Archive | April 2025

WHAT ARE THE BEST TIMES TO MONITOR BLUEBIRD BOXES?

Apr27

       Many of the homeowners that provide eastern bluebirds with nesting sites like to monitor the boxes to determine the nesting success of the beautiful birds nesting in them.  Here are some recommendations offered by the North American Bluebird Society (NABS) to help ensure that nesting attempts are successful.

       If you are certain the birds nesting in your nest boxes are bluebirds, once a nest has been completed, the female will typically lay one egg per day until her clutch of 4-6 eggs has been completed. Female bluebird usually 4-6 eggs.

       After the clutch is complete, incubation begins.  This process will last anywhere from 12-14 days.  After the hatchlings emerge, they remain in their nest from 17-20 or more days.    With that in mind, the NABS recommends that after 12-23 days, boxes should only be monitored from a distance.  The reason for this is during this critical time in their lives the young bluebirds might prematurely jump or fly from their safe haven.

       Box checks should only be done when the weather is calm, mild and dry.  Open a box cautiously and make your visit is as short as possible as this prevents the chilling of eggs or nestlings.

 

 

BLACK-EYED SUSAN – A NATIVE PLANT OF VALUE TO WILDLIFE THAT CAN BE GROWN IN CONTAINERS

Apr23

        If you are looking for a native plant that can be grown in containers, is both beautiful, hardy, and benefits wildlife too,  the Black-eyed Susan  (Rudbeckia spp.)  just might fit the bill.

       My wife and I have grown Black-eyed Susans in containers on our deck for several years.  The tall plants produce a profusion of gorgeous long-lasting blooms.  While the blossoms are visited by pollinators, I would not call it a butterfly magnet.  This is because, at best, butterflies only sparingly nectar at the large blossoms.  The pollinators I see most often on our plants in search of nectar and pollen are small, solitary bees.

       In addition, the Black-eyed Susan is a host plant for the Silvery Checkerspot butterfly.  Well after the plant’s blossoms have withered and died, a number of songbirds eat plant’s seeds.

       The fact the plant is deer resistant make a favorite among gardeners plagued by hungry deer.

BACKYARD SECRET – WHITE-BREASTED NUTHATCHES MAY PREFER HULLED SUNFLOWER SEEDS

Apr20

       It is always a treat to see white-breasted nuthatches at our feeders. If you are like me, you wish that they would our feeders more often.  Here is one way that you may be able to entice these handsome birds to your feeders.

       As we all know, white-breasted nuthatches eat sunflower seeds.  Typically, the birds pluck individual sunflower seeds from our feeders and fly away to another location where they either crack them open or stash them for a later meal.

       In one-study, researchers found white-breasted nuthatches, cached hulled sunflower seeds 25 percent more often than seeds that were unshelled. The researcher theorized this was due to the fact it takes a nuthatch about half the time to tote and cache hulled sunflower sees as it does unhulled seeds.

       The study did not mention that the birds’ preference for hulled sunflower seeds increased the number of feeder visits made by the birds.

       With that in mind, it would be easy to set up your own study to see if there is any correlation between the numbers of visits the birds make to feeders stocked with hulled sunflowers seeds versus those feeders containing unshelled sunflower seeds.

       If you do conduct such a study, let me know what you learn.

 

BACKYARD SECRET – EATING EARTHWORMS CAN CAUSE BLUEBIRD NESTLINGS PROBLEMS

Apr16

       Bluebird parents feed their nestlings a wide range of invertebrates such as grasshoppers, spiders, caterpillars, and others.  They will also feed earthworms to older nestlings. The problem with this is nestlings that eat earthworms sometimes suffer from severe diarrhea.

USE CAUTION WHEN TRIMMING SHRUBS IN SPRING

Apr13

       The beautiful spring weather we have been enjoying in my neck of the woods apparently prompted many homeowners to take on any number outdoor jobs.  One of these projects was cutting shrubbery. In truth, shrub pruning should have been accomplished much earlier in the year.

       When I brought a load of household garbage and recyclables to a nearby recycling center, the huge amount of shrub clippings piled in one of the huge recycling bins at the center told me a lot of folks took on this particular chore this weekend.  That prompted me to wonder how many bird nests their well-meaning activities disturbed.

       Whenever we talk about providing nesting habitat for our backyard bird neighbors too often we only think about birds that nest in nesting structures.  Consequently, too little thought is given to providing nesting sites for birds that routinely nest in the thick shrubbery growing in our yards.  The shrub-nesting birds I most often encounter in my yard are northern cardinals, mockingbirds and brown thrashers.  They will nest in thickest shrubs. Since these birds begin nesting in the spring, it is best to avoid trimming shrubs at this time of the year.

       There is nothing worse than to trim a branch off a shrub and find that nestled deep within the shrub an active bird nest.  When a nest exposed it becomes more vulnerable to nest predators and the weather.  Often nesting birds will abandon such a nest.   Birds are more prone to do prior to their eggs hatching.

       If, for some reason, you just have to trim your shrubs right now, before you begin, carefully search for nests.  If you don’t find any, go ahead with your job.

       When I think about the recycling bin that I saw this weekend, I wonder if the folks that created pile of trimmings took the time to ensure that their shrubs were being used by the bird neighbors to build their nests and raise their young.

SUET SUCCESS STORY

Apr9

      Recently Becky sent the following that describes the fantastic success she is having attracting birds to her yard with suet.  Wow! I wish I could attract as many different species as possible to my yard.

I use Wild Birds Unlimited cylinder suet—Hot Pepper No Mess. It’s kind of expensive, but it brings birds to my feeders year-round and the squirrels have never bothered it. This year I had a Hermit Thrush visit, which was a first. I also have an occasional Catbird visit. Regulars are White-breasted and Brown-headed Nuthatches. Several years ago when there was an eruption of Red-breasted Nuthatches, they also visited my suet. Red-bellied Woodpeckers, Downy, Hairy, Carolina and House Wrens and sometimes the Eastern Bluebirds. Love my suet feeder.

THE COMMON BLUE VIOLET – A GREAT CONTAINER PLANT

Apr2

       If you are looking for a native plant that does well in containers, consider the common blue violet Viola sororia).

       This Georgia native grows throughout the state; it has attractive heart-shaped leaves and gorgeous blooms.  Typically, the plant’s flowers are blue-violet; however, they are sometimes pink, purple, white and yellow.

       One of the neat things about this violet is it is also a super wildlife plant.  It is a host plant for 29 species of moths and butterflies including the giant leopard moth and variegated fritillary butterfly.

    

       It also produces nectar used by sweat and mason bees, and even ruby-throated hummingbirds.

       The common blue violet’s seeds are eaten by juncos and sparrows.

       In my neck of the woods (middle Georgia), it blooms from as early as February into August.

       To top it all off, even gardeners that do not have a green thumb can grow this plant.

       If you try it, I am sure you will like it.