A Good Birding Weekend

The snow that we got last Saturday really brought out the birds in force.  It was the most I've seen so far this winter.

The day started out with a nice surprise.  We spotted a Cooper's Hawk in the tree in our side lawn. A few weeks ago I caught a glimpse of the same bird but didn't get a good enough look to identify it.

The Cooper's Hawk is a medium sized hawk that is known to prey on smaller birds at feeders.  I was disappointed to read that, but I guess it's the circle of life.  It didn't seem to stay around for long near the feeders but it probably lives on our property.  I didn't get a photo myself, but below is a nice shot of one from the internet:


  

The rest of the weekend I observed the normal variety of birds for our yard including blue jays, juncos, chickadees, American tree sparrows, house sparrows, woodpeckers, nuthatches, and goldfinches.  As far as the woodpeckers, I spotted a hairy, downy, and red-bellied variety.

Below are some of the photos I captured:

So until next time, happy bird watching.  I would love to hear from my readers as to which species you are observing in your area.

In my next post I will return to vegetable garden planning.

A Great New Birding App for iPhone

This week has been a slow week for bird watching.  Although we've had two or three decent snowfalls this winter of about a foot each, warm spells have followed each time completely melting what we had.  So was the case this past weekend.  Everything was green again until last night when we got back about an inch of the fluffy white stuff.  It looks like we're heading into a snowier and much colder weather pattern over the next week or so which will definitely increase the bird feeder activity.

This morning I did snap a quick photo of two dark-eyed juncos resting in the grape vine:

I recently discovered a great new birding app for iPhone from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology:

http://www.birds.cornell.edu/Page.aspx?pid=1478

It allows you to figure out what bird species you may have seen based on size, color, and where you spotted them.  It also customizes a bird list based on your current location.  You can also just simply just look up a particular species.  It has beautiful photos, thorough information and I must say so far I'm impressed with this app.  It would be great for kids and novice bird watchers allowing you to determine what particular species you saw and making the process fun.

The Cornell Lab of Ornithology is a joint partner with Audubon in the Great Backyard Bird Count, which I referenced in my January 13th post, "Welcome to My Blog."  I have used Cornell's online bird identification tool many times during the GBBC.

This weekend I will try to take some more bird photos and also continue talking about the vegetable garden planning process.  As always your comments and suggestions are appreciated.

A Great Garden Planning Tool

Sometimes the hardest part of planning a vegetable garden is figuring out where to plant each vegetable and how much you'll be able to fit in the space that you have without overcrowding.  For many years I used pencil and paper or just winged it , both of which actually worked out fine most of the time.

A few years ago I discovered a great tool especially if you like working on your computer.  Even though there are numerous garden planning programs available, I have been very happy with the Jung Seed Co. Vegetable Garden Planner (web based software) which can be found at:  http://gardenplanner.jungseed.com/

It is fairly simple to use and costs $25 per ear.  It is a great way to keep a record of your garden each year including the varieties you plant, where you plant them and even comments on each variety.  Video tutorials can be found on the web page to help you get started.  Below is an example of a garden plan.  The image quality will be much better in the actual program.



Stay tuned, much more to follow.  I welcome any comments, questions, or suggestions.

Here Come the Seed Catalogs

Well it's that time of the year again.  The seed catalogs are arriving daily.  Actually I started receiving them around Thanksgiving.

I have quite a few I receive and they are all good sources for seeds, supplies and general information.  So far this year I have received the following catalogs:


 

http://www.burpee.com/





http://www.johnnyseeds.com/





http://www.jungseed.com/





http://www.gurneys.com/





http://www.parkseed.com/





http://www.tomatogrowers.com/





http://www.harrisseeds.com/



I apologize as some of the above images aren't from the current year catalogs as I had trouble finding them, but none the less these are all good sources for your vegetable and flower seeds and supplies.  This year is my first year trying the Tomato Growers Supply catalog as I am a tomato lover, especially the heirloom varieties.  I will post more on heirloom tomatoes this winter/spring.

I use a combination of catalogs and shopping at my local farm store when purchasing my seeds.  I am usually able to get the ordinary "staple" seeds locally, but for specialty items I use the catalogs.

Many people wonder about the shelf life of seeds.  My general rule of thumb and one I have had success with is each year I discard any seeds that are 2 years old.  So for this garden year of 2014, I will toss any seeds from 2012 but keep those from 2013 or newer.

In the next post I will talk about garden planning and crop rotation, etc.  I have discovered some useful tools to plan your garden space and to keep track of what you plant each year and where.

Until next time happy garden planning and don't forget the bird watching.