Do wild birds add to your pleasure in gardening?

[bobbiwoz]

On our way out this morning, I noticed the goldfinches enjoying the pink coneflower seeds. Butterflies and birds both add to my enjoyment of the garden. How about you?

Bobbi

[Rupert B Puppenstein]

I love the goldfinches too! This is our first year seeing them. I specifically planted a tall flower garden this year and it is amazing how many birds they attract but the goldfinches are my favorites. Plus, it attracts tons of butterflies, moths, and my favorite bugs ever...hummingbird moths! Next year, I will make sure that I have a larger garden like this. I am trying to get my neighborhood to be a lot more enjoyable for the families here, and am thinking about a workshop where the children in the neighborhood decorate their own birdhouses and we hang them all over the place as well as make our own feeders to learn more about birds and better appreciate them.

[bobbiwoz]

That sounds like quite a project and I'll bet you get lots of participation! I've never seen a hummingbird moth! We have 2 hummingbird feeders and are happy to have some come buy. My rarest sighting was when a piliated woodpecker came to my suet cake 2 years ago.

Good luck!

[Babbletrish]

Let me put it this way: I find people who do NOT like having wild animals in their garden utterly incomprehensible.

I write a lot about this in my blog and this is probably the most informative post out of all of them. And I do recommend joining Feederwatch.

[MazdaUK]

I get a bit cross with the squirrels nicking the bird seed and eating the hazelnuts before they ripen, and with the pigeons stripping the cherry tree again this year, and the redcurrants before I could get a net on it But I love seeing the blue t*ts and great t*ts, and the robins who keep me company when I'm digging. We also had long tailed t*ts and a woodpecker this week

[bobbiwoz]

We get tufted titmouse, mostly in winter.
http://www.bing.com/images/search?q=...ouse&FORM=IGRE

[mommytotwo]

Yes they do. So I bought a bird feeder, and from time to time, I sprinkle seeds for them to eat. But they are always around since they eat the seeds that fall to the ground of our pet birds.

[bobbiwoz]

So your pet birds live outside? I did have a relative who had birds outside in the summer. I don't see that any more around here. People in the city where I grew up used to have pigeons, but that's fallen by the wayside too I guess.

[bobbiwoz]

Originally Posted by MazdaUK

I get a bit cross with the squirrels nicking the bird seed and eating the hazelnuts before they ripen, and with the pigeons stripping the cherry tree again this year, and the redcurrants before I could get a net on it But I love seeing the blue t*ts and great t*ts, and the robins who keep me company when I'm digging. We also had long tailed t*ts and a woodpecker this week

When I lived in PA, we had good soil for blueberries, but the birds would always get them before we did. When I netted the bushes, sometimes a bird would get it's wing caught in the net. That did it for me, I gave up growing them.

For whatever reason birds do not bother my raspberries, and they produce more than the blueberry bushes did. I often enjoy 2 crops of raspberries, spring and fall, depending on when we get the first frost.

[MazdaUK]

I've just last year replanted my raspberries as the canes got too old, so we didn't have a huge crop this year but the blackbirds love them so we have to net those (but they are later so we'd had our warning) We use old net curtains rather than garden netting, as we've found the birds don't get caught in that, and the whiteness scares them off a bit.

There's a whole family of magpies using our apple tree as an "all you can eat" buffet at present but they are keeping the parakeets away.

[bobbiwoz]

Originally Posted by MazdaUK

I've just last year replanted my raspberries as the canes got too old, so we didn't have a huge crop this year but the blackbirds love them so we have to net those (but they are later so we'd had our warning) We use old net curtains rather than garden netting, as we've found the birds don't get caught in that, and the whiteness scares them off a bit.

There's a whole family of magpies using our apple tree as an "all you can eat" buffet at present but they are keeping the parakeets away.

Well, the net curtains sound like a great idea. If we move back to NJ, perhaps Cape May, I will plant a blueberry bush or two!

I had a sweet cherry tree that I also gave up on.

[harrismargaret9]

I love having birds as they are natural predators to insects which destroy my garden. I also like watching them. Its amazing to see how different their life is than ours.

[LindaBabe]

oh yeah! And to my scrapbooking and cooking too, since the feeders and bird bath are in full view of my kitchen windows!

We have humming birds, finches, martins, chickadees, tufted titmouse, robins, cardinals, the occasional rosy breasted grosbeak, hairy, downy, yellowbellied and piliated wood peckers, common flickers, mourning doves, and others which I can't remember without my list.

Oddly, we get WAY more birds here in the 'suburbs' than we ever got out in the country.

[bobbiwoz]

Originally Posted by LindaBabe

oh yeah! And to my scrapbooking and cooking too, since the feeders and bird bath are in full view of my kitchen windows!

We have humming birds, finches, martins, chickadees, tufted titmouse, robins, cardinals, the occasional rosy breasted grosbeak, hairy, downy, yellowbellied and piliated wood peckers, common flickers, mourning doves, and others which I can't remember without my list.

Oddly, we get WAY more birds here in the 'suburbs' than we ever got out in the country.

One bird that I have seen more in the country around here than in the suburbs where I live are the beautiful bluebirds!