Safflower

As you read my last post, on Getting Birds Into Your Backyard, I was going to post about Safflower Seeds. For a brief overview of the last post; there are two main steps to attract all sorts of birds.

1. Define what birds you want to attract.
2. Attracting birds into your backyard, and how to solve it.
3. Ways to attract birds.

To learn more, click this Link.

I have heard a lot on Safflower Seeds, in attracting Cardinals and other birds. Some people say that Safflower Seeds don't do anything for attracting birds, that squirrels love it, and that it is a complete wast of money. One the other spectrum, people say that this is a miracle seed that attracts tons of beneficial song birds, is squirrel resistant, and that it is not a waste of money. So what does one do when both sides are very adamant on their views. To find out for myself if this seed would live up to its reputation of being a miracle seed, I tried it myself.

When I went to the store to find some Safflower, I readily found it with the rest of the bird seeds. I picked up the smallest bag I could find (a 10lb bag), this way it wouldn't be a complete waste of money if it didn't work. For a 10lb bag, it cost me about $10, so 1 dollar per lb. Not too bad. I brought it home and loaded up a feeder that has been sitting in my room all winter, waiting for an opportunity to go out and be enjoyed! I set it outside in an open area, where birds could easily find it. I waited for about 3 days for a bid to come and eat the Safflower Seed, but I had no sign of birds. No empty seeds shells lying on the ground or bird waste lying on the ground. On the fourth day, to my great thrill, there was a purple finch on my feeder cautiously eating. It didn't take long for the word to get out that there was a new feeder in town. In that day alone I saw several Cardinal, a Chickadee, Purple Finches, and a Red Poll. I was flabbergasted, I didn't think this would work, but it did.
It was sort of humorous, because each time I would come to the door to see the birds, they would see me and fly away. Eventually they overcame this paranoia of me. The main purpose of this feeder was to attract Cardinals into my yard, and it worked, along with some extra bonuses. The most Cardinals I have seen came into the yard, due to the feeder, was 5. There were 4 females and one male.

Turn Out:
I think this was a very successful experiment. I do believe that Safflower Seeds attracts song birds and tends to deter squirrels. Although I have read that if squirrels are hungry enough, they will eat this seed. But overall "Their GRRRREAT"

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Attracting birds

I don't know how many times I have gone outside or driven in a car, and seen empty feeders sitting in lawns with birds on them. This is just about heart breaking. As you all know, spring is the perfect time to put out new bird feeders. Due to the birds having a low food supply they are more likely looking for food. This is why it is so very important to keep filling and refilling the feeders that you do have presently. Birds have a mental mapping system, where they mark in their heads the locations of food, water, shelter, and other necessary survival items. This is why it is important to not let your bird feeders go empty; birds just wont waist the energy to stop off at an empty feeder.

So what are some of the things that you should look into when getting a feeder?

1. What birds are you trying to attract.

Now don't be naive. Trying to attract a red wing blackbird while living in the city, or some exotic bird when you are in Ohio is not going to happen! If you live in North Carolina try attracting Cardinals. If you are in Oregon try for a Meadowlark. There are a great variety of birds in all shapes, sizes, and colors. Just do a little research.

2. What might be some problems with attracting birds & how might you solve them.

One of the biggest problems that birders have, are the dreaded squirrels...*evil music plays* Squirrels have been the bane of both gardeners and birders alike; digging up bulbs and hording all of the bird food. There is an obvious solution to this problem, pick food that squirrels don't like or feeders that they can't use. Nyjer (Thistle) seed seems to be

repulsive to squirrels but is a magnet to goldfinches, house and purple finches, red polls, chickadees and pine siskins. Another seed that I have recently found is safflower seed. Safflower seems to be a very contradictory bird feed. Safflower is supposed to attract Cardinals, chickadees, titmice, nuthatches, buntings, purple finches, redpolls, and grosbeaks Some say that it doesn't attract Cardinals and squirrels love it, while other say the opposite.

You can also buy feeders that wont allow squirrels (due to their weight) to feed form them. this is a great investment.

3. Attracting the Birds

Birds tend to be a little on the pick side, when it comes to the environment that they will eat. To optimize the amount of birds and how soon they will visit your feeder, here are a few tips. Since birds are on almost all other animals dinner list, they like to have some shelter to fly to in case of emergencies. So provide this with some shrubs or trees near by to provide protection for them to fly to.

They also like to have a place for bathing and drinking. To accommodate this, simply add a bird bath. Putting both of these together will attract them even better, since once they find the one they will find the other. I like to put my bath under a tree or large shrub, so that when they fly into it, they can't help but see the bath.
Also to help them find the feeder, put it in a large open area that they can see when they fly by. Once they have found it, you can slowly move it to they location you want.

I promise you, you will love your new feeder and all the new friends you will make with it. I know I have! Remember, give it time. Good things come to those who wait. So be patient and give it a couple weeks, the birds will come when they want to. But when they do, be ready and get your camera. Doing these tips have ensured that I have a constant flow of my feathered friends to join me.

~Next time I will be talking about Safflower Seed, Does it work or not~

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Orchid Forest

Oh wow, it has been a long time since I have posted, and I really need to. I have just been so busy with school, finals are this week, and I have been really busy studying trying to get a great grade in one of my classes!

So a while ago, I had the wonderful opportunity to see some of the most beautiful, colorful, and largest variety of orchids I have ever imagined I could lay eyes on. One of the conservatoires that is near where I live, has been doing what they call . . . the Orchid Forest! That just about describes it. This place is a tropical paradise for those who are tired and weary from the long cold winter! In this exhibit, there were fifty varieties of orchids and many other tropical plants and trees. In the Orchid Forest there were not only orchids, but tangerine trees, Koi Ponds, tropical birds, and a tree house (more like a viewing port), and it was WARM! This was such a fun excursion. My mom and I went to take a brake from school! I had so many pictures to show, but here are a few that sort of show the profile of the pics that I took. As you can tell there is a huge variety of orchids out there, heck, some of them don't even look like orchids. Some of the pics that I posted are not orchids. The glass orange, red and yellow structure is called the Sunset Tower. It was made by Dale Chihuli and is by far one of my favorite peices by him. It was even more beautiful in the setting of all of these orchids! Very cool!

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Looking at a Camera

Hey all, i have not posted in like a week or so, and I will admit that I am a bit of an addict! though not like some people who post once a day ...or MORE!!! You know who you are, go see a chiropractor. I mean a therapist!...lol... So I was going to post about my trip to the Orchid Forest, but my parents are out of state, and I cannot get my pictures of the computer yet. So you will have to suffer with me. I will not have any pics that I took on my blog. Instead I have decided to tell you all about the camera I am think of getting; and if you have any input on it, by all means, let me know!

Okay, currently I have a Nikon Coolpix S10, and I really love it! It is a great little camera. Perfect for those people that wont professional looking pics, that come with a cheap price tag, and good quality! It is great because the camera can swivel... I love this Feature!

But I was thinking about getting the Nikon's really new camera, the Nikon D90. This is a really cool professional camera, let me know what you think of this camera. I would love to hear what you all think of it. I had a friend that had the D40, and I got to try it out for a little bit...AMAZING! So I think I am going to get the D90. We will you...literally!

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Valentines Day

I Know I am very late, But I hope you all had a wonderful Valentines Day, I know I did! Actually I worked all day with my brother, but to me, spending time with family is a wonderful day. After that I spent the night at my sister's house, so that my parents could have the house to themselves.
Here are some pictures that I took last Spring, these berries are called serviceberries, and are really yummy. They taste very similar to blue berries, except they grow on trees rather than a bush. Serviceberry trees are often used as an ornamental plant in many homes. Most people don't know that serviceberries are edible, they just know that birds go crazy over thesse berries. So if you can get the berries before the birds you are in luck. I know that last year, there must have been a bumber crop, because there were way too many berries for both the birds and two teenage boys. That is a lot of berries. Each day my brother and I would go to the trees and gather tubs full along with our stomaches. Last Spring, my brother wrote a post on it, to see it click HERE. They are very yummy, if you have one in your yard or in your neighbores yard, get ready to have a new addiction.

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Forcing

Wow, I have not posted in nearly one whole month, that is terrible! I have been so busy with school and work. I have midterms this week, and life has been so hectic. I actually wrote this 3 weeks ago, just never attached pictures to it, so I never posted it. Well Here it it.
I have been hearing a lot about other people's experiences with forcing bulbs. Well, I didn't do one this year, but did do one last year. Boy, was that fun. There are many joys that come when you force a bulb, whether with a kit or not. When the weather is gray and bleak, like today, and you absolutely need some rays of sunshine; there is no better way to get it than with bringing some spring into you house in winter. And forcing really is not all that hard, trust me. There are many kits out there that you can buy, and they will grow all sorts of this, from the classic Paperwhite Narcissus to the modern Amaryllis. From easy to a bit more challenging, there are all degrees of difficulty to try.

Instead of buying a kit from the store, I decided to simply plant my own. I planted mixed daffodils that came in a bag from Loews(I think). Being my first time doing it, I know that I messed it up royally. First I buried them the recommended five to six inches, but this past year, I have seen people putting them so that only half the bulb is visible. I think I might of had the wrong variety for this. Any way, they did eventually come up, after I took them out of the refrigerator . Most bulbs that are going to be forced to be chilled in some soil in the refrigerator for a minimum of six months.

Here are my results. Not bad for my first go at, if I do say so myself. Happy Gardening....or not gardening...I don't know.

Robin also wrote about forcing here is her Link!

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Six Inches Deep

Brrrrrrr....I don't know about you, but it is cold here, like -10 without wind chill factoring into the problem ... I could tolerate some warm Puerto Rico weather right about know... I may have to post about my trip there, but that is another day!

While it was snowing yesterday, I got the brilliant idea to go out and get some pics of the snow falling. I grabbed my camera; layered on some hats, pants, shirts, gloves, and boots; and bravely faced the great out doors...okay, so just my neighborhood. I was able to get a lot of pics from the houses, here are some of them. I completely missed GBBD, so this is my make up.

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