My Beloved Birdfeeder

This is our first winter with a bird feeder up in the yard. It sits in the tree outside our kitchen window. It took a while for birds to hear about it, and I was happy when there were six house finches frequenting it.

Well, we just refilled with a new seed blend, and today I counted 25 birds at our feeder! It fits four to five on the feeder, and then they dump a bunch on the ground. Lots more birds feed there, and lots sit up in the tree, acting as lookout or maybe waiting for their turn. Most of these birds are house finches, which is amazing to me. It seems like a large population of the same type of bird to be feeding at the same place. I guess I thought they would be more territorial, especially since they seem to move in pairs.

Today I saw two new birds. So exciting! I am no expert, but I watched them in my binoculars and flipped through my bird book in an effort to identify them. The first one has a dark head, light beak, and lighter body. I decided it is probably a black-headed junco. The other had a tan body, a little lighter on the underside, and dark at the ends of its wings and tail feathers with white stripes on them. Looking closer I saw patches of soft yellow on its body and decided it is likely a goldfinch, though I couldn't say which type.

I have always loved house finches since first identifying one in Maryland six years ago. I love their beautiful red throats and their lovely song. But I am thrilled to be seeing and getting to know a few other types of birds. Watching these birds is good for my winter blues, and definitely worth the cost of the birdseed!


Friday starts the next Great Backyard Bird Count. I plan to participate this year. Do you?

Finches at our feeder before we added the new seed

Gardening for Hummingbirds

So I have been thinking about the children's garden I plan to plant next year a lot today. I think the kids would love to see hummingbirds and butterflies hanging around our garden, and I know I would! So here is what I have learned, starting with gardening for hummingbirds.

Here in Utah we commonly get broad-tailed hummingbirds and black-chinned hummingbirds. The rufous hummingbird also visits during its fall migration. I read here that it has been conjectured that hummingbirds cover every square meter of the U.S. looking for food (which is amazing to me and explains why my mom gets hummingbirds to her feeder relatively high on the balcony of an apartment complex in the middle of a city).

Recommendations are to place multiple feeders around the yard so no one bird can claim them all. Of course, cleaning the feeders and providing the nectar will require diligence. Also recommended is to provide some sort of dripping or misting water for birds to bathe in.

The question of what to plant is a difficult one. There are many plants offered up as good hummingbird attractors. I would like to plant mostly native plants. I have a lot more research to do here, but I am finding the question of what is native to my area is not as easy to answer as I thought it would be!

This spring I will definitely put up some hummingbird feeders. I will also choose two or three plants to add for their enjoyment. I hope we get hummers!

We Begin

I don't know much about gardening, except that I love it. But don't tell my four-year-old that! She likes to sit by my side and watch whatever gardening task I am doing, helping out when she can, and telling me things like, "You're great at gardening!" or "We're making a great garden!" I love our garden, too. I find great satisfaction in looking at our garden plants and eating from our crops. And I love to plan and try new things to come.

I love watching our kids in the garden. The purpose of this blog is to document our family's interaction with the garden and to watch the most important of our garden crops - our little ones. This next summer we plan to put in a children's garden on the side of our yard. So I have all winter to think and to plan.

This blog is a place to record my plans and how they turn out. It will include resources and observations on gardening and family.

Thanks for reading!