Saturday, October 9, 2010

I knew I spent tons of money for a reason...

Though my investment was quite large in the garden, it is exceding my expectations at this point in what I created it for! It's interesting to see how much water, food source, and cover play a great part in attracting warblers. This morning I had my first October male Common Yellowthroat scurrying along the ground, dashing in and out of shrubs but allowing excellent looks with a little help from some pishing. Ha. So far, I've been actually keeping track of warblers that are physically in my garden (not including woods or other areas of yard, strictly the garden. Here's the warbler list:
(2) Nashville Warbler
(1) Northern Parula
(1) Magnolia Warbler
(20+) Yellow Rumped Warbler
(1) Black Throated Green Warbler
(1) Blackpoll Warbler
(6) American Redstart
(1) Northern Waterthrush
(7) Common Yellowthroat

The warblers do seem to favor certain shrubs I have in the yard. The Butterfly Bushes are by far the most popular, but they are definitely big fans of the grapes and the viburnums as well. The Bayberry is also often included in many of their routes. I am probably going to do some warbler research and see if I can plug in a few more warbler favorites around the garden. The Cedar trees, Blue Spruces, Magnolia tree, and tall Oak that are along the border of the left side of my backyard are definitely a benefit as well. The warblers truly love the cedars.

Nothing else too exciting today in the backyard. 2 White Throated Sparrows were nice, lots of American Goldfinches today.

2 comments:

  1. Interesting about the butterfly bushes attracting warblers. That just reinforces our decision to replace the butterfly bush next to the porch.

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  2. I assume you mean replace it with another butterfly bush?

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