Earlier this spring I wrote a bit about birds in the garden. I love birds. I have loved birds my whole life. My grandma Reardon and my dad loved birds too and I'm sure their love of birds rubbed off on me. I am forever trying to make my garden more friendly for birds. I know, living in a very small city setting, that I will never attract a blue bird or water loving birds. But, my goal is to see how many different birds I can spy in my garden. Over the years, I've done a lot of reading about attracting birds and I've just started looking at a few new books on the subject. As my pictures show, I have a number of bird feeders, at different heights and in different locations. I have a bird bath that I clean just about every day and lately the Robins have been taking a daily bath in it. I do not use insecticides or herbicides in my garden because I do not want to harm the birds or the insects the birds may be looking for. This spring I've noticed a pair of Cardinals, which is terrific and they spend a lot of time feeding. I've also seen house finches, who are now starting to change color to the brilliant red they get and I've seen Chickadees and House Sparrows. I know these are not the most exotic birds you could hope to see, but I know that my feeding and gardening efforts are drawing them to my yard. Every time I see a new bird, I smile and am happy that the love of birds was handed down to me from my dad and grandma.
