2020 Summer Home and Garden

Page 32 2020 Summer Home and Garden Lincoln Daily News June 11, 2020 room for housing, business and industry. Other causes for the loss of wildlife include intensive farming methods, pollution and climate change. To compensate for this, we need to do more to bring wildlife into our residential areas as well as our parks and nature sites. Creating an environment where birds feel safe and have available sources of food and water will help re-build those populations. Feeding the birds year round will keep them coming back to your yard, and will help them multiply. In the following video, the take away may be that a variety of birds need a variety of feeders. Feeders are designed to allow the bird to consume food in a way that is most natural to their wild habits. For example, robins and turtle doves do not often eat from elevated feeders. They prefer to eat with both feet on the ground. Scattering seed can work, but if you want to keep seed contained, choosing a plate style feeder that can be placed on the ground is the best. This video also talks about nest boxes or bird houses. These are great for the birds if you do not have a lush greenspace with a lot of trees and shrubs. CJ Wildlife: Attract More Wildlife to Your Garden While nesting boxes or bird houses will help provide shelter for your back yard buddies. Birds won’t be naturally attracted to wide open spaces. They seek areas where there are trees and other vegetation they can use for roosting, sheltering, and as protection from predators. While you probably can’t plant a forest in your back yard there are shrubs and bushes that will help attract the birds to your yard. An example would be burning bush. Birds like this large shrub because it provides very dense foliage. And, even though you are providing food, birds also enjoy harvesting their own meals from natural plants. Flowering plants such as sunflowers, cone flower and black-eyed Susan are pretty flowering plants that birds enjoy. CONTINUED u