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About The daily Astorian. (Astoria, Or.) 1961-current | View Entire Issue (Aug. 24, 2019)
B1 THE ASTORIAN • SATURDAY, AUGUST 24, 2019 CONTACT US FOLLOW US Jonathan Williams editor@coastweekend.com facebook.com/ DailyAstorian FEATHERED FRIENDS IN YOUR BACKYARD Photos by Jane Webb A house fi nch. Make birding at home easy with these tips By PATTY HARDIN W e are fortunate to live in an area so rich in bird life. Are you interested in learn- ing more about the birds you see every day? Learning about our feathered friends need not be overwhelming. There are many resources available to get you started on what could become a lifetime pursuit. It isn’t necessary to travel great dis- tances to enjoy bird watching. You can watch them from the comfort of your own home or yard. Bringing birds to your backyard There are several things a beginning birder can do to attract birds to his or her yard. “A bird bath is an essential need for birds,” said Dr. Madeline Kalbach, a pro- fessor emeritus of sociology at the Univer- sity of Calgary. “They will come to bathe and drink.” It is important to keep the baths clean to help prevent the spread of disease among birds. You can also plant a bird-friendly garden. “Gardening with native plants provides food and habitat for the birds. Huckle- berry, salmon berries and other fruit-bear- ing trees or shrubs will help to attract birds to one’s yard,” Kalbach said. Tube-like fl owers are welcome addi- tions to a bird garden. Hummingbirds are partial to these kinds of fl owers, Kalbach said. Peninsula resident David Ryan is an avid and evolving birder. He offered tips for attracting birds to your yard. “For habitat, bird houses are helpful. Cultivating native vegetation also encour- ages bird visitors,” Ryan said. Keeping parts of your yard “messy” or “rough” with some unmowed areas, untended vegetation and brush piles is good for birds, Ryan said. “Timing yard work around nesting and breeding seasons also helps our bird friends and keeps them coming to your yard,” Ryan added. Bird feeders are popular with birding enthusiasts, beginners and experienced alike. Kalbach suggested putting up feeders containing appropriate seeds such as black oilseed, which are the most nourishing of the sunfl ower seeds. Other birds prefer different types of seeds, she said. Finches enjoy niger or thistle seed while birds that feed on the ground often enjoy white millet. Suet is also enjoyed by chickadees, nuthatches and woodpeckers. You don’t have to buy ready-made suet blocks or suet block holders. Recipes can be found online and cookie cutters or small empty cat food cans make great suet holders. Many bird lovers have probably fed bread to birds and ducks, perhaps toss- A bird on the Long Beach Peninsula. A goldfi nch. ing bits to them on a lake or pond. They gobble it up and they’re no longer hungry, right? Wrong. “It’s terrible for them,” Ryan said. Too much bread can cause weight gain and malnutrition in birds. The bread expands in their stomachs and they think they are full. Photography is also often a part of bird watching. Peninsula resident and con- tributing photographer for the Chinook Observer, Jane Webb, started photograph- ing birds waiting for other wildlife to show. “Then it became a challenge,” Webb said, “to not only photograph birds sitting but in fl ight.” Largely self-taught, Webb likes to pho- tograph birds that hunt or fi sh. Enriching lives Birds offer much to enrich our own lives. “Appreciating birds also means under- standing and appreciating the world around us,” Ryan said. “Whether it’s your own backyard or some far-fl ung vacation spot, being in tune with birds helps us con- nect to the places in which we live, work and play.” He hopes appreciating birds encour- ages people to take better care of areas they live in. A person’s interest in birds can be the result of family infl uence, a general inter- est in the outdoors or good old-fashioned curiosity. Kalbach said her interest in birds began as a result of her family’s interest in wild- life and nature. “My favorite aunt and uncle were avid birdwatchers and belonged to a local nat- uralists’ club,” she said. “I was invited to join when I began teaching. The naturalist club sent me to a provincial-wide natural- ist club camp. From then on birding and nature became major interests.” Ryan got into birding a little later in life. “Birding didn’t really become a focus until I got older, started working as a for- ester and met a friend who introduced birding,” Ryan said. A seminal moment came for Ryan when he and that friend were hiking in the Rocky Mountains. Ryan said the thing that made his day for he and his friend was when they were sitting on a high bald mountain and sud- denly a cyclone of hundreds to nearly a thousand small birds came swirling up around them before moving on. “My friend was smiling and laughing the rest of the day after having that expe- rience with gray-crowned rosy fi nches,” Ryan said. “They are an extreme habitat bird and were a signal to him of just how special a place we were in. That was my turning point.” Patty Hardin is a freelance writer in Long Beach, Washington.
