The Garden Springs to Life
Birds in the Garden This Week
I love this time of the year. Migratory birds are appearing overnight. How amazing that birds which can fit in the palm of your hand can travel north thousands of miles, some crossing the Gulf of Mexico, to forage and sing in the garden. The first Ruby-throated Hummingbird came to our feeders on May 9. A few days later the fight for domination of the feeders began, as one male started chasing other hummingbirds away. Territories are being staked out as a new breeding season begins!
In the early morning of May 8 I was thrilled to hear the song of our first migratory songbirds – Ovenbird and Black-throated Green Warbler. We also heard Rose-breasted Grosbeak, Northern Parula, Black-throated Blue Warbler, Black-and-White Warbler, Scarlet Tanager and Great-crested Flycatcher. We saw another 35 new migrant birds around the county this week.
Other local breeders, like Black-capped Chickadees, Purple Finches and Chipping Sparrows are singing exuberantly, busy attracting females, finding nest sites and defending territories.
I can’t wait to see how all our breeding birds make use of our new native garden!
Left: Rose-breasted Grosbeak by Cephas (CC BY-SA 3.0); Top right: Northern Parula by Ant.tab (CC BY-SA 4.0); Bottom right: Purple Finch by Billy Shiverstick (CC BY-SA 4.0)
Plants in the Garden this Week
The botanical stars of the show are the serviceberries. We planted six bushes and one tree in 2021 and 2022, and they all flowered this week. What a spectacle!
One of the earliest flowering trees, serviceberries provide food for early pollinators. It is also a host plant for many moths and caterpillars. They have edible berries in June which are very popular with birds, and gorgeous red-orange fall foliage.
Serviceberry is a great alternative to the non-native cherry trees, or cherry blossoms, which are wildly popular, so much so that they have festivals built around them. I know the attraction – they are beautiful trees. We planted a weeping cherry to honor my partner’s mother. However they are stunning for about ten days, but then have little wildlife value or fall color. So in our yard they are in the minority – one cherry tree to seven serviceberries.