Wildlife Photograph

Provide for the Birds and You'll Reap the Rewards

Monday January 02, 2006
Here are some helpful tips to help you attract lots of colorful visitors to your yard.

One of the best activities for the cold months is watching the birds visit feeders located just outside our windows. As a rule, the more feeders you keep stocked and the greater the variety of foods you make available, the more different kinds of birds you'll see.
Last week Jean Terry stopped by the nature center and told us that they already have evening grosbeaks in their yard. If you know this species, you know they look something like American goldfinches but they're chunky, as big as cardinals.
Grosbeaks nest throughout southern Canada and New England. They migrate in the fall but most don't always fly this far south. If they find plenty of food in Pennsylvania and Virginia, there's no need to go anywhere else, although some usually do make it to the Tennessee Valley. Perhaps they're led by experienced birds that know the trip is going to be worth the effort.
Jean says they usually get grosbeaks at their house on Black Oak Ridge and credits her husband Bob who has spent a lot of time turning their backyard into bird-friendly habitat. He maintains a lot of feeders and keeps them stocked. After years of this kind of attention, the birds know that the welcome mat is always out at the Terry house. We have lots of feathered visitors outside of the offices at Ijams, too. Receptionist Patti Brown, with the help of more vertically gifted co-workers, keeps the Ijams feeders well stocked year-round.
Many of the hard-to-find winter birds like pine siskins, purple finches and the two kinglets come to such yards because they see so many more common birds coming and going. At this time of the year, birds tend to create loose winter flocks because there's safety in numbers and if one locates a food source, they all share the wealth. You'll benefit as well, because watching the little sprites is an excellent way to shake off cabin fever.
As a reminder, Ijams still has a good supply of fresh mixed birdseed left in our shop, so stock up before it snows. (Remember it's that cold, white stuff that falls from the sky and piles up on the ground.) Our shop also offers several quick reference bird identifiers so that you can quickly learn what type of new visitors your well-stocked feeders are attracting.

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