First things first: Thanks to everyone for the positive response to the idea of a bird blog.
For most of us, our first exposure to birds happened in our backyards (or maybe the neighborhood park). No matter how far you may travel to see them, the birds you'll know best are your neighbors. As with our human neighbors, some are more likeable than others; we try to keep the fun ones hanging out and the troublemakers elsewhere. (Sometimes it's not clear who's who - one person's life of the party is another person's overloud karaoke-singer.)
Some birds are in our yards year round, but many spend half the year elsewhere. They tie us to the larger world and lead us to care about things like habitat loss in Central and South America, runaway development around the Gulf coast, logging in boreal forests and changes in the Arctic from rising temperatures.
Some are fortunate enough to live in wild areas, and have plenty of birds hanging out naturally. Most of us have to do a bit more to make our yards inviting to birds.
When we moved into our home in 2003, our small backyard backyard was very formal. I planted lots of natives selected primarily to attract hummers and butterflies (salvias, monkeyflower, buckwheat, ceanothus and lupine)and kept some of the old plants that provided shelter. We don't spray for pests, so the insectivores find plenty to eat. There's a thistle feeder and 4 baths, and we occasionally put out suet or black oil sunflower (mostly in winter). Many plants were grown from cuttings or wild-gathered seed. Our yard has been slow to develop but it's starting to show some character now.
Soon after I started birding, I learned that the best way to attract birds is with water. I didn't have the $$$ for a nice looking bath, so I made my own with a tomato cage and a terra cotta pot tray, and planted some salvia at the base. The nice thing is that the bath provides water (and a bit of fertilizer) for the plants below, so they are quite lush now. (I'll take a photo and post it later.)
We haven't had any really exotic visitors to our yard, but we've had visits from some less common species for our part of the city. That's okay; I love my common birds. Juncos rock (they probably deserve their own diary one of these days). This year brought goldfinches for the first time, and they're still hanging out well into summer. My husband isn't a birder, but he likes watching the jays and mockingbirds carry on, the robins exult in their baths, and the hummers who feed outside his workshop window.
I really like the golden-crowned sparrows - despite the fact that they eat any greens I try to grow within minutes of planting. When they show up in October, they're jumpy, skittish, skinny things. Knowing that they've made a long migration, we put sunflower seed out for a few weeks to help them rebuild their reserves. By mid-November, they're less wary; come early December, they've settled in and think they own the place. (Fortunately, they do seem to play well with others most of the time.) In mid-March, you can see that they're starting to fatten up for the trip north, and by the time of their departure in mid-April you wonder how they can even get off the ground. O-o-h dear me. I'll miss 'em for the next six months.
There's no practical way to do a poll on "What was your coolest backyard bird experience?" but that's what comments are for - share your stories and pix below! (Oh, and any action items we oughta know about.)