Bird Feeder Competition

Several weeks ago, Isabella and I decided we needed to diversify the bird population in our yard. Every year we have an overabundance of the Common Grackle, and while I love to welcome all feathered friends, I'd like some cute birds in my yard. 

First, I should say, our yard needs a lot of work. Over the next few years we really want to work on creating an environment that welcomes a variety of birds, butterflies, honey bees, and other beneficial pollinators. Last year was phase one: remove giant shrubs. I commend my husband for taking on that task since it wasn't a fun one and it was a lot of hard work. We then purchased two flowering trees, and a few other things, but the rest is supposed to be filled in with flowers, grasses, and whatever else seems appropriate. Phase two (this year): remove the remaining, smaller shrubs, that are in front of the very weird and falling over brick planter. Done. It looks like the weird planter is not going to go, we're just going to find a way to work around it. Because we're doing this all as inexpensively as possible, I am attempting to grow several perennials from seed. We'll see how that works out, and what our next phases are, but in a few years, the front of the house should have some more curb appeal. 

All of that to say, since we don't have flowers and other things in place to attract birds, we made bird feeders. Very high tech ones, made from toilet paper rolls. Isabella said it was the most fun she'd ever had. 

It took three days before a bird came near the darn thing. Since then, we've seen more than the Common Grackle and have recently checked out a few bird books so that we could try identifying some of our visitors. This is what we've come up with (I may be wrong about the types of Sparrows, but I assume these are close)

-Purple Martin (This is funny because my dad has spent years trying to get purple martins to inhabit his high in the sky purple martin hotel)
-Mourning Dove
-American Robin
-Northern Cardinal
-Blue Jay
-Carolina Chicadee
-European Starling (we always have these, and I don't like them, especially since two of them figured out how to get in the basement at our previous home)
-White Throated Sparrow
-American Tree Sparrow
-Purple Finch
-Savannah Sparrow
and I might as well add, that last week we had three Mallard Ducks who spent a morning in our yard.

Walter decided he needed to join the bird feeder frenzy, and completely blew my toilet paper roll out of the water (I'm sure there's a joke in there somewhere).

Walter's bird feeder:

This is one of the front beds that used to have shrubs. After a good weeding, tilling, and raking, it is ready for more plants. That shrub on the end has to go too. When in doubt, wear a helmet.

It has been quite entertaining watching the birds, and it's also fun to see Isabella grab the bird book and look up which visitors we have. One bird, tried her hardest to build a nest under our bathroom awning. She gave it four attempts and seems to have given up, but it was very interesting to watch her perseverance.