Little Green Places for Birds entries, page 3

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21. Janet Bills, Macedon, New York 

Here are two pictures of a robin's nest that was in an 8- foot fraser fir in our backyard. I also had a house finch nest in a hanging pot on my front porch and a family of bluebirds in the box in my herb garden.

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22. Bob Williams, Bloomington, Illinois

This photo was taken in a tiny shelter which has two benches in it at Tipton Park in Bloomington, IL. This park is about a couple of blocks in area and has two lakes, a pond, and marsh areas around and in between them and is home to a number of birds including many ducks, geese and occasionally a heron who lived in the pond almost all last year.
This bird was feeding her little ones this summer.

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23. Treina Tai McAlister, Houston, Texas

My little Green Place is on the University of Houston's Campus. It
provides a natural environment with plush trees and multiple water
fountains, thereby making it a wonderful green place for birds.
Below are images of a hawk, that decided to rest on my supervisor's
(Dr. Charles Peters) office ledge for a couple of hours. We believe that it is a juvenile Red-tailed hawk...probably not far from its nest.

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24. Heidi Perryman, Martinez, California

An old palm tree downtown houses a barn owl family. Unfortunately, shortly after the nest was discovered this palm tree's bark was shaved for appearance and the entire population was displaced. Their loss was sorely noticed.

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25. Howard O. Clark, Clovis, California

Fresno and Clovis in Fresno County, CA, have small flood control basins that usually have water year-round.  Here’s a picture of one that’s popular with the birds. The photo was taken in the afternoon when birds usually hang low – but they are there!

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26. Susan Fleming, Muskego Wisconsin

This is a pond and flower garden with many bird feeders in my backyard. The birds seem to love to splash in the fountain in the pond. They roll around in the gravel and mulch to groom themselves. Besides the four bird feeders directly next to the pond, there are many bird food flowers, vines, and bushes. Grape vine, Virginia creeper, cardinal flower, purple cone flowers, bee balm, service berry bush, columbine, sunflowers, etc. There are always birds in the smoke bush too. There are two bird houses on either side of the smoke bush in addition to a white pine for shelter. This little green place in my yard has everything a bird needs:  food, water and shelter.

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27. Melanie Walrod, Pass Christian, Mississippi

Our Little Green Place is in our DeLisle/Pass Christian Elementary School Courtyard Garden.  It is located in the center of our campus and can be viewed by all the students.  What is exciting about Our Little Green Place is that it is constantly being visited by birds.  One of the 2nd grade classes feeds the birds daily and makes sure that the bird bath is always full.  Our parent volunteer classroom garden program works with the students from kindergarten to 5th grade where many of the students are involved in ensuring that this green place remains a healthy wildlife habitat, especially for the birds.  All season the birds visit this garden and the students take great pride in this.  We have even used the garden as the center for our interactive student great backyard bird count lessons.  As the students were learning to identify birds, they were actually observing birds in their gardens.  In the first picture, you can see part of our "winter" version of Our Little Green Place and several of our bird feeders.  You also see a 5th graders learning about our common Mississippi birds from one of our garden volunteers.  In the second picture, finches are on our sock feeder.  Their numbers amazed the students.   Our Little Green Place produces much education, pride and joy for the students and staff!

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28. Virginia Gielow, Bay Village, Ohio

My patio is in a western Cleveland, OH suburb, one block from Lake Erie where we get not only local species, but also birds resting on their  migration journey to and from Canada and the boreal forests.

29. Melissa Mayntz, Orem, UT

I live in Orem, Utah, just four blocks from the city center and along
one of the busiest streets in the city (five lanes). Our yard is
relatively bare, with only a few small plantings. While I do have
several birdfeeders and birdbaths, I wanted to provide shelter for our
backyard birds until the trees we've planted grow up. This past
spring, when the city was pruning trees in a nearby park, I scrounged
a lot of larger branches of different types, and filled in a small
hidden section at the side of our house to form a natural brush pile.
During the summer, we let the weeds take over, and now that brush pile
is a favorite hiding space for sparrows and house finches. We even had
a mallard duck nest there in the spring (our neighbors have a pond)!
Since we do have a hawk that visits occasionally, that hiding place is
essential for the birds' safety, and we've noticed more and more of
them enjoying it throughout the summer. It may not be pretty, but they
do love it!
We may live in the city, but the birds can too!  I also keep a
birding blog about my goal to create a bird habitat in the backyard:
Backyard Birds Utah (http://backyardbirdsutah.blogspot.com/).
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30. Carolgene Cottle, Carrizo Springs, TX  

 

This photo was taken in my "Little Green Place".  Ten years ago I tried to make a water garden in the bottom of an old reservoir, it had also been used for a swimming pool. It is made of concrete and the walls from the bottom are about twelve feet tall at the deepest end tapering to about five feet, it is approximately twenty feet wide. I have two huge umbrella plants, four different types of water lilies, and yellow lotus. Each year since the beginning there are more and more wildlife enjoying the water, security, and finding food. I have introduced koi/carp, mosquito minnows, and giant snails. Occasionally I have seen water snakes, frogs, and turtles.This is the first year these Black-bellied Whistling Ducks actually made a nest and raised their young in the pool.