I love birds. All kinds of birds. Here at my California cottage in the foothills of the Cleveland National Forest, Orange County, I get loads and loads of birds. But that wasn't by accident.
The first year, I put out feeders. Lots and lots of them. For hummers, at the height of migration and through the summer, I have at least 41 ports on three sides of the house. While it's partially to see the wonderful migrants, such as the rarer Calliope Hummingbird shown below (note: there are 10 reports of them here between 1970 and 2015, four of them mine and the majority of the sightings in the Cleveland proper), it's also to help them on their way. Blooming flowers, water and feeders help with all this particularly in dry years where blooms and water are minimal. We've been in a drought here for going on five years.
Yes, it's all about me!
As you can see in the above photo, there's a halved orange at the bottom left. That's to attract and help Black-headed Grosbeaks, Bullock's and Hooded Orioles, who also learn to drink from the oriole feeder once the bees invade and I can no longer leave halved fruit out. Below, you will see a Hooded Oriole on the left, a Bullock's Oriole in the lower center and a Black-headed Grosbeak--normally a seed eater--eating orange.
We like it here!
And, of course, the above helped to make this happen in a potted banana tree that rooted:
Babies!!!
And, of course, sometimes unexpected natives take advantage of the feeders as well:
Yes, I AM a woodpecker. Why do you ask?
Of course, the smaller seed eaters visit the various seeds I put out along with suet and bird peanut butter, eventually bringing their fledglings to the feeders. The larger birds I feed on the one-car-wide extremely steep street and likewise the several species of wintering sparrows.
Because feathers are largely protein, I feed high quality seed which helps molting birds' new feathers come in strong and helps chicks develop strong feathers. It also helps adults feeding chicks to provide a high quality diet for a healthy chick which, just like people, is the foundation for a healthy adult. As much as we all like pizza--the equivalent of cheap bird seed--it may be filling, but it's not very nutritional.
In the winter when the Hermit Thrush return, I put out a dish of mealworms 2-3 times a day.
Yum.
The Next Step
When I first started feeding birds, I needed to catch the attention of birds flying by. Something akin to Eat Here! Free Buffet! without the neon. So, I got some bright orange and red silk flowers and attached them to the top of my eight foot-tall feeder poles. I got feeder covers (to keep out rain/sun) that were red or orange. And because I have flapping bird tape hanging on my large front window to stop bird strikes, that helped too.
But because this is the never ending project (I need to TM that!), it soon became time to rethink everything in the small garden and in the garden pots.
Garden pots here are popular because for plants, the soil isn't. It's rocky, clayey and because we all live under coast live oak, acidic. So when planting in the ground for anything not native (and assuming the squirrels or rats don't eat it first), one must consider whether the plant can even tolerate the conditions. Most can't. That leaves a couple of choices; use plants that can tolerate it, garden in pots or amend the hell out of the soil. I've generally chosen the first two.
Then there's the changing sun throughout the year which, in summer just beats the crap out of everything, but retreats in the winter. So the plant has to be able to tolerate changing amounts of sun throughout the year (I live in a canyon). Everything here is either north, east or west facing.
And herein begins my newer addiction. Plants. Like I really needed to reintroduce that one.
Actually, I've always been a plant addict, but it was indoor plants. At one time, I worked in the interior landscape business, eventually having clients of my own. But as I moved more and more into animal rescue, the plants moved outside. Because so many houseplants are toxic--some very--it made little sense to struggle with it.
So last spring/summer/fall, I began to learn about and purchase a number of native or near-native plants (things from Mexico, for instance) in one-gallon pots. I planted exactly nothing in the ground. Rather, I experimented with placement to see what they could tolerate in the blistering summer and the cold winter (we do get occasional freezes here where I have to bring in or cover certain outdoor plants not native to the area including my ferns and (the misnamed) snowbush.
Water use was a concern as well, given a long terrible drought that will likely never go away. I water by hand, so I CAN be selective about what gets how much, but as the inventory swells, it becomes more and more an inconvenience.
In addition, I needed to think carefully about making sure I eventually planted things together that had similar water requirements so one didn't drown in a pot with another that thrives in needing a bit more water. And, of course, plants that easily seed or can be separated are a bonus.
There's other considerations as well such as growing characteristics (tall, moundy, bushy, leggy) and, obviously, bloom color and foliage color/type.
I've lost a few things along the way, but not much at all. Some of what I lost was eaten by the herd of squirrels (and their extremely darling if voracious babies!) that mysteriously took up residence after the 2007 fire. We never, ever had them before, so this new squirrel thing was a mystery to me. In this regard, I learned two things; they, generally, love non-natives and do not eat sages or other natives I have and do not eat non-natives that smell strongly. Alrighty. I can work with that. There's no way I'm going to interfere with the squirrel haven. The hawks and snakes here need them and I simply adore them.
Lots of times, I buy a pot of something and stick it inside another larger pot where something is already growing. If it likes it there, it pushes it's roots down, hangs its shingle on the door, I cut the pot away and done. Here's a pretty example of that:
Autumn Sage (Salvia gregii var. Annie)
This plant took residence in a 25 gallon former (now dead) pine that we used as a Christmas tree for a dozen or more years that I later started some succulents in (just poked them in there) that produce a really pretty and delicate-looking pink flower on a stem in spring. I left the dead tree in there because the birds perch on it. It's the only dead thing I allow, but it serves a really meaningful purpose, elsewise partially supporting a misplaced vine and two hummingbird feeders.
I love the shape of this particular Annie... growing more laterally. Many I have grow quite erect, but shaping a sage is actually pretty easy... you just cut it back at leafing nodes farther down the stem, making sure you don't shock the plant by cutting more than 50% of the stem. I just purchased another larger autumn sage that is far more bush-like. It's testing locations at the moment.
The pictured plant, wonderfully, blooms forever. This one has been blooming continuously since March as have the others. Hummingbirds love this plant as do a variety of bees and butterflies. Below it (and out of sight in the picture) is a verbena which butterflies also love. It's in a pot, as well but is in serious need of re-potting and is the wrong color for this area (orange and yellow). I have another red one I will be adding in this location along with some others that are leggier and I will be adding some other things to it in another, larger pot probably something purple and something whitish or something that substitutes for white like the absolutely, incredibly beautiful and very feminine-looking Salvia coccinea var. Apple Blossom, below (a sage that very freely reseeds).
I am way, way too beautiful.
Hope you enjoyed the show. Tune in next time! (And if you are a counselor, I need you to talk me out of a tiny pond before the notion goes any farther).