Rhododendron Birds

I’ve talked before about how much Ryan and I enjoy watching the various birds that come into the garden, and we feed them to encourage them to visit. At my last house, I had house sparrows and starlings along with wood pigeons and blackbirds and robins.

Red Breasted Birds do not only catch our attention with their bold red plumage, but also offer fascinating insights into the diverse avian life. Let’s explore a few of these remarkable Birds with Red Chest.

Birds make a great addition to your garden, they’re great to look at and they’re useful as well. For instance, they will eat slugs, snails, aphids, insects and other well-known troublemakers.

My Rhododendrons were in full bloom when a late frost caught them quite badly. Winter has been wet and mild but if the USA is anything to go by hard frosts may still be on the way so look after your early flowering Rhododendrons.

I just purchased a new containerised Rhododendron named ‘Sappho’. The picture on the label is of white flowers with spotted purple centres. There are lots of buds, about 20, and they are looking lilac.  I thought of taking it back as that was not the colour I wanted.

Arduaine Garden in Scotland is well-known in international Rhododendron circles for the number of wonderful species grown here, many of which are considered tender elsewhere and grow unusually under a canopy of mature Japanese larch. To some people, rhododendrons are those unpleasant purple-flowered objects which clog up our native woodlands. This is but one species, Rhododendron ponticum or a hybrid of it which spreads rapidly both by seed and sucker. Arduaine’s collection is extensive containing about 400 distinct species. The rhododendrons range from the large-leaved giants such as Rhododendron protistum, Rhododendron sinogrande and Rhododendron macabeanum to the small-leaved, high altitude plants which are often classed as rock plants, a sample of which would include Rhododendron fastigiatum, impeditum and orthocladum. In between these two extremes sit the majority of species of differing sizes with a variety of foliage shapes and an astonishing range of flower colour and form. One of the specialities is the only Rhododendron from Ceylon – Rhododendron arboreum subsp. zeylanicum.

“Like the week in Lake Wobegon, it’s been mostly quiet,” says Ellen. “For the most part, the birds have stopped singing.” Turning their attention away from establishing territories, finding mates and having families—what the songs were mostly about—they’ve shifted focus. “Some birds even lose the ability to sing after the breeding season is over,” she adds (learn more about that in this BirdNote show and transcript).In the Q&A that follows, Ellen’s answers contain green links to audio files from BirdNote’s archive that you won’t want to miss. A recap of earlier stories in our series is at the bottom of the page, along with information on how to get BirdNote daily.the midsummer bird q&a with ellen blackstoneQ. So what are the birds doing as we enter midsummer?A. Many birds–wrens, robins, and others–may raise more than one brood in a breeding season. Depending on what part of the country you call h

Garden visitors, average early January 2015 day:30 dark-eyed juncos 11 goldfinches 1 male Eastern bluebird 3 Northern cardinals 5 white-throated sparrows 12 American robins 7 mourning doves 9 blue jays 3 tufted titmice 6 black-capped chickadees 2 white-breasted nuthatches 1 red-bellied woodpecker 2 downy woodpeckers 1 hairy woodpecker 1 yellow-belli

I count birds on ebird and with projects like FeederWatch (which runs every November through early April) because being a citizen scientist—that is being a real person without scientific training who collects and shares data so it can be used by scientists—is the only way the vast work of observing and recording the goings-on of the earth’s species can ever happen. Efforts by citizen scientists give experts a population baseline to work against to gauge impact when an oil spill or other catastrophe occurs. Data from citizen scientists has provided a basis for evaluating declines in populations and identifying which species are at highest risk (on the so-called watch list or in the annual State of the Birds report). It is important (and also immensely pleasurable).Which points to the fact that some of the reasons I count birds are entirely selfish. I count birds because I find it relaxing and also exhilarating: the meditative aspect of just staring out the window or up into the trees from below; the ever-present possibility something unusual will happen

Spring, and also fall, are perfect times to add some bird-friendly plantings, since many are woody plants, and also to provide for the most important thing off all: water. Big surprise–it’s all about keeping them fed, watered and sheltered in every season. Here are the essentials:1. water needed 12 months a yearWater is required 12 months a year, preferably moving water; curious birds cannot resist a drip or spillway, such as the little waterfalls in each of my two small garden pools. Even when those are shut down due

IT’S NO NEWS TO YOU THAT I’M A BIRD PERSON (and often described as “birdlike”); to me birds and gardening are inseparable notions. As close as I feel to my feathered companions, I can’t say I’ve ever been as intimate as zoologist Mark Carwardine in the video above. Unbelievable. More bits about birds from my recent travels around the digital realm: