As discussed in our recent YouTube video, here are some simple tips on how to make your backyard wildlife friendly. You can't do too much about the world around you – but that bit of green space behind your house – let that be a microcosm of the world you would like to see. A place in harmony with all things. A sanctuary and welcoming place for birds and other wildlife.
You have control over your own living space. Some simple decisions can make it a welcoming and safe environment for wildlife to roam safely and raise their young.
Native Plants
If you are going to plant some plants look for Native Plants. What are Native Plants? Native plants are plants that have evolved in a specific region over thousands of years. They have co-evolved in an area with local wildlife and animals are dependent on them for food and shelter. We are in Georgia where Honeysuckle, Magnolias and Holly are native plants. So they are a good start. I have noticed that they both provide great shelter for birds. Robins particularly like to shelter in Holly trees – the spiky leaves provide protection from the cold and predators. Songbirds like to shelter in the dense mass of branches of our mature Honeysuckle and the Hummingbirds love the nectar of the flowers through the summer. Garden birds like Cardinals, Carolina chicadees, Wrens and Tufted Titmouse sleep throughout the year on secluded and sheltered branches, in dense foliage and cavities. If your backyard has an abundance of trees it will be welcoming to birds as well as squirrels. Squirrels build their nests, called a "drey" high up in trees, although interestingly I watched a squirrel build a nest in one of our Arborvitae recently which makes some sense from a shelter and protection point of view, assuming they can find a sturdy enough area in which to build.
Rethink Fall Cleanup
Dry leaf buildup and brush piles provide critical shelter and food through the winter months. We have blown a ton of leaves into the side shrubbery beds this winter. No doubt through the arctic blasts that descended on us some form of animal has found an element of protection in them. Insects like butterflies and moths lay their eggs in leaf piles too which overwinter as larvae and are critical food for birds. The Cardinals in particular have enjoyed foraging in our leaves.
Chemical Fertilizers and Pesticides
Chemical fertilizers and pesticides are extremely toxic to wildlife. Even if you treat your front yard to keep the HOA off your back, leave your backyard more wild for a habitat that welcomes birds and insects. Birds rely heavily on insects. For example baby Cardinals (and most baby birds) are fed primarily insects early in their development. If we kill insects we are impacting birds massively.
Bats and Amphibians should be welcomed into the backyard. They eat literally tons of mosquitos. Mosquitos are their primary food. If you are spraying for mosquitos you are also impacting all the wildlife in your backyard.
Please, for the love of all things Holy, please do not use inhumane traps, including glue traps which cause widespread torture for innocent and necessary wildlife including birds and snakes. Similarly do not use poison as Owls and other raptors often are poisoned by eaten rodents that have died from a poison trap.
Bird Feeders
Bird feeders are helpful to birds, especially in the winter months when regular food is in short supply. Remember to keep them clean as it is easy to transmit disease between birds. Put it in the dishwasher from time to time. We also use No Mess or Zero Waste birdfood which eliminates mess below the feeder that may attract unwanted rodents.
Water Source
A water source like a birdbath is very necessary for birds and amphibians. We keep a water in a container plant base -for want of any other container – below a Gardenia bush which the Cardinals and other birds frequent constantly. They drink from it and bathe in it and it’s right outside our kitchen window providing endless entertainment. When the temperature has dropped below freezing it freezes over. We see the birds standing on the ice and we go and throw warm water over the Ice to melt it. We are waiting for the birds to realize we are trying to help them and flock to the melted water within moments – but for whatever reason they are very distrustful of our efforts to help them and it takes a good 20 minutes of us not watching for them to get a drink. They are wild creatures after all, and it is best for them to retain a distrust of people.
So these are just a few simple steps to take to help wildlife in your backyard. Keep the part of the world that you are in fact in control of nurturing and harmonious to all creatures. Then pull up a chair and watch the magnificence that is nature unfolding before your eyes and enjoy the sanctuary you are creating.
