My husband and I love watching the wildlife on our property. I never know what I'm going to see each time I look out the window! Since we enjoy the wildlife so much, we became a Certified Wildlife Habitat through the National Wildlife Federation. To become certified you must provide four things: food, water, cover and a place to raise young.
My goodness, who is this I see? It's Charlie the Pug, one of our six dogs. The dogs enjoy keeping me company while I'm working in the garden.
This pitchfork makes a nice holder for apples and other fruit. I've seen Cardinals, Mockingbirds, Sparrows and Finches eating the apples.
We have several birdbaths in our gardens. We keep this one heated in the winter so our feathered friends can always have a bath and get a drink.
The suet feeders stay very busy in the winter. We provide several varieties so that different types of birds will visit. Remember, it's best not to use suet in the heat of summer as it tends to turn rancid.
We have two feeders filled with sunflower seeds. Not only are these seeds great for the birds, but I've found that if I throw some of them in the garden, I can grow some beautiful sunflowers!
We also put out unsalted peanuts. The BlueJays love these.
Here is a Dove couple sitting near a Bluebird house. The Doves love to visit the sunflower seed feeders.
Mr. BlueJay looking for his peanuts.
One of the dozens of Cardinals that visit. They love the sunflower seeds, suet and apples.
Cedar Waxwings love fruit and insects.
Last, a picture of one of the hawks that come by. I always know when one is around because all the other birds take cover in the bushes and trees. This is Mother Nature at work!
I hope you enjoyed seeing some of the wildlife in our garden.
Happy Gardening
The birds are most happy in your garden! Love the shot of the hawk. I walked outside this morning and found a ton of buzzards flying above-not usual for here-but no hawks.
ReplyDeleteHi Tina....Yes, I thought the hawk picture was a good one too! Yesterday we had a really big hawk on the pergola, but it flew away before we could grab the camera. Always something interesting to look at....and think about what's out there when we're NOT looking!
DeleteSo glad you started a blog and I look forward to seeing more of your extensive cottage gardens. Thank you for your kind comment on my blog. My gardens are on 1/4 acre with cottage and outbuildings. Gardening is wonderful therapy, especially now and I am thankful for my humble gardens.
ReplyDeleteYour bird photos are GREAT! I love looking into Charlie's eyes.
Have a wonderful 2013.
FlowerLady Lorraine
Hi FlowerLady! Thank you for visiting my blog. Gardening IS wonderful therapy and I'm glad you are finding some comfort in it. I'm sure we'll "talk" again soon!
DeleteI wish I could get cedar waxwings to come to my garden. I planted a crabapple 7 years ago in hopes of luring them. Lots of fruit, but no waxwings. Any suggestions on how to attract them?
ReplyDeleteThey love juniper berries and maple buds in my garden. Also hollies are a favorite food of theirs. Good luck!
DeleteThanks Tina for sharing these tips for feeding Cedar Waxwings.
DeleteYou certainly are taking care of the wildlife. Clever trick to cover the connector for your bird bath heater. That is one thing I need to figure out--how to keep our bird bath water from freezing. I don't want a cord across the patio where we walk so I need to investigate the solar ones I guess.
ReplyDeleteCute doggie!
Hello! Yes, we love the wildlife and all animals. When we decided to buy the birdbath heater we did some investigating. Some of the stores that specialize in animal merhandise sold different types, including solar ones. They were quite a bit more expensive and that's why we chose the electric one. We did learn the hard way to really do a good job covering the connector. We had taped it with electrical tape, but the water found it's way in and blew the circuit. Now it's taped and put into the food container and we haven't had a problem since! Charlie and the other 5 dogs will probably find their pictures in future posts. They like to keep me company in the garden. Thank you for visiting my blog!
DeleteWhat a nice post showing your habitat. No cedar waxwings here, I would love to see them. I put out apples and pears too, but the squirrels are greedy and take them before the birds get a snack. I throw out the seed that my cockatoo does not eat for the wild birds and have gotten quite a few sunflowers growing in summer. My garden is so small and having sunflowers is a bit much. Last summer, volunteer pumpkins grew and that was a big hit for bees. The birds got the seeds when they became pumpkin pies.
ReplyDeleteHello! I have no idea why but we don't have problems with squirrels. For a short time there were two that ate sunflower seeds, but I haven't seen them in a long time. Could be our six dogs, but in the colder weather they spend most of their time lazing around in the house. I understand about the sunflowers. They tend to take up quite a bit of space. However, I like them so much that last year I bought seeds for shorter varieties (about 36 inches) and this year I bought seeds for dwarfs. I like to watch the finches eating the seeds off the flowers! Thank you for visiting my blog!
DeleteThe wildlife surely appreciate all the efforts you've made to keep them well-fed, Christy. I love all the photos of the birds, but I'm especially drawn to Charlie--he reminds me of my granddogs:)
ReplyDeleteI knew there was something familiar about your garden and then I saw your first post--no wonder, I have seen some of your garden before through Tina's eyes. Welcome to the world of blogging! I'm looking forward to seeing more of your garden and all the creatures who visit it.
Good morning Rose...Yes, I was a guest on Tina's blog and she showed me how to set up my blog (I couldn't have done it without her.) She also did a post about our garden. Little Charlie is one of our six "kids". We have three pugs, one basset hound and two lab mixes. I'm sure all the "kids" will find themselves on the post in the future!
DeleteHow lovely to see all the birds of your garden. I try to do the same thing in my garden, and I also get visiting hawks and buzzards. I am not a great gardener, but I always plant things for birds and insects - one day I would love to create a butterfly and bumblebee garden. :-)
ReplyDeleteHi Mia....I think you will find that many of the flowers you plant for the birds and insects are also favorites of the butterflies and bees!
DeleteWe had a heated birdbath when we lived in PA and that thing was GREAT! The birds loved it.
ReplyDeleteGlad to "meet" another gardening/ wildlife blogger!
Yes...we must keep our feathered friends happy! Thanks for visiting my blog.
DeleteLove the birds but love the picture of Charlie! He is such a sweetie pie...must take after his mother.
ReplyDeleteYes, Charlie is that!! All six of our "kids" are sweetie pies...most of the time!
DeleteOur land is home to many feathered friends. I can keep the suet out year round as we have so many wood pecking birds that it never has a chance to go rancid. I have documented 55 different types of birds not counting the many different sparrows we see. I get the sparrows confused as there are so many different ones but yet so similar....
ReplyDeleteWOW! 55 different types of birds! Last count for us was about 30. I bet it's wonderful to sit and watch all your activity! Charlie sends his regards!
DeleteMeant to mention how cute i think your Charlie pup is....
ReplyDeleteLove this!
ReplyDeleteThanks LaNette! I'm so glad you visited my blog!
DeleteI just figured out you are new to blogging. I tried to follow your blog, but didn't see a way to. I did add you to my sidebar.
ReplyDeleteDo you have squirrels in Tennessee? I like to provide mostly safflower seeds for our birds, but my husband gets other kinds of seeds, including sunflower, which causes the squirrels to frequent the yard.
Hi. Yes, there are lots of squirrels in TN. My gardening friends who feed the birds complain about them all the time. However, for some reason they don't bother our feeders. I think it must be something to do with our six dogs! THANK YOU for adding my blog to your sidebar...maybe at some point I can figure out how to add the "follow" feature.
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