Several years ago I applied to the National Wildlife Federation for certification of my yard and gardens as a “Backyard Wildlife Habitat.” You have to provide food, water, shelter, and places to live in order to qualify. I had already done all that, so was certified quickly. I even purchased the signs.
I was out refilling the bird feeders the other morning, right before it started pouring rain. On the other side of the fence I caught a movement in the grass, and looked more closely. There was a chipmunk foraging over there. This is a new mammal for the habitat, and a welcome addition. I think it may have found living quarters in the rocks that make the terraces around the pond.
That is the opening of the path that leads back into what I call the bird garden. The trouble with having a garden devoted to birds that they really like is they insist on planting what they like to eat in it. I am constantly battling blackberry vines back there. While I’m sure that the birds and other denizens of the habitat would approve of a blackberry bramble back there, I feel that having to beat my way through it would make tending the filter for the pond’s waterfall very difficult.
Yes, there is a pond there, although not in that picture. It is just to the left of the shrubs in the above picture. Right now it looks a lot like this:
What?! You can’t see the pond? It is right in front of the dog. Very overgrown, I know, but the birds think it is just great. I have intentions of going out there and kind of beating things back just a tad in a couple of weeks. I wanted to give the salamander efts a change to get bigger before I started ripping and tearing at the cattails.
A couple of weeks ago I discovered that we have tiny pink clams living in the river lotus and water lily plants. I guess the wading birds brought them in.
The other new resident that I have been noticing is a rufous sided towhee. I have been noticing a male very busy foraging. I am assuming that he is the mate to the female I noticed during the Great Backyard Bird Count, and that they probably have a nest nearby.
While Jim was spraying Bordeaux mix on the vineyard he found a brand new robin’s nest, just been built. I assume it is the pair who used the Bradford pear tree for their first hatching, and then moved out because the area was way too busy. Why they think the vineyard is less busy is beyond me, but there it is.
So there it is. The Certified Backyard Habitat is being certified in the most meaningful way: It is attracting new citizens every day. Check it out, you could probably get your garden certified too!
I love what you’re doing with your backyard habitat, and what a great way to encourage people to have wildlife-friendly yards. You would never get that in Germany – gardens have to be manicured to within an inch of their lives.
In South Africa, there is a big movement to plant indigenous in order to attract birds and insects back to gardens. People tend to have their exotic section, an ode to England with roses and lavender, and then their South African sections which is wilder and filled with beautiful birds.
I’d love to be certified as an exclusive hedgehog reserve. We’ve had so many slugs this year (it has been raining every day since late March), that only the potatoes managed to grow. All my other seedlings got eaten before they could say jack rob…
Oh, I just hate and despise slugs. When we lived in Bremerton Washington, there were these huge slugs that were 5 and 6 inches long that could inhale whole tomato seedlings. And the rumor that beer will trap them and drown them didn’t seem to work. I was reduced to using snail bait. Here it isn’t too big of a problem, but I have lots of birds working for me here, and it gets really hot and dry in July and august and seems to keep them in control.