Margo

When I'm in my yard south of Seattle, I love the Pileated Woodpeckers and Northern Flickers that some to eat the suet in my feeders.  Sorry, no pictures.  I love the orange color of the flicker's tail feathers.  I had an adult Pileated Woodpecker one day with a juvenile.  I watched as the adult taught the juvenile how to eat out of the suet feeder!! In the summer months, I volunteer as a beach naturalist.  I'm working to learn and identify Seabirds, Wading Birds, and Shorebirds.  I also live near a heron sanctuary; so it probably won't surprise you that the Great Blue Heron is a favorite of mine.

I loved your comment about the 6' x 6' blueberry bush.  I also don't have a plan, although I think I have been trial and error planning for the past four years.  I want to add a blueberry bush (smaller than 6'!) and a crab apple tree.  I have been paying much more attention to native plants and plants that attract birds.  I liked the idea from the previous lesson - 2/3 for the birds.

I agree and like you am working to reduce my birds relying on feeders.  Our area of WA State had a terrible experience with pine siskin finch swarming and an outbreak of salmonella area wide.  I hope I don't see that again.  I have many recommended features in my yard already, but the yard is pretty thin on nuts and berries.

I live in WA State, and when we bought this house it had no lawn!  We've never lived on a property with no lawn before.  You certainly look at a yard and garden differently!  The previous owners had hummingbird feeders; so I added those first.  I tried a seed feeder in the backyard, but I attracted no birds.  Most of my feeders are now in the front yard, and the number of bird visitors has just grown and grown.  As I've added plants, the birds certainly don't seem to mind that there is no lawn!

My front and backyard are huge, with little area that supports gardening.  The area is heavily wooded, and the soil quality is not great.  I do have several areas that support some gardening, almost like gardening zones.  We moved here five years ago, and I am reading more and more about woodland gardening!  I have been a bird feeder for over 30 years, and a gardener at least that long.  For most of that time, I saw those activities are parallel, not intersecting.  I have many birds visiting.  The pileated woodpeckers and Stellar's jays are probably my favorites.  I have lived in NJ and WA where the American Goldfinch is the state birds.   I never saw one until I moved to WA, and I have dozens visiting!  I feed hummingbirds year round.  As I inventory my bird tools, I have: 2 seed feeders, 2 suet feeders, 3 hummingbird feeders, and 3 birdbaths.  Two of the birdbaths have solar features, but my hummingbirds love to fly and linger in the hose spray when I am watering the garden! I started thinking more about gardening for birds after the pine siskin finch swarming this winter.  My area of WA State experienced extreme swarming behavior including the spread of salmonella and the death of hundreds of birds.  I had never seen anything like it before, and I brought my feeders in for more than three months.  I am focusing now on gardening for birds with a goal of reducing my feeder use and the risk of swarming behavior and disease spread.  While the experts say that is a cyclical behavior, I do hope I don't see it again.  I would like to offer more native plants and natural food for my bird visitors.  I know I will also need to improve the soil in my yard to support more gardening.