Migratory Birder

As a long-time member of the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Vern learned about Project FeederWatch when it first launched in 1987 and has been participating ever since.

Over the years, he has given numerous lectures on birds, has participated in Christmas Bird Counts with the Audubon Society in Hawaii, California, Arizona, and Colorado, and he was featured in The FeederWatcher's Guide to Bird Feeding by Margaret A. Barker and Jack Griggs.

Vern has been all over the world building an extensive library of books and photos of the birds he has seen, while spending his summers traveling on Nature Tours with his wife, Georgia.

Of all the birding spots he's visited, this world traveler's favorite place to watch is from his den in Gleneagle, overlooking a wild bird sanctuary that he and his wife built on five acres around their home. In 2000, their backyard was featured in the December issue of Birder's World.

Backyard Bird Sanctuary

In the late 1960s, when Vern and his wife moved to their home near Colorado Springs on five sparse acres in rural Gleneagle, they set out to create their bird sanctuary. As a biology teacher, Vern was interested in learning about native trees and wanted to plant varieties in his yard that would attract an array of species. In addition to a scrub oak and some prairie short grass that grew there, Vern and Georgia planted an assortment of saplings that have since become a flourishing forest of pines that offer seed crops and shelter, including Colorado blue spruce, Douglas and white fir, pinion pine, Rocky Mountain juniper, as well as several native fruit trees.

In The FeederWatcher's Guide to Bird Feeding, Vern describes planting a ponderosa pine every twenty feet or so, making a "flyway" between the forest and his feeding area to encourage shy birds, such as nuthatches and chickadees, to visit the feeders. Vern provides trees, shrubs, rock piles, and brush throughout his yard to create natural shelters for birds that come to his feeders. "Evergreens," he says, "are ideal, providing maximum cover from winter winds and predators."

An eight-foot dead pine tree serves as the center-piece of Vern's feeding area, featuring hanging homemade bird feeders and holes in the pine filled with beef or peanut butter suet.

High-energy foods, such as peanut butter and beef suet, attract insect-eating birds, such as chickadees, woodpeckers, and nuthatches to Vern's yard. Birds that live in cold climates, he says especially appreciate these high-energy foods. To eliminate the risk of birds choking on sticky peanut butter, Vern mixes in yellow corn meal and a few ounces of white millet, nyjer thistle seed, black-oil sunflower seeds, and cracked corn.

In addition to several hopper feeders outside of his den window, Vern has a four-foot-long tray feeder that offers separate sections for black-oil sunflower seed, cracked corn, and a mix of thistle seed with ground eggshells, "so I could see for myself which birds like what seeds," he says.

Providing a variety of food types may help to attract different species to your feeders, Vern suggests, "but that doesn't mean you need to purchase one of everything on the shelf." In fact, he says, "Several studies show that the high-energy food black-oil sunflower seed is the flock pleasing favorite of the majority of birds." If you fill a feeder with a standard mix of sunflower, milo, millet, oats, wheat, flax and buckwheat seeds, he says, "you'll see many birds actually kicking out the smaller seeds to get the prized sunflower seeds."

Sturdy feeders that can withstand winter weather and are tight enough to keep seeds dry and large enough that you don't have to fill them constantly work best, he says, and according to Vern, "Plastic feeders work better than wooden ones."

For the ground-feeding birds, he offers white millet, cracked corn, and black-oil sunflower seeds on a sheet of plywood that is sheltered by a Douglas fir tree. For finches, tube feeders hang outside of his kitchen window filled with black-oil sunflower and thistle seeds.

A heated bird bath offers a year-round water source for birds to drink and bathe in Vern's yard. "Providing water in winter is just as important as feeding the birds," Vern says, because "unfrozen water can be as hard for birds to find in winter as food."

Even with hundreds of new houses going up just miles from their home, the Dayhoffs have managed to preserve their quiet sanctuary for a variety of birds and other animals.

Winter Bird Feeding

According to Vern, "If you feed birds, you are in good company," since he says birding as a hobby stands second only to gardening as America's favorite pastime, both of which benefit the birds. Winter, especially, he says is a difficult time for birds: "Days are often windy and cold; nights are long and even colder." Setting up a backyard bird feeder, he says, makes birds' lives easier and more enjoyable.

As a veteran birder, Vern has written several articles about bird feeding and the etiquette of bird watching. In an article he wrote called "Good Birding Behavior," Vern emphasizes that the safety and well being of birds is top priority. "Birding is most enjoyable when the birds can be observed going about their normal activities," he wrote, "Agitation, repeated alarm calls, aggressive behavior, or distraction displays are all signs that we are too close."

As for his FeederWatch routine, Vern says, "I watch my feeding area every opportunity most every day all seasons of the year. My feeding area is kept clean, feeders full, fresh water given every evening for early birds for the following day."

Common Feeder Visitors

During the winter months, Vern's backyard sanctuary attracts a wide variety of species. The most common visitors include: Sharp-shinned Hawks, Cooper's Hawks, Mourning Doves, Downy Woodpeckers, Hairy Woodpeckers, Northern Flickers (Red-shafted), Steller's Jays, Blue Jays, Western Scrub-Jays, Black-billed Magpies, American Crows, Black-capped Chickadees, White-breasted Nuthatches, Pygmy Nuthatches, American Robins, European Starlings, Spotted Towhees, White-crowned Sparrows, Dark-eyed Juncos (White-winged, Slate-colored, Oregon, Pink-sided Oregon, and Gray-headed Rocky Mountain races), Red-winged Blackbirds, House Finches, Pine Siskins, American Goldfinches, and House Sparrows.

According to Vern, the most unusual birds at his feeders are Western Tanagers, Rose-breasted Grosbeaks, Red Crossbills, and Common Redpolls: "only once in my 40 years I have seen one Common Redpoll." Turkey Vultures, Red-tailed Hawks, and Northern and Loggerhead Shrikes visited his feeders a few times.

One of Vern's favorite and most memorable FeederWatch photos captures a Steller's Jay, a Western Scrub-Jay, and a Blue Jay eating together. Scrub-Jays and Steller's Jays are common in his area, but a true Blue Jay-usually seen mostly in the east-is a treat.

According to Vern, "You won't find another photo in the world like that."

Of all the feeders birds that visit his count site, Vern has a soft spot for a migratory species that has opted to stay at his backyard sanctuary all year long:

"My favorite feeder bird is the Spotted Towhee. It is normally a migratory bird, but I have one or two male birds that stay at my feeding area all seasons of the year. During cold and snowy weather, they stay in and under the large blue spruce tree near the feeding area and only come out long enough to feed and go right back under the tree."

Birder from the Beginning

Vern attributes his interest in birds to his mother, who taught him an appreciation for nature as a young boy growing up in York, Pennsylvania. In the years that followed, he says he had little time to pay much attention to birds, though his passion for nature only grew.

Over twenty-two years of experience in the U.S. Air Force, traveling the world and teaching as an instructor at the Air Force Academy eventually inspired Vern's career in education.

In 1962, he was awarded a Bachelor of Arts degree and shortly after, retired from the Air Force. After earning his teaching certificate, Vern went on to teach high school biology for twenty-one years in Colorado Springs, where his honor students nominated him in Who's Who Among America's Teachers in the 6th and 9th editions. According to Vern, only five-percent of our nation's teachers are honored in each edition of Who's Who, and less than two-percent are included in more than one edition.

"As a trained teacher, I can tell you that the personal experiences I've had with birds are more valuable than any book learning I've ever had." --Vern Dayhoff, The FeederWatcher's Guide to Bird Feeding