Attracting vultures to your backyard habitat

Everyone can get doves, crows and blue jays to come to their yard just by putting out some sunflowers seeds, but other birds are much harder to attract.

Vultures may not be considered beautiful by many, but they do serve a very useful purpose. Here in South Florida a few vultures hang around most of the year, but around October the numbers increase. I won't speculate on the rumors that this migration of vultures coincides with the arrival of the retired crowds from New York, Massachusettts and other northern states.

Since vultures are not attracted by the normal seeds and fruits that are present in your yard, you must use other methods of attracting them. You can see by looking at these pictures, one of the baits used to attract them. You must make sure the bait is in an open area so the vultures can see it, soon they will be circling around, and once one spots it, others follow. Their circle will get lower and lower as they look for any movement. If the bait doesn't move, the vulture will come down and start feeding.

Okay, by now, hope you have all realized this post is a joke, and no dogs were harmed. That is my dog, Max, and he really enjoys sleeping in the sun. The fact that vultures were starting to circle around our property and were getting lower, however, is not a joke. This has happened on several occasions, I just happened to have the camera ready yesterday while I was hoping for a picture of the hummingbird. I always have this vision of the hopeful vultures seeing him move, and going DARN IT, it isn't dead.

HUMMINGBIRD

Today was very eventful, we had a ruby throated hummingbird come to our backyard, and feed off our porterweed. This is just the most fantastic thing , to actually see a hummingbird in our backyard. I have lived in Florida for 32 years and this is the second time I have seen a hummingbird. The only other time was at an attraction south of us known as Flamingo Gardens. Flamingo Garden has been around since the 1930's I believe and is known for it's tropical gardens, that we got a hummingbird in our modest little backyard garden is just fantastic. My son saw it for the first time this morning, I missed it. The second time, he saw it, I got a glimpse, and then while I was inside he watched it for about 30 seconds. After breakfast I went back out with the camera. I was just talking with my son, and sitting by the butterfly garden, when he said "There it is!" It stayed for about a minute and I got a pretty good picture of it. Man, I am happy today, oh by the way, my son told me it is a female because it doesn't have the ruby colored throat.

A bit off track

I don't just grow my garden for wildlife, I do it for my own enjoyment. For several years now I have been trying to grow herbs. Now South Florida is harsh place to grow them. You read that the plant likes full sun, so you find a nice sunny spot, and the plant is dead two days later. Full sun in most of the USA, doesn't mean full sun here. Now, trying to find shade in my yard isn't easy, we have the one large tree in the front, sometimes I put herbs there, but they are not in a place that is convienent if you need to give them a quick watering, so I lose some. I can put them way in the backyard, but then I lose the convenience of just walking outside my kitchen door and grabbing a few leaves for supper. I do keep a few on my windowsill, but space is limited there since I am still using that space for rooting and taking care of plants that I suddenly find wilted or broke and need a few weeks of special care.

So far I haven't really convinced my husband that we don't need a bland front yard with just one tree and grass, so I can't dig out a nice area in the front and make a wagon wheel shaped herb garden. I finally came up with a solution that is making everyone happy. I went out and bought a huge pot, and I mean huge, I had to put 100 pounds of dirt in it, then I planted basil, rosemary, thyme,dill, tarragon and chives in it. These are the herbs I use the most. It sits by the door and when I need something for cooking I can just run out and get it. It is starting to fill in and looking pretty good, and I expect it to do well during the cooler months.

November and the habitat

It has been a while since I posted, most things are doing very well out in the yard. I put the wild lime out in the back, and it has several giant swallowtail caterpillars on it. I feel great about this, because I wasn't sure if the first ones hatched from eggs that came with the plant. Now I know that I am getting them in my yard and they are laying eggs. I am getting lots of butterflies, the most exciting one has been the zebra longwing, it is the state butterfly for Florida, but I haven't been seeing around locally. Looks like the host plants for the caterpillars and all the flowers are attracting them. We have a new garden with almost all native plants, and everything seems to be thriving, but it needs to do a lot of filling in before it really looks good.

Next weekend I am hoping to go to a huge plant show with my sister, and there are several plants I am hoping to find. I am really to the point now where I know which ones seem to do the best, and which ones attract the most butterflies. Now that I know this, I am going to be getting in more of the perennials. I will still do some annuals, but probaby keep them in pots so when they die I can just move the pot.

I am learning more each day, and working to encourage more people to have their yard certified. It is so wonderful to step outside each day and to discover something new in your own backyard.

Why Certify?

My husband had a hard time understanding why I wanted my yard certified by the National Wildlife Federation, he was worried that someone would come out and inspect things, and just really is not a plant person.

I decided this was something I wanted to do for the planet, just one small step. Now I am encouraging others to get their yard certified also. Then benefits aren't just for the wildlife, but you benefit so much also.

The first thing you need to do to certify your yard is to take a look at what you already have and decide if your yard meets the 4 basic requirements and if you don't, what do you need to add to your yard. You don't need a huge piece of property either, birds and butterflies will come to the smallest yard and sometimes they are the ones that need help the most .

First off is food, are there any plants that provide berries in your yard, many of the native plants in your yard already provide that, so check for those in your yard. Flowers provide nectar and pollen for the butterflies, and how can you go wrong with more flowers in your yard. Even a pot of flowers can provide food for a hungry butterfly. Next do you have host plants for your native butterflies, those really bring more butterflies to your yard since the females search those out when searching for a place to leave eggs. Of course there is always the bird feeders, and those attract lots of birds.

Next is water, that can be an existing pond, you can put in a small pond, or even a birdbath. It is that simple, you just need to clean and fill the birdbath on a daily basis. One note on birdbaths, forget the fancy resin ones, they look nice, but don't seem to be made to actually go outside in the sun and hold water, they tend to start leaking and cracking. The best one I have found, just used an old saucer from a pot, this one happens to be concrete, but a glazed one would work fine as long as it holds water.

Next is a place to raise young, that can be a large tree, if you have local birds that use houses, put up a few, a pond is a place for frogs to raise young, the host plants for the butterflies is a place to raise young.

The last requirement is cover. Do you have large bushes where a bird can hide from a predator? You can build a brush pile for reptiles to hide under, and this doesn't have to be ugly, you can plant a vine over it, then it also supplies food for butterflies and birds if there are seeds on it.

You can go the National Wildlife Federation and download their application and see exactly what you need to do to certify your yard. Also if you just can't do your yard, maybe you can encourage someone else to do their yard and help them out. Every bit helps and you will enjoy knowing you did something to help the planet and wildlife.

If you do decide after reading this to get your yard certified, please let me know, I have set a goal of trying to get others to have their yard certified.

The Birds

No, this isn't about Alfred Hitchcock's movie, this is about the birds that are visiting my yard. So far they haven't attacked anyone, but it has been pretty close on the days that my son isn't filling the bird feeders quick enough. We are mostly getting ring necked dove, they come in huge flocks, but we also get blue jays, a few grackles, and my favorite, the cardinals. How can you not like a bird with such beautiful coloring. What I am finding really cool about the cardinals is that they seem more inclined to actually go to the native plants and try some of them, and not just hang at the feeders. Today they were eating the beautyberry seeds and they will go and actually eat the sunflower seeds straight from the plant. I am really hoping that as the birds start migrating, we get even more varieties in our backyard.

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Ian's essay

Ian my 12 year old son wrote this report to finish off a lesson on ecology and he wanted me to put it on here for him

Today too many people spray their yard for insects and over fertilize their yard. All the chemicals that go in to lawns are extremely bad for wildlife and it's not just for animals, It's bad for people too. Many of the chemicals that go into lawns are cacinogens, meaning they can cause cancer. What people should do is plant native plants. Native plants need less water than exotics. They also provide habitat for many animals, to make a good habitat you need food, water, shelter and places to raise young.

Ian

age 12