Provide Winter Meals for Wild Birds

An American robin feasts on native holly berries in the Blomquist Garden. 
Photo by Cathi Bodine

by Katherine Hale

Winter is the hardest time of year for wild birds. Just when they need to eat the most to keep themselves warm, the cold drives the insects they depend on into hibernation. Even fruit and seed eaters aren’t safe, with unpredictable bouts of ice, snow and inclement weather cutting off access to their food sources.

Like support stations at a marathon, backyard feeders bearing sunflower seeds and suet offer birds a lifeline in stressful times, with quick and easy boosts of the calories and fat they need to survive. Feeding birds is a safe, easy and fun way to help local wildlife, and it also allows adults and children alike an up-close-and-personal opportunity to connect with nature.

Feeders aren’t the only way to help birds, of course. Native trees like dogwoods, hollies and wax myrtles provide welcome bursts of seasonal color—along with food and shelter for hungry fall migrants and overwintering residents alike. Withered seed heads of ornamental grasses and sunflowers can be left up after the frost for foraging juncos and sparrows. (You can cut them down in the spring to make room for new foliage or plantings.) Native plants also serve as hosts to caterpillars and grasshoppers, allowing insectivores like bluebirds and warblers to thrive. And of course brightly colored flowers are the best way to draw in nectar-drinking hummingbirds.

But the wonderful thing about bird feeders is that they are open to everyone—no land or garden required. For those who don’t have access to much outdoor space, or who are waiting for their plants to mature, bird feeders offer an effective and immediate alternative. As long as you follow a few simple rules—making sure there are bushes or other cover nearby for birds to shelter in; cleaning the feeders regularly to prevent disease; and keeping cats and other pets indoors—the only limits are your budget, imagination and time.

What birds frequent your feeders depends on the kind of offerings you set out. Woodpeckers appreciate suet. Chickadees and cardinals love black oil sunflower seeds. That said, part of the fun of setting up a bird feeder is that you never know who might drop by. Visitors to the Blomquist Garden of Native Plants frequently spy a pair of mallard ducks hanging out under the feeders, commuting from the pond nearby. Online resources like eBird, iNaturalist and Feeder Watch provide space for the scientifically inclined to share and document their findings.

Bird feeders in the Blomquist. Photo by K. Julian.

The beauty of bird feeders is that they allow you the opportunity to watch wild birds up close, with a house or windowsill serving as a blind. Beginning and seasoned naturalists don’t even have to step outside to see the resulting antics, which speed up as weather conditions worsen. The result is live-action drama worthy of a reality show, as the dominant chickadee scolds its flockmates away from the choicest morsels, or a red-shouldered hawk shows up to try and snag a feathered meal of its own.

If you’d like to try making simple bird-feeders of your own out of pine cones, lard and other natural materials (no nuts or nut products involved), join us for our annual Winter Wonderland Festival, on Sunday, December 8, from 2-4 p.m. at the Doris Duke Center. The family-friendly festival is free for Duke Gardens members, and $5 per child for non-members. (Please register in advance at http://duke.is/tZhVcV.) In addition to winter-themed crafts, there will also be storytelling, cookie decorating, festive music and our resident snowperson, Snowflake. Hope to see you there!

For more plant and nature stories about Duke Gardens, check out the Garden Talk column on our website. 

Creating a Photogenic Garden

By Paul Salazar
Photos by Paul Salazar

As a photographer, I am always on the lookout for eye-catching scenes, vibrant colors and interesting subjects. Browse through any photography book or magazine and one is overwhelmed with photographs that we all long to take but never do because we don’t have the time or money to travel to the exotic places pictured in these publications.

Does your camera sit on a shelf most of the winter when scenes outside are dull and all the leaves have fallen from the trees? When spring arrives, our desire to take photographs blossoms like the world around us. Every year, I make a conscious effort to get out and photograph often, even during the dull winter months. I don’t take long trips, I just step out into my back yard.

I have set aside a couple of corners of my yard for photography gardens. These are not the symmetrical, well planned and pristine gardens featured in the garden magazines.  My gardens don’t require a lot of work and are purposely cluttered with interesting items that I collect randomly anytime I see something of interest. I have an old wagon wheel, a banged up watering can, old gardening tools, a section of split rail fence, a section of barbed wire fence and a section of picket fence. Interspersed among these items, I have dragged in some interesting boulders and several pieces of trees that have interesting shapes and knot holes.

Among all these items, I plant flowers and shrubs. Generally, I plant the taller items behind the shorter and evergreen trees and bushes at the very back of the garden so that I have a green background even in the winter months.  A few winter-blooming plants keep color in my photographs year-round. My garden’s layout is constantly changing as I move different items in and out to create new interesting scenes for photographs. My garden is a habitat for birds, butterflies and small animals like chipmunks, squirrels and lizards and for spiders and insects. I’m trying to create mini-scenes for interesting photographs, scenes that include color, shape and form.

TIPS

Here are a few tips when laying out your photography garden:
1.    Birds are attracted to the sound of running water. Include a bird bath and/or a small garden pond that has a pump to move the water.
2.    I generally do not include white flowers in my garden as they are too bright and distracting in photographs. If you want white flowers, put them in their own section and don’t intersperse them throughout your garden.
3.    Bury several sections of 18-inch-long, 8-inch in diameter plastic pipe in a semi-circle  around the perimeter of your garden  so that you can readily insert and change out interesting posts and sections of trees with interesting shapes and knot holes. I put peanut butter suet in the knot holes to attract birds to natural-looking perches for photographs. 
4.    Place bird feeders around the perimeter. I do not photograph birds at their feeders but include all sorts of interesting objects, branches, logs, etc., throughout the garden for them to perch on. I often plant colorful flowers behind these items for a splash of color.
5.    Check with your local nursery for plants and flowers that attract birds and butterflies.  Save money and buy perennials instead of annuals.
6.    Finally, grab your camera and keep shooting all year!

Columnist Paul Salazar is a photographer and photo instructor whose work has been published in “Our State” magazine, in the book “Forever These Lands” and elsewhere. You can see his photos at paulsalazar.com. 

PHOTO CLASS

To learn more about photography from Paul Salazar, consider signing up for his 3-session workshop “Photographing Plants,” which runs Wednesday, May 16 & 23, from 6:30-9 p.m., and Saturday, May 19, from 8 a.m. to noon, at Duke Gardens. To register, or for more information, please call 919-668-1707.

To learn more about classes and public events at Duke Gardens, please visit gardens.duke.eduhttp://gardens.duke.edu.

More photos from Paul Salazar

Sarah P. Duke Gardens creates and nurtures an environment in the heart of Duke University for learning, inspiration and enjoyment through excellence in horticulture. The Gardens is at 420 Anderson St.


This column first appeared in the Durham Herald-Sun.