Birds in the Garden
by Gary Ingram
When I first met Pam 24 years ago, she told me one of her dreams was to live in a bird sanctuary. I thought this would be a simple request to fulfill—just grow plants birds love to nest in and feed from. At the time, we lived in a tract house on a small lot, so it was not an easy task, but a couple of years later, we bought five acres that adjoin South Whidbey State Park near Greenbank.
Our property was clear-cut 30 years ago and never replanted. We have left about three of our acres alone, only building trails though what is now a mature alder forest. In the lower canopy the dominant plant in this forest is salmonberry.
Our forest transitions into the mature conifer forest in the park along with large wetlands. It turns out this is an ideal place for birds to nest and feed. Sitting on our deck anytime from an hour before sunrise till after sunset, we can hear scores of birds singing. I have the Merlin app on my phone that can identify birds by their songs. In just the past month it has identified over 30 different songbirds that live here. That doesn’t count the raptors, woodpeckers and owls. We have a bird sanctuary.
When my garden plants are young, birds can be such a pest. They will dig out and eat sprouted seeds and eat the new, tender leaves of some small plants, so we cover the newly planted beds with a light row cover, and that has been very effective. Once the plants put on some growth these covers come off.
During the spring and summer months, songbirds eat mostly insects and spiders. They are also always on the look-out for seeds. In the evenings when I go out to lock up the chickens, I like to climb up to the top of our huge compost pile and watch the birds work in our garden. We grow using the bio-intensive method, using mounded beds about five feet wide and 25 feet long. The soil is extremely rich and never walked on, and plants are grown close together. In the evenings there will be over a dozen birds going around and under my plants, searching for insects and weed seeds. We never seem to have insect damage in our garden and have few weeds sprouting in these growing beds once the plants get going.
The most prized creatures for birds to eat are larva, insects in their initial stage. For example, a chickadee will have between four and six chicks and these chicks will eat up to 9,000 caterpillars in the 16 days they are in the nest. One Garry oak tree will host over 200 different insect species. With all these bird mouths to feed, I seldom find caterpillars or larva in my garden.
Birds need water to drink and bathe, so add a birdbath in your garden. I don’t want a bird feeder in the garden area as birds are sloppy eaters and seeds go flying around and attract rodents. Rodents are a major pest in the garden. We keep our bird feeder away from the garden.
Besides all these benefits, birds are so cool. Little brains they say, but what is a brain for? Mostly to control the body. It has nothing to do with the being itself. I imagine a bird in slow motion, no thoughts, flying through the trees, pumping wings and breathing deeply, then landing on a branch, another deep breath, then making the song learned while in the nest, projecting incredible and complex sounds into the cosmos. What a special being.
When the great asteroid struck, it erased 90% of the species on Earth like a big eraser; let’s start over here. But the birds were allowed to remain.