Smell Like Dirt
In Spring, at the end of the day, you should smell like dirt.” Margaret AtwoodArchive for birds
LBJ’s
Don’t write off those Little Brown Jobs in your backyard as boring. Do a little research to see if they have a story to tell. We love to hear the white throated sparrows show up each fall. Their call of “Old Sam Peabody, Peabody, Peabody” makes me smile when I hear it. I thought I was seeing male and female birds, the male having a whiter strip and a “yellower” eye dot, but I was wrong! Watch this video and find out why!
BRRRRR!!!!!!
It may not be winter according to the calendar but it is according to the thermometer! It will be down into the 20’s every night this week. And while you are all snuggled up inside your warm home, its important to remember the wildlife outside. Make sure you have fresh water available for the wildlife, birds included. Its important that they be able to keep their feathers clean to help keep them warm. And of course everything still needs to drink water, no matter how cold it is A birdbath heater will help keep the water from freezing. And if you haven’t put up any roosting boxes, now is the time. Birds will use them to for protection from the weather.
Attracting wildlife with Native Plants
I know, I know….its been a long time since we’ve posted a video but we’ve had a busy summer! The problem with writing a blog about nature is that you have to spend too much time in front of the computer instead of out in nature, so we have been doing less blogging and spending more time outside lately. BUT, we managed to put together this video about gardening with plants native to your area in order to attract wildlife to your yard. I read a book earlier this summer called <a href=”Bringing Nature Home: How Native Plants Sustain Wildlife in Our Gardens
Summer Reruns
Network TV can do it, so I figure, why can’t SLD? Its July and the temps are in the 90’s pretty much every day now, and we are all spending a lot more time in the air conditioning, including me! But we can’t forget the wildlife in the backyard who don’t have the option of coming in to get out of the brutal temperatures. So I figured this is a great time to revisit our very first video, The Mister. At about $20, the mister is cheapest and most fun method of providing water for birds and other wildlife. And a great excuse to climb a tree! Come on, you know you want to.
Out of Thick Air
Well, summer arrived ahead of schedule and with a vengeance! We broke a record today here in the Piedmont region of North Carolina. 98 degrees. Hasn’t been that hot on this day since 1899! And we’re going to grow gills if it stays this humid for the rest of the summer. We wait until the candles melt in the house before we turn on the A/C but we finally broke down and turned it on. The water dripping out of the condensation pipe inspired this video. I hope you enjoy!
Backyard Babes!
Spring is when most small animals breed so that their babies are born (or hatched) when the weather is milder and food is abundant, and there is plenty of evidence right in our backyard! The birds are busy feeding babies so we shot this video on the important of providing the 4th element of a wildlife habitat—Places to Raise Young. Its not too late to put up some nesting boxes in your habitat. Most songbirds will have 2-3 broods in one nesting season that they often switch nesting sites, so there’s still time!
Gardening for bugs
Louise, a friend of Smell Like Dirt, alerted us to this recent article in the NY Times about the importance of gardening with native plants that will feed the native insects, who will then attract the native birds. Doug Tallamy has written Bringing Nature Home: How Native Plants Sustain Wildlife in Our Gardens
Bluebirds!
Want an (almost) guaranteed way to get bluebirds to nest in your yard? Watch this video we just completed and discover the secret weapon. If you live in a condo in Manhattan, this probably won’t work, but if you are in a typical suburban neighborhood, and have seen some bluebirds around, use this technique to get them to pick your yard as the place to raise their family. It won’t matter if you don’t have all the “ingredients” the books say you have to have in order to attract bluebirds. The secret weapon will make them ignore all the rules!
Keep counting those birds!
The Great Backyard Bird Count is over for this year, but that’s no reason to stop recording the birds you see in your backyard! There are a number of good sites for keeping track of the birds that visit your yard or birds you see when you are out birding away from home. Ebird is a site launched by Cornell and The Audubon Society. Once you sign up, it lets you enter birds you see in your backyard, or if you are a big birder and take lots of birding trips, you can document the birds you see anywhere in the western hemisphere. Its a great way to keep track of all the birds you’ve seen. But better than that, it allows Cornell and Audubon track bird populations, detect changes in migration and breeding habits and also monitor threatened species.
A second site is called Yardbirder and lets you keep a list of all the birds in your backyard and share that list with others. Have some birders in your extended family or friends across the country? Compare lists and see what’s going on in their yards during different times of the year.
So if you enjoyed the Great Backyard Bird Count, there’s no reason you can’t do it year round. Its fun and you’ll be helping scientists better understand what’s happening in the world of ornithology!
Repurposing your Christmas Tree
Reduce, Reuse, Recycle!! The Three R’s of Green Living–and you can practice all three with one simple step. Instead of putting your live Christmas Tree onto the curb for the county to pick up, consider using it to start a brush pile in your backyard. Brush piles are a great way to provide food and shelter for the wildlife that visit your yard. The decomposing wood will attract beetles and other bugs which will in turn feed birds and other wildlife. The shelter from the elements and protection from predators will benefit all types of birds and other animals this winter and will turn into a “places to raise young” in the spring. It will be its on little ecosystem!
Smell Like Dirt 