Life, food, events, and community in Albuquerque, NM

tiny yard can be a wild habitat if the combination is right

Hi to my fave group on DCF.

I just wanted to share that even though I have a yard that measures .19 acres - less than a quarter - I do believe it counts as a wildlife habitat. I stand and gaze outside this beautiful spring morning and see so many birds (yes mostly rosy finches and sparrows) flying back and forth in what appears to be glee. I do think that having water available for them is a very crucial ingredient. I think shelter - much shaggy growth of many bushes and trees, and many seed-producing cultivated and uncultivated low-lying plants is also crucial. And not putting out any poison to kill any living thing, including roundup, even though I have a whole lot of teenage orb spiders spinning webs everywhere. Also, I do know that we live in an area that used to be total rural farming, where there are a few remaining irrigated fields. That helps. It also helps that our area is close to or actually inside the river valley forest.

What the Project Wild curriculum taught: Habitat is 4 things: food, shelter, water, space. And I think I did name all of 'em that occur here.

So my Nat'l Wildlife Federation Backyard Wildlife Habitat sign really is okay for this tiny yard.

Oh and it also helps that we have a tree a mile or so away that is the roosting place for a huge flock of vultures, tho none have ever stopped on our .19 plot.

Tags: backyard, habitat, river, wildlife

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Permalink Reply by Bosque Bill on May 18, 2009 at 4:20pm: Sounds like you have a nice, little yard with the essentials for the birdies. The NWF Backyard Wildlife Habitat program is very good; I certified my yard and have my sign proudly displayed. Water is very important for the birds, especially here in New Mexico. It is also very important to keep the water fresh and the birdbath or container clean and free from bacterial growth. The silly birds will poop right in their own water and all sorts of nasty stuff will grow in this warm weather. I'll leave it as an exercise for the reader to search out further info.

PS, at risk of being pedantic, the red and orange tinted birds you are seeing are House Finches, not rosy finches, which are totally different species.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by cc on May 18, 2009 at 5:10pm: Thanks, Bill, I like to learn the names of birds - I believe in the good of knowing names. Cause then you learn more about them, too.

We have a galvanized bucket for the cats and dog that mostly gets used by the birds. luckily, the outside of the bucket gets more poop than the inside. That doesn't happen with the big shallow water dishes - cause they don't have the perch that the bucket has.

Full clean water containers seem to inspire a lot of swooping flight - like these songbirds are pretending they are their cousins, the water fowl.

By the way, while substitute teaching at noon today downtown another teacher and I saw a raptor gliding around and SHE thought it was an eagle because she saw its white head. I have seen more birds down there between Central and Lomas almost where they come together. A lot of sandhills this past Feb.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Bosque Bill on May 18, 2009 at 5:47pm: Lots of my birds would rather drink from a bucket, too. It's fun to watch bathing in the shallow bath, though.

It is extremely unlikely that you saw an eagle. We do have Bald Eagles every winter, but they head back north around the middle of March.

There was a report on May 16th of a Mississippi Kite overhead at the Nature Center. They have white heads and could be what you saw. They are very unusual here, but not unprecedented. I saw one in the Corrales Bosque in 2007.
http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Mississippi_Kite/id; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by cc on May 19, 2009 at 7:12am: Thank you, Bill!
I went to your link (I forget about that resource!) and when I clicked on the White Tailed their photo was just as we saw it, from below. Definitely not a white tail - and not so much white on belly.

My hit on that bird yestiddy was that it was a Coopers. Cuz I didn't see the white head. Course, Coopers would usually be in a more wooded area, right?

I really am loose in my birding skills - I like and try to learn the names, but I am not as diligent as a true birder.; ▶ Reply to This