Add a Little Beauty to your Backyard...

Add a little beauty to your backyard and support the Monarch butterflies at the same time.

I know it is only January 27th but another way to look at it is.... it's almost February! Which mean spring here in the NE Atlanta area is just 45 days away!

It will be nice to get back into the backyard and start the new garden. This year I will be focusing expanding the milkweed plot. Just in case you didn't know milkweed is one of the only plants that monarch butterflies eat. They are inexpensive plants and the one we sell here at our store is native to Georgia. It is actually named "Butterfly Milkweed" or officially as "Asclepias tuberosa."

Butterfly milkweed needs full sun with good drainage. This particular milkweed version only gets to be about 1.5 ft. tall. It will bloom in the first year with a very nice yellow/orange flower. The bloom is late spring through the summer. The plant is a perennial so it should come back year after year. It may also spread in your backyard to additional areas.

One word of warning, the sap of all milkweeds, including butterfly milkweed are an irritant to your skin so wear gloves.

I mentioned that they are fairly inexpensive plants to purchase. At our Wild Bird Center we sell Butterfly Milkweed seedlings for $1.99, Quart sized for $3.99, and when available gallon sized plants for  $6.99.

Butterfly Milkweed for the Monarch Butterflies

If you are looking for a small plant that will give you a beautiful orange bloom then consider butterfly milkweed. You'll be doing the Monarch Butterfly a huge favor at the same time.

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David Peterson is the owner of the Best Nest of Georgia, Inc. which includes in its corporate family a retail store called the Wild Bird Center of Johns Creek Georgia. The Wild Bird Center focuses on bringing nature to your backyard using bird seed, bird feeders, mealworms, and bird houses to attract wild birds to your yard. You can reach the Wild Bird Center at 770-418-1990 or by contacting David via email: david@thebestnest.net

Have A Little Patience When Changing Your Wild Bird Seed

One of the advantages of owning a wild bird seed store is I get to try out a lot of different things. Such as, occasionally a feeder will be returned for one reason or another... these typically end up in my backyard.

Another item that can collect around here are broken bags of bird seed. Usually I'll just tape them up and mark them down. Sometimes I'll bring it home and fill one of the feeders. Which leads me to the nature of this post.

Blue Jay taking a raw peanut

The feeder above is one of my favorites, it's a "fly through" feeder that is big enough for any bird (including crows). The feeder holds right at one day's worth of food. I typically put a  50/50 mixture of roasted peanuts and sunflower chips in it everyday.

I chose this mixture because I want to give some of the bigger birds like the blue jay a food that naturally attracts them. Put out some raw or roasted peanuts and you'll be the blue jay's best friend.

Once the birds get used to the idea that peanuts will be served they come. This along with all of the feeders in the yard become part of the birds local food route. When customers come into our Wild Bird Center of Johns Creek they often speak about "My Birds."

This term is actually correct. These are yours and your neighbors birds. For the season or in the case of the northern cardinal and blue jay these birds will stay in your neighborhood for the entire year. Some may stay their entire life. So what happens when you suddenly change seeds???

Don't Worry, But Have a Little Patience

#1 The birds on the neighborhood route may not like the new seed. In my case I switched to a "berry blend" with lots of everything in it. More birds - right? Actually wrong, all the seed was eaten but the berries where left behind. There is nothing wrong with the seed, it's just the birds on the route weren't looking for berries, they want nuts! You have to have a little patience when changing seeds. It takes a while for all the birds in the backyard, and in your neighborhood to realize there is something new and yummy in the feeder.

#2 Don't worry about the birds starving because you changed the seed. Have a little patience. They may not have gotten their fill at your house but you are not the only stop on the route. Neighbors, fields, pastures, wood piles, trees that drop nuts, trees that drop fruit. All this is bird food. They will not starve.

Male Norther Cardinal on Tube Feeder

So don't worry if you change seeds, don't worry if you go on vacation, don't worry if you run out of seed, the birds will come... They just have to put you on their specific food route.

Converter Nest Box

Converter nesting boxes have been around for years. They look like a normal birdhouse during the nesting season with (in this case) a 1 1/2" hole for our lovely eastern bluebirds that will start nesting here in the NE. Atlanta, GA area in March.

 A standard "converter nesting box" 

These boxes "convert" during the winter to a "roosting" box by flipping the squirrel guard downward to the lower hole. Yep, these boxes have 2 holes drilled in them. One up, for nesting season, and one down for roosting season. 

Converter nesting box in the "roosting position"

The theory is that heat rises so boxes contain perches on the inside to allow the birds to sleep in a warm confined space. These boxes also contain vents that can close to keep the cold weather outside.

Vent at upper left is closed, perches for roosting shown

The boxes have a clean out on one side while also allowing the 2nd side to open with a bird saving acrylic window to allow you to safely peak in at the chicks. 

Clear acrylic plate to allow you to safely view the chicks

Pretty neat idea! However, here at the Wild Bird Center of Johns Creek we have noticed and heard from customers one disturbing trend from the newest iteration of these boxes. That is the long squirrel guard is too loose to hold the board in place. Thus it may slip, and accidentally move to block the birds from leaving the nest. For some reason (which didn't occur in the past) the new screws used to hold the board in place can't get tight enough. Obviously this is bad!

We have stopped carrying these boxes until a solution is implemented by the manufacturer. Our in-house solution at the store is to put a 2nd "set screw" in that will provide a 2nd point of contact to hold the squirrel guard board in place. This simple solution of adding an additional screw to the converter box solves the issue.

2nd set screw ready to be inserted to keep the squirrel guard firmly in place

We recommend that if you purchased a converter nesting box from anywhere that you immediately place the 2nd screw in place BEFORE nesting season begins.