As you know, life is complicated and the challenges never end. Thankfully, we can always find renewal and joy in nature. Watching birds, noticing what flowers are popping out of the ground, listening to a peaceful rain or stepping outside at night to enjoy the stillness are pleasures we can have whenever we make time for them.
Spending more time at home, and want to enjoy your yard more? There are many ways to get more enjoyment out of our own yards, especially if you’ve joined the movement started by entomologist, Doug Tallamy to re-wild your yard and replace some lawn with habitat. When you have habitat instead of just a patch of green, you’ll discover interesting things are happening every single day– You just have to make time to look!
Here are 6 family-friendly ways to enjoy your yard more:
1. Keep a yard journal. Perhaps you’re like me and every spring you eagerly anticipate the return of our beloved ruby-throated hummingbirds. Are you curious about what day they arrived last year? Because I’ve been keeping a yard journal for more than ten years, I can tell you within a week when “my” ruby throated hummingbirds return from migration. Each year I faithfully record the date I see the first male, and then, the first female. The same is true of other birds that leave for the winter and pass through in the spring, like rose-breasted grosbeaks. From my journal I also know when the first blue ghost firefly appears in my “Enchanted Forest.” I add wildlife sightings, dates when the spring ephemerals and other wildflowers bloom, and what’s happening in my garden and forest. Keeping a record is an easy way to learn about the animals and plants in your yard and can be fun for everyone in the family. Just beware: It’s addictive!
2. Hang a suction cup bird feeder to a window. Have a bird feeder in your yard? How far from a window is it? Sometimes people have bird feeders far from the windows, making it difficult to see the birds close enough to appreciate. Worried about birds crashing into your windows? That’s understandable since every year in the United States more than 100 million birds die from window collisions. According to Cornell’s Lab of Ornithology, All About Birds site, putting your feeders within 3 feet of a window is actually a great way to prevent bird strikes. This may seem counterintuitive but by having the feeders close to the window, birds will be moving slower, and less likely to crash. The best distance is 1.5 feet or closer, so a suction-cup feeder is perfect. Buy a suction cup hanger and then you can put any feeder on it that you want, including hummingbird feeders in the summer. It’s such a joy to watch these little birds at eye level, just a few feet away from you!
3. Buy a pair of binoculars, and keep them by the window! Years ago when I was traveling with my husband in Guatemala, I was not a birder, and didn’t usually look at birds through binoculars. I was too busy taking pictures of things! He’s a lifelong birder and never travels without binoculars. One morning we were watching a small dark bird in a nearby tree– he through binoculars, me with my naked eyes. He handed me his binoculars and I looked through to find the bird. Holy cow, I was shocked! The bird I had been watching was no longer black but iridescent blue with red legs, a turquoise cap and black wings. I was hooked, and now, love watching animals through binoculars. You can learn so much by observing animals in their natural habitat, just going about their business. Woodpeckers on trees, birds building nests, hawks soaring high above–Binoculars will open up your world, giving you a whole new appreciation for all of those “ordinary” animals you may have been ignoring your whole life.
4. Add a fountain to a bird bath. When I added a round fountain that I created with a simple pond pump to a shallow tray of water, I was surprised by all of the activity the small sound attracted. Most notably, in the fall and spring when the warblers are traveling through, they often stop in my yard, curious about the noise from the bubbler. In addition, during the summer, hummingbirds love to fly through the spraying water, sometimes even sitting on the rim below to enjoy a mist bath. And daily, lots of native bees and wasps use the tray to get drinks. It’s been so fun watching all the critters attracted by my bubbler!
Use a shallow tray, add some rocks, and anchor the sprayer in the center. You can buy a simple solar fountain but beware that these often will empty the water in no time, and they don’t work on cloudy days. A better solution is to make your own with a pond pump and a flower pot, or simply anchor the store-bought solar fountain to the middle of your bird bath so it can’t blow around in the water.
5. Add a nesting box. (Unless you have an outdoor cat, in which case, this isn’t a good idea.) Even if you live in a neighborhood with not a lot of trees around, you can still put out a nesting box. Chickadees or Carolina wrens are pretty tolerant of people, and might make a nest in your yard. To learn more about what nest box might work best for your yard, visit nestwatch.org. Here you can learn about what size hole each bird needs, as well as helpful information on placing the box in the best location to have success. Wrens are not fussy at all as I’ve learned– here at my house I simply add a few creative “boxes” for them and inevitably, the wrens choose one each year. Possibilities include an old bike bag nailed high on a wall, an old cooler put on a high shelf in my pavilion, or my favorite, a decorative box I bought at a craft store and nailed to a wall in my breezeway. As you will learn, wrens aren’t fussy about what the outside of their nesting “box” looks like!
6. Schedule time to watch. Year’s ago, on a road trip from NY to Alaska, I was looking at a book highlighting some attractions along the way. My eye caught on a sidebar with a quote that read, “The best time to spot wildlife is when you see it. So keep looking always.” This has stuck with me all of these years later because it’s so true! There are things happening in your yard every single day, especially if you are offering lots of native plants and habitat. You may not see most of what goes on because you’re busy doing other things. It’s easy to get caught up in our to-do lists and constantly evolving agendas and forget to make time for simple pleasures, but we should. By scheduling time to sit at the window and watch the bird feeder, or the bird bath, it can become a habit that the whole family can share in, and look forward to. How about right after breakfast? The birds are active, the lighting is good, and it’s a great time of day!
In this day and age, we all need things we can look forward to, and ways to feed our souls. What other ideas do you have for enjoying your yard more?