Nature Done Wright

Peanut feeders are great for attracting red-bellied woodpeckers. Photo credit: Jim Wright

My latest Bird Watcher column in The Record is all about an amazing backyard created with birds and flowers in mind. You can read it here:

By Jim Wright

Special to The Record | USA TODAY NETWORK – NEW JERSEY

   I begin this column with a confession. I suffer from  a mild emotional disorder that I discovered when my wife and I visited some friends’ backyard last month.

  We were chatting with Ken and Sally in their backyard and enjoying an evening breeze when the disorder struck. I realized I had “feeder envy,” which no doubt included a case of yard envy as well.

   Let’s start with the yard. It’s huge, sheltered by 60-foot-tall trees and surrounded by a six-foot-high deer fence to ward off the local cloven-hoofed free-loaders, a.k.a. white-tailed deer. 

   As for feeders, I counted almost a dozen: several tray feeders of various sizes, three suet feeders, three cylindrical finch feeders, three hummingbird feeders and a peanut-dispensing wire cylinder. 

   “Sometimes I think we have too many feeders.” Ken  says. “But since I have to refill ‘em all the time, I guess not.”

     All of the feeders feature baffles to thwart squirrels. Three birdbaths provide water for the avian multitudes.

  Their yard also features several nest boxes for their fine-feathered friends, including a screech owl box awaiting tenants. I won’t even mention all the salvia and other native flowering plants that attract birds and butterflies and bees.

    When Ken and Sally started improving their habitat in the1980s, their yard was a blank canvas. First came the trees: pines and spruces from a local 4-H club, then flowering pollinator-friendly trees from the Arbor Day Foundation. A seed feeder and a suet station eventually expanded into a network of 11 feeders.

    Ken estimates they spend close to $1,000 a year on bird food. That’s not exactly chickenfeed, but I suspect a lot of folks spend a lot more dough a year on lawn manicures. I also suspect that my friends’ yard is a lot friendlier than most to the critters we share this planet with.

   If you saw their backyard, you’d understand. They have created a garden of Eden in the middle of suburban New Jersey, an avian oasis where all sorts of birds stop to refuel and others live year-round – from migrating indigo buntings and rose-breasted grosbeaks to the local cardinals and woodpeckers.

   When I got home that evening, my meager array of feeders reminded me of an old Paul Simon song, “One Man’s Ceiling Is Another Man’s Floor.”

   But you know what?  I realized, enough with the envy. This is not some competition to see who can attract the most birds. When I stopped to appreciate the nature around me, I realized I need to spend more time time counting blessings and less time counting birds.

    A BIG REQUEST: Please email me if you're getting anything other than  hummingbirds at your hummingbird feeder.

    The Bird Watcher column appears every other Thursday. Jim’s latest book, "The Screech Owl Companion,"  was published by Timber Press. Email Jim at celeryfarm@gmail.com.