Donita

There are so many beautiful photos in the class that I wish I had a bigger yard!  I don't have a lot of room so most of my flowers end up in pots.  I'm trying to do more natives for the birds.  I have a raised bed vegetable garden and find the finches perching on my tomato cages.  I'm sure it's much cooler for them and they are very welcome to anything in the garden, especially the bugs!

If I were a bird I would love to hang out at your place!

My husband and I have been in a battle over pesticides.  He insisted to get rid of all bugs and I'm always about how they have natural predators and some are beneficial, and also our dog got sick after a visit from the "bug guy".  We stopped and they controlled themselves.  Okay, one spider in the house and he started up the service again.  Now the clover mites are back.  He is now convinced that the spiders eat the clover mites and spider clover mites are the bigger pest! I have had to pull my feeders after I found a finch with House Finch eye disease.  Poor guy, his vision was so House Finch eye disease impaired that I was almost able to get close enough to grab him.   I cleaned everything up and replaced feeders after a few days.

They want to be so fastidious at our park which is separated from my yard by a block wall.  The leaves and other debris get cleaned up on a yearly basis.  At least they don't prune back the ornamental grasses till spring.

I have a little bit of everything now but I just want to add more cohesiveness to it.   There is too much blank space between plants and my bird area.  My yard is small, surrounded by the standard issue southwest block wall.  I hang planters for flowers and on the wall and pots of flowers along my patio edge that attract hummers.  These are a mixture of natives and typical easy growing annuals.  My neighbor has flowering crabapple trees along the wall and another wall buts up against the subdivision park which is lined with more trees, tall grasses, shrubs, and flowering trees which add privacy and shade.  We have mostly songbirds but live a block from fields full of raptors, crows and ravens, and, with the exception of a couple ravens, have not ventured here for hunting.  I set out sunflower hearts all year round; suet and nyjer seed in the winter; jelly, oranges and sugar water in the summer.  House finches year round (and House sparrows that I discourage); summer I get Black-chinned hummers and Bullocks orioles; fall brings the Rufus hummers stopping during migration (fun to have but glad to see leave - little meanies); winter I get a pair of Flickers, Pine Siskins, American and Lesser goldfinches, White-crowned Sparrows and when a wind or snow storms comes through will get someone new stopping by.  This winter Ruby-crowned Kinglet and Dark-eyed Junco visited a few times.  I'm in the Feeder Watch program so it's always fun to find someone new! I would like to go more native to the front yard but we have to look "consistent" with the neighbors so its a small yard with flowering shrubs.  At least we are all rock/gravel like the other areas.

@Kaiah When sitting out on the patio reading, they will come to the feeders about 10 ft away from me.  The goldfinches scatter off and don't come back when I'm outside and leave in the spring when they get their full colors in.  House finches are year rounders.   Also I had a house finch sleeping on the feeder one morning.  I thought he might have been sick but when I got about a foot away he woke up and flew off!  I like the variety of colors of the males, from yellow to bright red, and how much color they have as they age.

I'm down south from you in Cedar City.  My favorite is the Black-chinned since they frequent my feeders and had a nest this spring at my tree.  They are friendly little guys, buzzing me as I work around the yard or lounge and read.  They have hovered about a foot above my dog as he lays in the grass too.  Love to see that magenta flash!

Great photograph!

@Anne That sounds like a sight to see!

I noticed that they avoid them but I have seen them perch on the other side of the feeder from the bees.  I've read that they do get stung and it is mostly fatal.  Not sure where I read that or how accurate that comment was.