create a backyard habitat for wildlife

My backyard is already a habitat for wildlife…wonder what I was thinking here… get my backyard certified as an official habitat for wildlife? Who knows. Anyway my “backyard” pretty much doesn’t belong to me…hmmm…

This is a goldfinch on the thistle feeder outside of my…our…the kitchen window. He likes whats been done so far.

we put our bird feeders out again. Over winter the wind and ice got so bad, they were almost torn down a few times. We kept the water bath out, but as a surprise, P put the feeder back out. For now its only sparrows and squirrels. Saw a chickadee this morning which made me smile. It will take a few weeks. They are used to not stopping here anymore. Just heard a cardinal! Slow but sure. We have good food and great atmosphere. Who could pass that up?

I love bats. Did I ever tell you that? LOVE bats. I know people are afraid of them and other than movies, which shame on you for thinking bats will turn into vampires or fly into your hair (!), bats are actually creatures you want near your home. Especially if you garden or have vegetables or spend a lot of time outside because they eat bugs. I received a Nature Conservancy magazine yesterday and one of the articles is regarding White Nose Syndrome. It is a disease that is killing THOUSANDS of bats. Apparently it is a form of mold that attacks while bats are hibernating. Some bats leave and fly in winter, which kills them because of the cold, others grow thin and weak, then die. No one knows why bats get it or where it even comes from, but recent studies who it might be coming from humans. I’m glad there are some people taking it seriously.
Trust me, once you look at them, they are NOT that scary and, you DONT want a world without bats.
This is the poor doomed little creatures with their white noses. Damn.

We are getting the compost bin so we can make our own fertilizer for a small garden we want to grow. I don’t think the landlord will mind, but we will ask to be sure. We are going to have to fence off in the beginning because we have bunnies EVERYWHERE. We can throw out some of the veggies that are too small or not looking too great, but I plan on planting certain herbs and some flowers that attract bees. We will also put our feeders out again with safflower seed only so that pigeons, starlings and other annoying birds wont eat us out of house and home.
I am doing the planning. Can’t wait.
Here is a chickadee at a feeder. Its my favorite bird.

The deer is back. Poor thing, we took the feeders down because the weather has been so bad and of course the rats are out. But I looked outside the other day before the inches turned into feet and there they were, deer tracks. So, in true Calvin and Hobbes fashion, I yelled out the front door “YOU BETTER BE CAREFUL”. I really hate that humans have taken over everything. We are so selfish. Not to mention destructive.

I love bats. LOVE bats. I don’t know why. Probably because I grew up in the country and they were everywhere. I had a batman experience once and still remember it. My step father asked me for my tennis racket (I was 15) so I gave it to him. Next thing I know he is hitting the floor over and over and over again. I can’t see what he is doing and when it is over, there on the floor and my tennis racket, is a bat. I was so upset. I told him its against the law to kill a bat in NY. He told me it was against the law for him to kill me too, but he could do it. Great dad. Anyway, ever since then, I have always wanted my own bat house in my yard so they have a safe place to go, instead of the local houses. Plus, they would keep the neighborhood clean of bugs. Bats are amazing creatures with a bad vampire wrap. You should check them out. See how truly extraordinary they really are. Hopefully one day, they’ll be my neighbors.

I just moved to an apartment complex in california…I’ve noticed lots of little squirrels and birds out here. I’d like to do something with my balcony and make it more friendly for them, but it will require some money and research. Also, the complex has stupid rules about what can and can’t be out on the balcony….screw them though, I’m going to make a nice little haven for my animal friends!

I’m in my new apartment and gradually assessing the gardens and what I can do with them. I’ve been given the green light to design what I want since it was mostly burrs and overgrown shrubs when I moved in. I won’t add plants until next year, but I’ve done a few portable things.

A bird bath is on my back patio and I keep it filled and clean. I also put up a shepherd’s hook outside my living room window. It has a mesh feeder full of safflower and black oil sunflower seeds, a “sock” of niger thistle seeds and a tube feeder of songbird mix (sunflower, millet, etc).

For two weeks, all I had on the feeders was chipmunks. They would climb the pole, stuff their cheeks as fast as they could and then go stow the seeds in their nest. I had a pair of them emptying the feeder every couple of days. That’s several pounds of seed per day! When I added the tube feeder, I also added a chipmunk baffle. I cut the top and bottom off a 2-liter bottle and then slit it up the side. I fit it around the pole, taped it on and watched to see what would happen. The chipmunks climbed the pole and up into the bottle, but couldn’t reach the feeders. Success!

Or so I thought.. They took to climbing the brick on the side of the house and then leapt from my windowsill to the feeders. There were some major wipeouts with little rodent limbs flailing in vain to grab the feeders, but they eventually figured out that jumping from above the windows worked most of the time.

Now that the feeders are moved out of chipmunk jumping range, they have given up and the birds are able to visit without being harassed. I have been getting nuthatches and chickadees during the day (a pair of each) and a pair of cardinals at dusk. I can almost set my watch by them and they are only a couple feet from where I sit by the window. My goal is to add a set of feeders outside my kitchen and office windows as well, but my shepherd’s hooks are with my parents. Next time I visit, I’ll bring them home with me and set up the rest of the feeding stations. I have nothing but shrubs and trees and a fence along once side of my apartment, and most of my windows face this private strip of habitat. It’s really a big part of what drew me to this place.

I want a backyard with tomatoes. And squash. They are so easy to grow. I want to get our bird feeders out again. Last year, even though we rent, we had a deer that would eat grass on our front lawn. She would make her way around to the side and drink from the bird bath and eat some of the seed that had fallen. Let me just say that I live in the city. IN THE CITY. There are woods behind our building so I think that is where she came from. But I haven’t seen her in 6 or 7 months. A few months ago, while driving home, I saw wild turkey running down the sidewalk of our main road. This road is crazy busy. Once we get a house, we can set up permanent residence and they can hang out instead of leaving and risking life and limb.