It sounds like Kitty Heaven, Cassandra :0) It is such a joy to watch them! Everytime I watch the birdies, I think of my grandmother. She did a lot of china painting -- loved the birds and had all these Time/Life books of birds and sharks and whales...etc. As grandkids we would SO look forward to coming to her house and devouring those books! She would look up from her work -- painting or stitching (because Idle hands are the devil's workshop!)...and tell us about the birds coming to visit at the feeders. I'll never forget her - and her love of nature and birds has a lot to do with that. They always had a birdbath and a rich collection of plants and shrubs for the birdies. She and my grandfather were such good influences on me.
elizabeth in alabama On 6/30/07, C & J <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
I love the birds as well. We've lived at this house for 2 summers now, and we have far more birds this summer than last. Just 3 weeks ago, we put up a few feeders to encourage all these beautiful birds to stay, and they love them. We put a 4x4 post in the ground right in front of our living room picture window (the window all of our cats loved to look out of), with a bird feeder on top, and another hanging off the side. The feeders are constantly busy, mostly with gold finches. There must be dozens of gold finches hanging out in our yard. We also have a pair of doves, a few nuthatches, chickadees, bluejays, and various types of sparrows. We mainly just feed sunflower seeds as all the birds like them. My 2 remaining cats enjoy watching the birds as well, though they mostly seem interested in the hummingbirds (we put up a couple of hummingbird feeders as well). Cassandra ----- Original Message ----- *From:* Susan Dubose <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> *To:* [email protected] *Sent:* Saturday, June 30, 2007 7:22 AM *Subject:* OT: Birds When I moved to this new house, a few months back, I was determined to make it as wonderful for my cats as I could. They deserve it. Below is an email from a client of mine that has a bird sanctuary in his backyard, as well as a Koi pond that I tend to when he & his wife are out of town. There are some good tips to attracting birds for my cats to enjoy, plus it helps the birds. Being this is Texas, hopefully some of the info will help anyone on this list who would like to attract more birds........ Dear Susan, I get my stuff at Wild Birds Unlimited: Westwoods Shopping Center <http://stores.wbu.com/austinsouth> 3267 Bee Caves Road, Ste. 121 <http://stores.wbu.com/austinsouth> Austin, TX 78746 <http://stores.wbu.com/austinsouth> When Isabelle was alive I did not try to attract birds into the yard because she was such an efficient killing machine. After she died I started to try to attract birds into the yard. The basics include food, water and cover along with sustainable gardening. A few years ago Kay started to deliberately plant varieties of flowers, bushes and vines on which butterflies nectar and lay eggs. The commonest plants for eggs are passion vine for Gulf Fritillary and pipevine for Pipevine Swallowtails. She continues to add other varieties as she finds them in nurseries and we have over 30 species of butterflies in the yard on a casual count. We have always had nesting titmice, cardinals, mockingbirds, Carolina wrens, jays along with hummingbirds in the summer. I have plenty of *cover *, being adjacent to the woods next door, along with the Agarita bush and all of the perimeter plantings of youpon and boxwood. I have several sources of *water* which is always moving. I have a small sprayer which drips into a cup about a foot off the ground, and an Indian metate into which water constantly drips. These are surrounded by plants affording some protection. I have the large disappearing fountain that seems to be favored by the goldfinches although others bathe in it. The birds like shallow water which is moving and they like the little splash in the urn which I had disconnected when you were coming to lessen water loss from splashing. They like to get in the wet boxwood leaves from the splashing of the urn and bathe too. I get *food* at WBU. The wrens like the meal worms and so do the titmice. I have then in an *exclusion* feeder so that the mockingbird cannot get in; he has a tendency to run everyone else off. He makes a good meal out of some of the butterflies and caterpillars. The thistle seed in a yellow capped feeder attract specifically the goldfinches. I first saw them here when some of the flowers would go to seed. With the feeder they are here year round and have raised babies which depletes the thistle seed at a rapid rate. The green feeder is used by the jays, cardinals, titmice and house finches. The spring is set to discourage the white wing doves and squirrels. I note that the ruby throated hummingbird prefers blooming flowers over the feeder. This past winter a rufuous hummingbird showed up at the green sunflower feeder when we had the ice storm. That is when I got the hummingbird feeder and put it out. At first I thought that I was too late, but a few days later he came back and stayed about a week before going back to the northwest for the spring. He usually winters in south Austin, so I was pleased to have him here. During the spring we had a chipping sparrow, a magnolia warbler, an orange crowned warbler and a yellow warbler. . So, with food, water and cover I believe you can increase the number of birds in your yard; it the cats are a problem try butterfly gardening; cats are not much of a threat to them. g Susan J. DuBose >^..^< www.petgirlspetsitting.com www.tx.siameserescue.org www.shadowcats.net * "The storm can't down the castle,* * it can only shift the stones."* ------------------------------ Don't pick lemons. See all the new 2007 cars<http://autos.yahoo.com/new_cars.html;_ylc=X3oDMTE0OGRsc3F2BF9TAzk3MTA3MDc2BHNlYwNtYWlsdGFncwRzbGsDbmV3Y2Fycw-->at Yahoo! Autos.<http://autos.yahoo.com/new_cars.html;_ylc=X3oDMTE0OGRsc3F2BF9TAzk3MTA3MDc2BHNlYwNtYWlsdGFncwRzbGsDbmV3Y2Fycw--> ------------------------------ No virus found in this incoming message. Checked by AVG Free Edition. Version: 7.5.476 / Virus Database: 269.9.14/880 - Release Date: 6/29/2007 2:15 PM
