So the camera is in Italy for now and it is winter anyway. We were certified by the World Wildlife Federation as a backyard habitat, and have made much progress on the yard since my last post. Our first bulbs are coming up and spring is around the corner. It looks like water rationing is going to take place in our county so it's a good thing the lawn is all gone. The Birds love the suit and black oil sunflower seeds we leave out for them so we still have a lot of birds coming to the feeders. The new bird is the Junco. They peck around on the ground after the other birds have left a mess.

Pictures

So I’m adding some pictures of two of the plants we are growing in the backyard. One is a Monkey Flower and the other is a rose. The goals of a backyard wildlife habitat are to provide wildlife with food, water, shelter, and a place to raise young. So far I am providing food with multiple bird feeders and plants that will attract butterflies and bees. I have a pond and two birdbaths, one located in the front of the house and one at the back of the house. The giant redwood tree provides a lot of shelter and nesting places but I built the nesting box and hope that a bird will take occupancy. One of the feeders is left untouched by the birds if anyone can give me hints as to why they will not eat from it that would help. The feeder is 18 inch tube about 2 inches in diameter and is filled with the same seed that the birds are eating at the other sites. I am also posting pictures of the nesting box I built and the feeder that the birds seem not to like. If any one has suggestions on improvements or additions place comments to these blogs.

Backyard Habitat

Megan and I are working to make our property beautiful by planting gardens in the front and back yards. We removed the “lawn” in the front yard and replanted with a mixed-use vegetable garden and flower garden. We are a couple of Earth Muffins so we naturally planed to grow the gardens with no chemical pesticides or fertilizers. We saved part of the front yard for our vegetable garden because a large redwood tree mostly shades our backyard. The front yard vegetable garden has been a success but one of our neighbors has been assisting us in the harvesting of our vegetables.

We have now started planting our backyard and hope for it to become a backyard wildlife habitat. I used some scrap wood from an old dog run to build a birdhouse and now the birdhouse sits waiting for its first inhabitant. Both in the front yard and the backyard we have bird feeders, birdbaths and some plants that provide seeds for birds. Megan had a book on planting for wild life in her library and we have been using this resource to plan the gardens. We have planted a lot of flowers for bees, flower flies, and butterflies both in our front yard and backyard. Our backyard was host to its first butterfly since I have been living in the house, and I believe it was a Pieris marginalis or Veined White Butterfly.

Well that’s it for now I plan to keep this Blog about how the gardens are doing and will upload some pictures later.