenix property from a manicured pathway through my community. I periodically see a pair of northern cardinals in the area and I was thrilled when they quickly imbibed in the striped sunflower seeds that make up part of the seed mixture. Like their various grosbeak cousins that I often see in Prescott, the cardinals are easily able to hull the seeds with their tongue and beak.
The millet in the seed blend was fast to attract a small flock of white-crowned sparrows that seems to have made their winter home in the bougainvillea bushes on the other side of the wall. Likewise another type of sparrow, a pair of Abert's towhee that regularly frequent my yard, also partook in the new supply of food. But one of the towhees got a bit careless while pecking through some stones at the base of the wall and let my cat creep up dangerously close. Fortunately Josie is slow and the bird quite agile.
Meanwhile a few common backyard birds like northern mockingbirds, verdins and Gila woodpeckers ignored the seeds entirely. Like many birds, they probably would prefer a type of suet as a substitute to the fatty insects that predominantly make up their diet.
I was afraid the seed would attract mostly mourning doves, house finches and house sparrows, common birds in almost every city in North America. Surprisingly, very few seemed to have discovered the new neighborhood bounty, at least initially. Instead, another denizen of the desert, the curve-billed thrasher, paid regular visits, seeming to suck up the seeds like a vacuum cleaner when the towhees, white-crowned sparrows or cardinals weren't present.
But within a couple of days one house finch, then two, and then a flock of five or six seemed to take over the short length of wall where I laid out a handful of seeds once a day. And then I noticed a male house sparrow with a female or two. My desert home wasn't a sanctuary for my neighborhood's desert birds anymore but was quickly turning into a habitat like every other city across the continent where pigeons scour and scrape the sidewalks for every edible morsel.
I'm convinced the cardinal pair in my neighborhood is the only couple in the immediate area as their appearances are relatively infrequent. But they seem to know my wall and the landscaped walkway behind it, so I might wait a few days till the 'city' birds move on and then place some seeds out just every once in a while. A regular visit by the colorful and elegant cardinals just might cure a bit of my wistfulness for the wider range of forest and migratory birds that await me - or at least my filled feeders - in Prescott next summer.
At my mountain home I entice my feathered subjects with several attractions: three feeders filled individually with seeds, suet and nectar; a ceramic bowl where I replenish freshwater; and small piles of peanuts for the jays. As a result, last summer from the Fourth of July weekend to the fourth week of August, I identified almost forty individual bird species visiting my forested property.
In contrast, I only maintain a hummingbird feeder at my Phoenix home where I usually see the Anna's and Costa's varieties. My ten year-old cat has frequent access to my walled-in yard so I don't want to inadvertently set traps for other garden visitors. Of shocking concern, house cats are the number one threat to migratory birds, killing more of these long-distance travelers than window strikes, power lines and agricultural pesticides.
Nevertheless I missed watching and photographing the Prescott birds and decided to place some of the seeds I use in the forest on a high wall that divides my Phoenix property from a manicured pathway through my community. I periodically see a pair of northern cardinals in the area and I was thrilled when they quickly imbibed in the striped sunflower seeds that make up part of the seed mixture. Like their various grosbeak cousins that I often see in Prescott, the cardinals are easily able to hull the seeds with their tongue and beak.
The millet in the seed blend was fast to attract a small flock of white-crowned sparrows that seems to have made their winter home in the bougainvillea bushes on the other side of the wall. Likewise another type of sparrow, a pair of Abert's towhee that regularly frequent my yard, also partook in the new supply of food. But one of the towhees got a bit careless while pecking through some stones at the base of the wall and let my cat creep up dangerously close. Fortunately Josie is slow and the bird quite agile.
Meanwhile a few common backyard birds like northern mockingbirds, verdins and Gila woodpeckers ignored the seeds entirely. Like many birds, they probably would prefer a type of suet as a substitute to the fatty insects that predominantly make up their diet.
I was afraid the seed would attract mostly mourning doves, house finches and house sparrows, common birds in almost every city in North America. Surprisingly, very few seemed to have discovered the new neighborhood bounty, at least initially. Instead, another denizen of the desert, the curve-billed thrasher, paid regular visits, seeming to suck up the seeds like a vacuum cleaner when the towhees, white-crowned sparrows or cardinals weren't present.
But within a couple of days one house finch, then two, and then a flock of five or six seemed to take over the short length of wall where I laid out a handful of seeds once a day. And then I noticed a male house sparrow with a female or two. My desert home wasn't a sanctuary for my neighborhood's desert birds anymore but was quickly turning into a habitat like every other city across the continent where pigeons scour and scrape the sidewalks for every edible morsel.
I'm convinced the cardinal pair in my neighborhood is the only couple in the immediate area as their appearances are relatively infrequent. But they seem to know my wall and the landscaped walkway behind it, so I might wait a few days till the 'city' birds move on and then place some seeds out just every once in a while. A regular visit by the colorful and elegant cardinals just might cure a bit of my wistfulness for the wider range of forest and migratory birds that await me - or at least my filled feeders - in Prescott next summer.
 |
| Male northern cardinal eating seeds on my Phoenix wall. |
 |
| Female northern cardinal eating seeds on my Phoenix wall. |
 |
| Abert's towhee eating seeds on my Phoenix wall. |
 |
| White-crowned sparrow eating seeds on my Phoenix wall. |
 |
| Juvenile white-crowned sparrow eating seeds on my Phoenix wall. |
 |
| Curve-billed thrasher eating seeds on my Phoenix wall. |
 |
| Male house finch eating seeds on my Phoenix wall. |
Comments
Post a Comment