Love watching the birds and pollinators this time of year
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Anonymous
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This morning, while drinking my coffee on the porch, I saw two goldfinches, a hummingbird, a swallowtail butterfly, and bees galore. Makes me so happy! I planted a ton of insect-friendly flowers this year and anytime a pest problem pops up (aphids, caterpillars), the beneficial insects get to work and clear it up. It’s incredible.
What are you seeing in the garden these days? |
Anonymous
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đź‘Ť
We have a goldfinch that loves to eat the seeds of our coneflowers. Tons of moths and swallowtails on our butterfly bush. Many, many bees..my favorites are the very very tiny bees you'd mistake for another kind of insect. They're all over our native mints, bee balm and lavender. |
Anonymous
| These past two weekends I’ve finally had hummingbirds back and monarchs are here again. Agree- so nice to see |
Anonymous
| If you like monarchs, I cannot recommend meadow blazing star enough. It’s a bit of a cheat for those of you on the east coast since it’s not technically native in your area, but if you have a blooming meadow star, you have a monarch. If you have more than that, you have more monarchs. I planted a bunch this spring but only one took off and bloomed this year and I had a one to three monarchs every day. Otherwise they’re pretty much absent from my spray-happy and pollinator useless plant heavy neighborhood. |
Anonymous
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Haven’t seen any monarchs but I do have lots of other butterflies and a couple of hummingbirds who keep me smiling. The other evening I refilled a hummingbird feeder on my back porch and then spent a few minutes deadheading the hanging basket right beside it. A hummingbird zoomed up in seconds and hovered just odd to the side waiting for me to leave. At ne point he buzzed around my head as if to try and hurry me along. I love the sound they make as they hover.
I don’t see goldfinches in the summer, though I do have them at my feeders in winter. I keep a birdbath on my porch and sometimes I have a dozen chickadees going crazy in the bath at the same time. |
Anonymous
| A dozen chickadees at the same time sounds amazing. The birds in our garden that seem to enjoy the birdbath the most are the cat birds. They take full baths, not just sip the water. |
Anonymous
| Me, too! What's been nice is when the kids join me (older teens). As we're talking, we'll stop when we see the birds/butterflies. We still get excited over the hummingbirds and pileated woodpeckers. |
Anonymous
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Same here. We've transitioned to primarily native plants, specifically geared to pollinators, and I actually have people stop in front of my home to watch the activity and people stop me on walks to tell me how much they love it. We have lots of swallowtails (it's a bonanza for those guys this year), usually monarchs though i haven't seen any yet, moths, hundreds of bees . . . and the bird populations in our yard have boomed. We also put out bird house and have had multiple broods of bluebirds, wrens, and other species. And my DH (who has become quite the amateur birder) sees all sorts of birds we've never seen before.
It's awesome! |
Anonymous
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I have a nice pollinator plants on all sides of my house and the bees have been amazing this year. They love my clethra alnifolia most. I have hummingbirds but not as many as previous years. Despite have numerous plants to attract them, I have seen very few butterflies. I've only seen black swallowtails and cabbage moths. I haven't seen a single monarch.
The hummingbird numbers will increase each week. They are starting to migrate and will stop at feeders for days. One year I had 22 on or around my deck with 3 feeders. |
Anonymous
| I'm seeing lots of goldfinches and house finches. They love my zinnias and leave seeds dropped all over the petals. |
Anonymous
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You guys are reminding me how I want to put out a hummingbird feeder!
This year I planted a couple of agastache in an empty spot—they shot up, got a little raggedy. I was on the fence about the wisdom of the addition until they were fully in bloom—and were quickly covered with bees, it seems literally every minute of the day. Never seen another plant like it (even tho I have plenty of the standard pollinator perennials…) |
Anonymous
I'm still working out the height issues with some of my plants. But, between a combo of a modest "chelsea chop" and early staking with twine and some other accessories, I'll have it down for next summer. They're a little unruly this year and I wish I would have chopped a bit more (I was afraid of delaying blooms too much) but still beautiful. |
Anonymous
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Op here - love all this! I think people underestimate how much impact even one small yard can have in our local ecosystem.
I just saw my first monarch yesterday! Hopefully there will be more. We do have some milkweed planted. |
Anonymous
| Does anyone have any guesses as to why I'm not seeing butterflies? I live in a suburb with a small wooded area behind me. None of my neighbors seem to be using pesticides and we have a lot of gardeners and flowers in the yards. I have a ton of flowering plants and bees but no butterflies. |
Anonymous
My experience too with a pair of agastache I planted. Unfortunately, they did not survive my transplant experiment |