We spent quite a bit of time this fall discussing the action that San Antonio gardeners could expect in their landscape if they went ahead and launched a bird feeding program. There are always lots of bird species wintering in our neighborhoods, and with the dry, hot weather we experienced last summer, there was not a surplus of insects, moisture, or seeds to meet the birds needs.
As a result, gardeners who are providing seeds, suet and water for the birds are getting a return on their investment. Here are some strategies to attract more birds and what kind of results you can expect based on reports from area gardeners.
Do you hesitate to feed the birds because of you do not want to spend all your time and income meeting the needs of the squirrels? Start by feeding sunflower seed from a steel feeder with weight-sensitive perches. If a squirrel sits on the perch, the feeder shuts off the flow of seed. The perches can even be adjusted to reject white-winged doves.
Another tactic that works to deter the squirrels is to replace sunflower seed with safflower seed. The birds like the safflower seed almost as much as they do sunflower seed, and the squirrels do not care for it.
This week in the garden
It is an excellent time in San Antonio to plant shade trees. The plants have an opportunity to develop some root system before they must face the challenge of the summer heat. Consider Texas red oak, cedar elm, Mexican sycamore, Mexican white oak, bur oak, live oak and chinkapin oak.
Plant onion transplants in the vegetable garden early in January and potatoes at the end of the month. Broccoli and other greens also can still be planted for a spring harvest.
Treat peach trees, citrus and other plants with scale insects with dormant oil or horticultural oil to suffocate the scale so they do not suck the juices from the plants that they are infesting.
Recycle the leaves that have fallen from your deciduous shade trees by allowing them to decompose on the lawn, in the compost pile or as a mulch in the shrub border. Speed up the decomposition process by mowing the leaves on the lawn.
If you provide sugar water for hummingbirds, you probably observed the expected rufous, ruby-throated and black-chinned hummingbirds this fall. Some of the rufous hummingbirds are still in area neighborhoods and often stay all winter. More unexpectedly. some gardeners have reported that they are also hosting Anna’s hummingbirds.
Keep providing sugar water. Hummingbird experts say that the availability of the sugar water all winter does not influence the hummingbirds to stay in San Antonio instead of completing their migration. It is also common for golden-fronted woodpeckers in some neighborhoods to make regular visits for sugar water from the hummingbird feeders. They do not migrate, so the availability of the sugar water is just a bonus for them.
It’s also important to provide fresh water with at least one bird bath rinsed and refilled each day. Some winters it is less of an issue, but this year rain has been scarce, and a reliable source of water is important.
The large number and variety of birds that the water attracts is testimony to its importance. Expect at least 10 species of birds to frequent your birdbath. Add a solar powered, electrical, or water-flow powered recirculating mechanism and you can expect the number of species to increase at least by 50 percent, including buntings, orioles and warblers.
To attract insect-eating birds, feed them suet, a block of beef fat. In San Antonio, the list of insect-eating birds that will visit your suet feeder include ruby crowned kinglets, downy woodpeckers, ladder-backed woodpeckers, mockingbirds and at least three kinds of wrens.
Orange crowned warblers have been regular visitors to suet blocks for years, and now this year myrtle warblers are common visitors in my neighborhood. Use a pepper-flavored suet, as the birds all still like it but the squirrels will pass it up.
Calvin Finch is a retired Texas A&M horticulturist. calvinrfinch@gmail.com
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January 01, 2021 at 08:00PM
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Calvin Finch: What’s working to attract birds to your San Antonio winter garden - San Antonio Express-News
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