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FEEDING BIRDS SEEDS DURING THE SUMMER CAN BE CHALLENGING
Feeding seeds to birds during the summer can be more challenging than during the winter months. One of the main reasons for this is in the summer the high humidity and heat encourages mold and bacteria to contaminate seeds. As a result, birds that dine on contaminated food are more likely to become infected by a number of diseases. Here are a few tips that will help you prevent this from happening.
During the summer, you often have to clean feeders every 3-5 days in order to discourage a buildup of dangerous bacteria and mold. Clean feeders with soap and water. Follow this up by disinfecting them with a solution of nine parts water and one part bleach. Dry the feeders before refilling them with seeds.
Some seeds are safer to use in summer. One of these is black oil sunflower seed. These seeds can be fed shelled and unshelled.
White millet also can resist mold and bacteria however, if you scatter it on the ground, the millet seeds will spoil quicker than they will if fed in feeders.
Avoid feeding mixed seed during the summer. The reason for this is it contains ingredients that quickly become contaminated (e.g. cracked corn and milo). Peanuts also spoil quickly in humid, hot weather.
BACKYARD SECRET – SILVER-SPOTTED SKIPPERS SHUN YELLOW FLOWERS
Sometimes a wildlife secret hides in plain sight. A good example of that is, in spite of the fact that the silver-spotted skipper visits gardens across Georgia; it is not generally known that this handsome butterfly shuns yellow flowers. While the silver-spotted skipper occasionally nectars at yellow flowers, it by far prefers feeding at purple, red, blue and pink blossoms.
If you want to see if this is true, closely watch which flowers silver-spotted skippers visit in your flower gardens this summer.
TIPS THAT HELP OFFERING HUMMERS FRESH NECTAR
With heat indexes almost daily soaring above 110°F, the nectar we offer our hummingbird neighbors can quickly spoil. With that in mind, here are a couple of simple tips that help ensure that rubythroats will be dining on nectar that has not spoiled.
While summer temperatures soar, the hummingbird nectar we provide in the feeders’ spoils more rapidly than it does when temperatures are not excessively hot. With that in mind, if you are using large feeders that take hummingbirds days to drain, put them away and use smaller feeders. In addition, it is a good idea to replace the unused fluid in your feeders every couple of days.
If you notice that the nectar in a feeder is cloudy, immediately discard it. That is a sure sign that it is no longer fresh.
THE HACKBERRY GALLS – PROVIDES IMPORTANT WILDLIFE FOOD
Most of us recognize that the hackberry is a fantastic wildlife food plant. It is a caterpillar host for a variety of butterflies including the hackberry emperor, tawny emperor, snout, mourning cloak, question mark and comma. The tree’s berries are eaten by at least 48 species of birds and other wildlife. The importance of the hackberry’s berries is compounded by the fact they remain on the tree throughout the fall, winter into the next spring. And yet the tree’s value does not end there. It is a little-known fact that the galls that appear on the tree’s foliage are also fantastic sources of food.
Although the galls are not pleasing to the eye, they do not cause any real harm to the tree. These odd unsightly growths are made by insects known as the blackberry psyllids. Hidden inside the galls are tiny grubs packed full of protein.
Many birds peck into the galls and dine on these tiny morsels of food hidden there throughout the year. The tiny insects housed in galls from late summer into early fall are a great source of food for southbound songbirds.
During rhea winter insect-eating birds also dine on the insects living inside the galls. In spring, when the adult psyllids emerge, they are an important source of protein and fat for breeding songbirds and migrants heading north through the state.
Wow! It is astounding that galls that we commonly overlook are so important to so many.
BACKYARD SECRET – YELLOW-BILLED CUCKOOS RELISH TENT CATERPILLARS
Tent caterpillar nests built on tree limbs are common sights in yards and trees lining highways throughout Georgia at this time of the year. Each nest contains scores of hairy caterpillars. While most birds shy away from dining on what appears to be an easy source of food, the yellow-billed cuckoo relishes them. In fact, it is one of the few bird species that eat them. They can consume 100 or more tent-building caterpillars during one attack on a tent caterpillar nest.
The reason why most birds stay clear of the juicy caterpillars that reside in the web-like nests is the caterpillars that live there are covered with stiff spines. The yellow-bellied cuckoo, on the other hand, it is able to eat them because it is able to do so is periodically the bird sheds the lining of its stomach and hairs found there. When the bird expels its stomach lining and stiff caterpillar hairs form a mass that looks much like an owl pellet.
ARE SQUIRRELS DETERRED BY COFFEE GROUNDS?
Recently it has been reported that coffee grounds spread below bird feeders deter squirrels from visiting bird feeding stations.
Before I recommend this practice, I want to know if you have tried this technique. If you have experimented with it, please let me know his bizarre practice actually works.
CONTAINER GARDENING FOR WILDLIFE MADE EASIER
Gardening for wildlife is being adopted by an increasing number of gardeners each year. One form of wildlife gardening that is growing by leaps and bounds is gardening in containers.
While container gardening is nothing new, growing plants that are of value to wildlife is. Container gardening for wildlife allows gardeners to attract wildlife to small places. In addition, is allows people that are physically unable to engage in traditional gardening to continue their hobby.
One of the problems that plagues container gardening is moving large pots from one spot to another. A large container full of soil is very heavy and difficult to move about. In addition, it can be quite expensive to buy enough soil to fill a large pot.
An excellent way to solve this problem is to fill third to half of the pot with a lightweight filler. Innovative gardeners are using variety fillers such as plastic bottles, bags and nursery pots as fillers Some even employ large chunks of Styrofoam. Others are using organic fillers such as pinecones, and wood chips.
If you want to make container gardening for wildlife less expensive and easier, you should consider using lightweight materials as fillers.
If you have used this technique, I would appreciate it if would let me know if your efforts proved to be successful.
BACKYARD SECRET – HOW MANY BIRDS VISIT OUR FEEDERS?
If you have ever wondered how many species of birds visit our feeders, here are some figures you might find interesting.
Across the country, some 350 species of birds feed at our feeders. Ninety of these species are either regular or casual diners. The remaining 260 species are rare visitors.
Here in the Peach State, those of us that feed birds in our yards can attract as many as 25-35 species to our bird cafes.
How many species of birds do you feed in your backyard?
