Want to know what love sounds like? Open the windows, close your eyes and listen. Birds. You’ll hear lots of birds calling to one another, seeking a mate. Robins are chattering, doves are cooing, finches are chirping and bluebirds make that chur-lee chur chur-lee call. One bird in our backyard that I wish would sing more is our Red-bellied Woodpecker. Instead of chirping to find his mate, … [Read more...]

I’m an amateur birder, and as such, I suppose I should love all birds. Unfortunately, I don’t. Grackles. I despise them, and right now, my back yard and bird feeders are under attack. Grackles are among the largest of the blackbird family. They are not attractive birds, they have an irritating song (if you’d call it that), they hang in huge flocks and they eat everything in sight. When the … [Read more...]

When my son was a little boy, his name for Woody Woodpecker, the cartoon character, was Woody Pecker. Funny, but when one of our children misnamed something like that, it stuck. Grits, today, are “grips”, a la my youngest, Laura, and biscuits are “bisticks, as my oldest, Angelin, said as a child. So when we see a woodpecker in the backyard or at the feeder, it’s a woody pecker. I believe my … [Read more...]

I’m preparing for the coming garden season. I’m ordering seeds, testing the soil, planning my early and late plantings and mending fences. Mending fences? Yep, that’s the only way I have been able to salvage some of the fruits of my labor. Deer, you know. Back yard gardeners, you see, have a deer problem. More than drought, more than a late cold snap, more than a swarm of locusts, deer … [Read more...]

My fellow backyard gardener, Bill Hitt, orders seeds from multiple catalogues. As a result, he’s on every gardening mailing list in North America. The postman needs a wheelbarrow to get the catalogues up his driveway. I, however, am on just a few lists but already my contacts are sending me seed catalogues. I am beyond ready to get seeds in the ground and to get my garden going. Another fellow … [Read more...]

If you haven’t seen any finches at your feeders lately, it’s because they are all over in my yard, and I mean all of them. I have never seen so many finches. They are like a cast of thousands in a Cecil B. DeMille epic film. The finches I speak of are house finches. Some confuse them with purple finches because the male house finch has a reddish tint. The females are rather ordinary looking … [Read more...]

Snow is a good thing – not only for all the school children who relish a few extra days off to break out their sleds and toboggans, but it is an essential element in growing flowers and vegetables. We “Backyard Farmers” need snow to turn out a successful harvest come summer and fall. The recent snow will blanket our gardens and when it melts – we assume it will melt eventually – our small plots … [Read more...]

When I was a boy, back before Interstate highways and air-conditioned vehicles, we played games in the car to occupy time and take our minds off the fact that it was hot as hell and we weren’t going very fast. One game we played was Guess My Pretty Bird. In the game (usually played outside), someone with a cup full of water doused whoever guessed the name of the bird he or she was thinking of. … [Read more...]

If you want bluebirds in your backyard, don’t wait until spring to put out a box. Do it right now. If it’s an old birdhouse, make sure to clean it thoroughly. In the real estate business for birds, the “buyers” can be picky and a dirty birdhouse will send them elsewhere. Also, make sure it’s a “bluebird house”. According to the National Audubon society, it’s critical that a bluebird house have … [Read more...]

Christmas is over. It’s time to un-decorate the tree, drag it out to the curb and let the trash guys do their thing. But not so fast! A Christmas tree has many uses after the holiday season is over. For one, it makes ideal cover for small birds as they face the coming winter. On a few occasions, I have convinced my wife to let me drag the tree to my vegetable garden and remain there until the … [Read more...]