5 Life Lessons Learned at the Bird Feeder: Accept the Things You Cannot Change and Change the Things You Can.

5 Life Lessons Learned at the Bird Feeder

Part Two of a Five-Part Series

by Helen Grundmann

This morning, the snow fell softly on my landscape like a Currier and Ives illustration. Meanwhile, over at my birdfeeder, it looked like Panic at the Disco! Mixed flocks of birds battled for a seat at the feeder, little finches out maneuvering larger cardinals. Birds that relied on insects and worms in the warmer season now had to adapt to survive.

Some birds will migrate but those who stick around must change their diet. Robins switch from earthworms to berries and the occasional insect hiding under the bark of trees and shrubs. Expect flocks of them to seek out hawthorns, sumacs, and American Hollies as the berries mature in late winter. You can supplement their changing diets and attract woodpeckers, titmice, chickadees and juncos by putting out suet, a needed source of fat for the winter. Woodpeckers and blue jays have even developed tactics for storing caches of food to ensure their winter survival.

                Landscape design is also about adapting to change. We encounter challenges of too much water or not enough, clay soil and rocky ground. An upper story canopy can make it very difficult to predict light patterns throughout the growing season and don’t forget about the local wildlife.

The most important thing to remember is to accept the things you cannot change and work with them. Rain gardens can remediate wet areas and spending time in the woods can teach you how to garden in the shade. Plan to attract birds year-round by not cutting back your gardens and leaving seed heads up. Plant native viburnums for catbirds, bluebirds, and robins. Serviceberries will attract cedar waxwings and cardinals, and oaks and hickories provide food for woodpeckers and turkeys.

Don’t forget to plant conifers for winter shelter and provide water with a heated birdbath. Your landscape can even change how you feel about winter.

                "A great change in life is like a cold bath in winter-we all hesitate at the first plunge." - Letitia Elizabeth Landon.

When you’re ready to take the plunge and design your landscape, give me a call. I’m accepting a limited number of projects this year.