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 41. Holly Yocum, Ocala, Florida

 My Little Green Place is in my backyard. This picture has Northern Cardinals, (both male and female), Mourning Dove, and a Blue Jay showing in it.  I have an assortment of birds that come and go and feel very welcome. I put out many different kinds of food each day! Last I counted, I have had over 18 varieties of birds come. 

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42. Nicole Ramirez, El Cajon, California

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43. Kaytria Stauffer, Memphis, New York

 My house is situated on the calm Seneca River. On one side of the river is a wooded area and on my side is houses. Although small, my backyard offers a lot of cover for birds while they eat at one of my several feeders. The diversity of birds is high here as well. Throughout the year, there are various types of waterfowl, passerines, and predators.

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44. Doris Frechette,  Lowell, Massachusetts

My little green place is in my backyard. I do family childcare and I wanted to include birds in my daycare surrounding because a lot of children I have live in apartment buildings and rarely get to see birds up close. We have 5 bird houses along the perimeter of the yard on the posts of the stockade fence. We have 4 bird houses above the children's park bench, and 4 bird feeders on a limb in the pine tree. we also have a bird bath in the middle of our flower garden. It is just wonderful to see how excited the children get when the birds arrive. They stop what they're doing and say 'Shhhhhhh, here come the birds.'

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45. Terri Sabados, West Long Branch, New Jersey

Although I live in a busy suburb near the intersection of a major highway and the front of my house faces a busy city street and next door is an office complex, in my backyard I have been able to create a Green habitat for our animal friends. It helps that the back of our property borders a small woods and a secluded creek.

 In my backyard, partially surrounded by a wooden fence, I have a 9’ X 14’ area that is surrounded by a variety of trees, bushes and is full of flowering plants. I have 4 suet, thistle and birdseed blend feeders, and 2 water sources that nourish hundreds of birds and animals a week.  The birds feel very safe and I can walk among them as they feed and just visit with each other; Blue Jays, Cardinals, Chickadees, Mockingbirds, Catbirds, Doves, Grackles, Red Winged Black Birds, Junco’s, Sparrows, Nuthatch and Starlings.  There are visits of beautiful Goldfinch, House-Finch, Purple Finch and once a rare Red Crossbill Baby that we nursed for 3 weeks until it was able to fly away.  Daily we will see our Hairy Woodpeckers with the Red Bellied Woodpecker and a mating pair of Northern Flickers that are always together.  The friendliest is our Tufted Titmouse pair that will hop up and take bits of peanuts from us.  Thankfully we rarely see the Red-Tail and Coopers Hawks that live in the area. This year the Hummingbirds came and also a Hummingbird Moth. Each spring we wait for the return and yell of the female Mallard calling us outside to introduce us to her new mate.  

We have our resident Groundhog, rabbits and about 20 squirrels that sit quietly among the birds and “share” the seeds (with the occasional peanut thrown in).  At night we sometimes see 3 or 4 deer bunked down in the very back of the yard with the reflection in their eyes showing up front the busy head lights of the street in front.  Late at night we see within 3’ from the back door skunks, opossum and raccoons that stroll by and last week we had to gently pick up and take a snapping turtle ¼ mile away to a stream for safety. 

We are truly blessed.

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46. Tammy Walker, Ozark, Alabama   (no picture)

My little green place is in my own backyard. It is a good place for birds because there is always water and seed available. My backyard has many trees and bushes. Also my dogs shed a lot and the birds like the hair to make nests. My husband and I have a garden every year and we always seem to grow enough tomatoes for the birds to share. I especially enjoy the bluebirds that come to our yard every year. They are the most amazing color of blue I have ever seen.

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47. Molly Evert, Lagrange, Georgia

48. Tina Tate, Kingsport, Tennessee

Our little green place for our birds of the neighborhood are actually two places! The first is a double feeder in the front yard, about 15 ft from our front porch. The second place, is our line of trees, about an half an acre back from the back of the house. Every evening, the sky is filled with about 60 vultures, that roost in our trees for the evening. They are fascinating! The attached picture is our backyard. The birds roost in the above trees!

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49. Seth Reams, Portland, Oregon

Here's a photo of a female Anna's Hummingbird just outside our office window in our backyard.

Even though we live in a busy neighborhood, just making sure that there is clean water, fresh food and some great bramble piles (for good hiding places) insures us endless days of bird watching and enjoyment. We plant only native species, try to have a variety of flowers so that we have blooms year-round and try to keep the "hustle and bustle" of urban living out of our backyard, which for us is our Great Little Green Place!

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50. Mary A. Lewis, Evanston, Illinois

We love to feed and watch the cardinals, sparrows, and chickadees that make our back yard their home. Through each of the seasons, we tend to the flowers, seeds and fresh water, while these two large dense arbor vitae trees provide shelter for many bird families. This beautiful red cardinal was nice enough to pose in front of the sky-blue morning glories.

Shot this photo of one of more than a dozen mature and juvenile bald eagles we saw while boating in the Mississippi River along the Effigy Mounds National Monument in Iowa. We witnessed one eagle swoop down into the river just ahead of us, but the fish turned out to be the one that got away!

The cardinals in our back yard have us trained. We try to give them a handful of seeds in a small saucer every day, and it’s a race to see if the squirrels or birds will get to them first. If I’m in the garden when the cardinal family arrives, they will call to me until I go get the treats.

Shot this photo of Western Scrub-Jay while walking through the Botanical Garden at UC/Berkeley. The wildlife there certainly have an earthly paradise.

This birdbath in our back yard, filled daily with fresh water, is a favorite place for all types of birds to enjoy. It is set right in the middle of my garden between two large dense arbor vitae trees that provide shelter for many bird families.

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