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Health & Fitness

Spotted a Rose-Breasted Grosbeak at Our Bird Feeder! Our Backyard Upgraded from "Abandoned Lot" or "Floodplain" to "the Edge of a Forest" or "Park"

Birds value our yard more highly than before. Goldfinches prefer "abandoned lots." We have goldfinches. Rose-breasted grosbeaks prefer "the edges of forests" & "parks." We have one!

I spotted a male rose-breasted grosbeak at our peanut suet birdfeeder yesterday and today! The rose-breasted grosbeak, a beautiful bird that is black and white and has a deep red breast, has raised our backyard in the estimation of birds and ornithologists at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology from "abandoned lot" or "floodplain" (preferred by goldfinches) to "the edge of a forest" or "a park" (preferred by rose-breasted grosbeaks).

I like goldfinches equally well, and we see them in our yard too. It's nice to know that we've come up in the world just by not fertilizing our lawn or using pesticides and herbicides. We always wanted to be a wildlife refuge. Thirty-one years ago we ordered trees and bushes that the Arbor Day Foundation promised would provide wildlife habitat.

Now that birds like red-headed woodpeckers are down by 50% statewide, birds need backyard habitat and food more than ever, because their other habitats are disappearing in the most plowed-under, paved-over state in the union. "Suburban birdfeeders" have become the habitat of last resort.

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We aim to do our part. We support the Audubon Society and plan to join a research project by planting three hazelnut bushes in our yard as soon as Noel's Tree Service removes our dead pussywillows so we have room for the hazelnuts. The hazelnut sprigs we received in the mail are sitting in a pot mixed with "structure" (broken clay pots?) and vermiculite. Sawdust or another soilless mixture would do as long as you keep the roots moist but not too wet until you can get into your wet backyard to plant them. 

Years ago I bought pussywillow starter plants in a water-filled vase at the Mennonite Relief Sale because our yard is so wet in the spring and nothing else would grow in the far backyard. We tried.

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Our neighborhood is a drained swamp trying to turn back into a swamp again with all of this rain. Mr. & Mrs. Duck are visiting again. They hung out at Lake Conzemius and Conzemius Pond in early spring.

Until recently, our garden was covered with water too, though the lake and pond cleared up.

Hazelnut bushes like "well drained soil," so we're a little worried, but we have nowhere else to put them. They grow to 15 feet tall and up to 10 feet wide. So as soon as Noel's Tree Service removes the dead pussywillows, we're going to plant the hazelnut bushes and hope for the best. It should help that a bird, most likely, planted a mulberry tree, which soaks up a lot of water, so it's not as wet back there as it might be.

The mulberry tree bravely grew straight and tall right next to a live pussywillow, so we figured it knew what it was doing and left it alone. I'm sure birds like mulberries, too.

Birds hit the top of the cherry tree as soon as the cherries ripened. Some fell on the driveway, and we found a little line of cherries outside a crack in the concrete between the driveway and our garage, and Jim picked them up. The next morning, another little line of cherries was neatly arranged just outside the crack. Chipmunks, who live under our front porch, were saving them in their "pantry."

I'm sure the birds miss our cherry tree, which finally bit the dust. Cherry trees produce a prolific crop of cherries and cherry seedlings just before they die. I gave a good friend a baby cherry tree, and when she moved to a smaller place, she donated the tree to Lucas Elementary School. 

Birds love our crabapple trees. Robins and other birds pop those crabapples in their mouths all winter long. Crabapple trees store food for birds when little else is available.

Our yard is so green and pretty right now, I hope our property taxes don't go up! I'm hoping that though our yard is more of a wildlife habitat than ever, only birds and other wildlife will value our yard more highly than before.

We've got bees, too, which are dying in record numbers elsewhere. They seem to like it here. We aim to please our fellow travelers on this planet. They were here before we were.

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