The Robins are here ;-)

Usually they stay all winter, guess they knew this one was going to be a cold one because I haven’t seen them until now. NOW there goes my leaf beds LOL They always pick, pick and then that crab grass starts coming thru in the spring and I worry about the robins if they are digging for worms and don’t want to hurt them with spraying the crab grass. I never see anyone commenting on how the robins tare their leaf beds up, am I the only one that is blessed with so many robins? Sometimes one robin will even fuss at another robin for coming into there territory! There’s plenty around for all of them :) Hmmm I’m wondering if I ever really have any worms left for my flowers after their feast LOL

Good news regarding the Robin's LeBug! Our Robin's showed up last week but haven't seen any for a few days. This is my first spring for birding so I will have to watch more closely. It seems like as long as there is moisture in the ground in our area there always seems to be lots of grubs and worms for the birds. We tried to kill the grubs one year hoping to discourage the moles and it was a disaster. I was never so sick in my life and now just let things happen! The moles are doing an outstanding job of digging holes for some of the plants I will set out this spring and the Robin's have a safe place to get their worms.

We were fortunate to have a Robin nest right outside our window last year and we really enjoyed the three babies that hatched. We had one Robin stay into the winter and we like to think it was one of "our" babies!

Good luck with the Robins and the crab grass and the good news!

Rose

Rose, Oh I'm planting some castor beans for those moles this year, last year they kept uprooting my plants, I had one mole in a corner of my yard with a driveway and the front road on two sides and he uprooted everything more than once! They do make a lot of nice holes to plant and loosen up the soil but not worth worrying about my plants when I'm so busy in another part of the yard planting, esp. when it's so hot out like it has been.

I have a butterfly bush right outside my bedroom window I wish they would build a next there, they are such a pretty bird! Maybe they will come back to nest next to your window this year or the babies, good luck on that :)

Lea

It would be nice to keep a little Journal about birds (my sister gave me one for Christmas) noting the first time you see certain birds come back etc.

I'd love to do that but like my seeds that I try to keep up with I'd get behind in it lol Too much 'other' stuff to keep up with, I just look forward to all of them coming back each year :)

In our area it seems that the Robins, Starlings and Redwinged Blackbirds all show up at the same time. I really know it's spring when the Killdeer show up and they did that 2 weeks ago. Sure can't tell it by the temperatures though. Man is it cold at night! Brrrrrrrrr!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Susan

Spring is still too far away as far as I'm concerened I just don't understand why we have to have winter lol I need to move to a warmer state then I'd be able to grow all of thos nice tropicals I lust after on here :)

I hardly see any Redwinged Blackbirds around here, I do see them on the telephone lines, we use to have a lot of wooded areas around here but it's getting too built up now, a lot of our wildlife has moved on because of it! I do have two wild bird gardens in the making hoping to attract some of it back and add a birdhouse or two each year for the bluebirds but the warblers started taking them over last year but they are cute too!

Yes Lea...we are hoping they nest in that tree again. It was like watching live TV! This winter we have enjoyed all the other birds using it to perch! We also have a snowball plant in front of our dining room window and that has been extremely entertaining!! This is the first year we have had nestboxes and are fortunate to see Bluebirds going in and out of them daily. They are such beautiful birds and I almost hold my breath each time I see them.

Even though it is still cold here you can start to feel the excitement of spring in the air (or maybe I've just got cabin fever)!! LOL!

Well I know for sure I have cabin fever, such a wet, snowy miserable cold winter! LOL

I put a bird feeder out by my bedroom window this year and to see the birds up so close is so lovely, I love watching them that close and I put a pine cone filled with peanutbutter so there have been a lot of nut hatches, cardnials, chickadees and the carolina wrens :)

Heres my Robin for the day. Looks like a female.

Yes, the cold weather is making me too tired especially since it was so pretty yesterday! I guess that's why the birds are more quiet today...they feel like I do!! I remember seeing your pine cone now, and wish I had one to do what you did with yours. I ended up using a log but quit doing that when the Starlings showed up!! I agree it is fun to have feeders so you can really see what birds are visiting!

Oh Pelle...I am jealous, that is a fabulous pic!!! She is a real beauty, everything about the pic is stunning! MORE!!

LeBug, I too have the crabgrass dilema and the cabin fever. I have been looking for bird friendly ways to do in the crab grass and may have found it!! Corn gluten is now being sold as a preemergent herbicide that is not toxic to birds, grandkids etcetera. It is for sale at my local feed store packaged just for this.Now if I could just find a way to keep the deer out of the bird feeders...

Good Luck,
Nan

Beautiful Robin pic, pelle! GM

nan, about the only way you can keep the deer out is hang the feeders higher if you can. I hang mine about 10-12' in the air from a large Cottonwood tree branch. DH just throws a log chain hook tied to a long rope over the branch and when I need to refill it I just lower it down take it into the barn fill it, hang it back on the hook, hoist it back up, tie it off with a couple half hitches over a nail and wala they're ready to eat again!
Susan

Aw pelletory, isn't she sweet, nice picture!

Last year I put laid chicken wire down over some of my leaves then felt guilty becaust the robins couldn't get in there for the worms and took it right back up that was after finding all of the bricks and rocks I had laying around and putting them on there to hold it down Just couldn't do it to the robins lol

Thanks for that tip Nan, I'll check and see if our local feed store has some of that Corn gluten, and that will keep the crabgrass from coming back up, cool! Just so it doesn't hurt my babies :) Last year while I was digging holes to put plants in I was throwing worms to the robins and they would sit and wait until they had two or three in their mouths before flying away to feed their young, then they would come back for more lol The neighborhood cats thought I was digging them a hole to poddy in and the robins thought I was doing it to feed them lol

Rose I'll tell you something that works for me when the starlings and bluejays start hitting my feeders, I stick my body out the back door and clap my hands real loud, the starlings and bluejays leave then the other 'good' birds come right back, try it, it works!

Oh, Thanks Susan. DH and I will do that this weekend. Sometimes it's just so simple...
Thanks again
Nan

We're getting all kinds of good tips on here :) Now how do we keep those deer from munching on my MG's lol

nan, anytime good luck! Those deer will just have to find their birdseed elsewhere! LOL!
Susan

here's mine

and another one

LeBug, my DH says that planting garlic ALL OVER ie: every 3 - 4 feet in every bed and fenceline, smells so badly to the deer that they stay away. What about our noses is my unanswered question....
Nan

Nan, you can't smell the garlic but I wouldn't plant it in the flower beds it keeps the butterflies away, I did a little experimenting one year about that only I think I did it for the moles someone said it would work but the only critter it kept away was my butterflies and I had no cats on my host plants either not for a while after I dug it up. The garlic doesn't smell like you smell the flowers, you can't even tell it's there.

Thanks for the pictures of the robins wish I could take a picture of them messing up my leaf beds lol I might be able to show pictures after Sunday :)

Nice pics Mrs Colla!

I will take those Bluejays LeBug! They are one of my favorites!

Those bluejays are hogs at my feeders, they are a pretty bird but they need a lesson in sharing :)

Lea...I bang on the window when I see them taking the worms I set out for DH's Mockingbird!! They seem to have decreased though since the Grackles showed up. We don't have a deer problem at the feeders because they are too busy eating up the field of alfalfa!!

Since we have such pretty pics of Robin's here I will share one I've already posted.

Nice picture Rose, I can even see the feathers on his belly lol

We don't have that many deer here yet but I see it coming with them cutting all of the trees down in the woods that used to be next to us, last year was the first year they really munched on anything and it had to be my MG's, I look for more of them every year so I've been trying to plant deer resistant plants for when that time comes, they are beautiful creatures! But from what I've seen on here they can really do some damage on our plants if we aren't careful! I think they like the orange butterfly weed and I will just die if they get into mine and they are planted pretty close to where the MG's are, the orange one is one of my favorite plants that I have in the yard in the back didn't know they liked them when I planted them there I have all sorts of butterfly host plants planted there in a pretty large bed.

Thanks Lea! I planted the orange butterfly weed last year and just loved it! The Monarch cats had a field day and it was such a delight to watch them eat away! At one time I had 18 cats on one plant and moved them to another when they wiped out all the leaves. We had 3 chrysalis and saw the Monarch emerge from one. It was way tooooo cool! Oh my gosh...I can hardly wait for spring to get here!!

Me either Rose, I'm planting more fennel and trying some dill for them this year and of course planting more butterflyweed that is native to here last year my seeds that I got in trades were different than the perennial ones that I wanted so have to get caught up this year :) I WS some parsley just the other day and started some downstairs too so should have enough parsley to keep them going this year too lol Last year they ate every bit of what I had all the way to the ground! I like to use parsley for borders but they are dissapearing borders lol

Our Western Scrub Jay

Beautiful pic mrs colla!!!

mrs_colla, your bluejays are prettier than ours but ours are pretty, yours aren't as big as ours though ours are huge! About as big as a crow if you have those to compare to, hope this works:

http://www.birds.cornell.edu/AllAboutBirds/BirdGuide/Blue_Jay.html

I heart all the robin pics and the scrub jay too. GM

Beautiful pic of the Scrub Jay!! GM...that's cute!

Pelle...Did you notice the thread on your Robin's beak? Looks like what my Mocker and Dave's Bluebird has. Maybe it is something they are building their nest with like Resin suggested.

edited cause I can't spell!

This message was edited Mar 6, 2008 9:06 PM

Yes I did see it Rose. :-)

I noticed the Mourning Doves were really frisky today chasing each other all over the yard.

I noticed that too and was wondering about it but isn't it a little early for them to do their nest? Maybe it's just from scrounging around looking for worms?

It's about that time need to get off here and get a few things done before bed, nite everyone enjoyed our conversations, same place tomorrow? ;-)

Lea, I had a book given to me for Christmas "Bringing Nature Home" and it is full of info about planting native plants for wildlife. I haven't read the whole thing but will use it as a guide for future plantings. We have a lot of area on the farm that we want to turn into a habitat for the wildlife as well as what I want to do around the yard. We also put in a pond this fall and it is now filled so I hope to get some wildlife there too. It is so much fun just thinking about all that is going on and what is to be!

All of our birds are acting strange...I think it is a prelude to mating. I don't know that they are actually building, they could be practicing building their nests.

Good night Lea...sleep well!

Here is a link reviewing the book if anyone is interested http://www.nytimes.com:80/2008/03/06/garden/06garden.html?ex=1205470800&en=bfb22cb38d1f6763&ei=5070&emc=eta1

This message was edited Mar 6, 2008 9:09 PM

Cardinals & robins should start to nest this month, here in Indiana anyway.

Oh, I wish I had my camera I would love to show you the wild bird garden that I'm working on well, two actually, and I just had to read some of that preview of the book and though I'm planting natives around I have to have other pretty flowers too lol Even though it may be a waste to the insects but I get a lot of joy out of them as I'm sure you probably have to have them too everybody does :) I just ordered some phlox so that's good to know they will be useful and I have started as many natives in WS almost as much as I have anything else right now and some think I'm a little crazy for trying to grow the weedy ones but they are still pretty and the little birds, other critters and insects will enjoy them along with me. At first I started a bird garden because of the quail, I saw my first one out here since I was a child a couple of years ago and haven't seen one since, we used to have a lot of quail here and they are such a neat bird but all of the weeds and the field gets cut so there isn't any place for them to go I would love to look there one day and see a mama quail and her little ones wadling along the field! I hate to cut the field but there are so many misquitoes that I just have to, maybe when I've attracted some purple martins and more bats that used to be here too and aren't, I can quit cutting the field, my bird garden will grow a little more year by year too. I did hear a pair of doves in the WBG yesterday when I took my dog a walk but didn't want to disturb them they may have been on a date :)

Nan, it just seems too soon for them to be nesting because spring seems so far away lol I can't wait to see all of the little birdies flittering around, flying for their first time, can you? lol I just hope I don't have any problems with the cats, or should I say the birds don't have any problems with the cats lol I try to keep them fed, even if these aren't my cats, and last year I had one cat live by the finch feeder but he was fed too well to do anything else but just watch the finches, it really surprised me he didn't kill one but he didn't :) When he first started hiding in the weeds by the feeder I really freaked, thought my birds were gone so now that cat and me are buddies lol

OK, really got to go this time :)