A yard for the birds
A Zebulon couple turn their garden into a haven for the feathered
“You feel like you’re helping Mother Nature … and then it’s our own private retreat.” — Hallie Wilson
Melodious birdsong fills Hallie and Harry Wilson’s spacious backyard. It’s hard to imagine that this lush bird sanctuary was once a barren, birdless farm. Beyond the bird feeders, trees and shrubs at the back of the house, the gently sloping terrain transitions from plant beds to a 1.3-acre pond, a clear grassy strip and woods. This ecosystem of trees and plants provides habitats for birds and other wildlife.
Ever since they were children, Hallie and Harry have been fascinated by the variety, beauty and behavior of birds. That interest, plus environmental concerns, led the Zebulon couple to create a backyard that brings beautiful birds right to their back door. They have transformed their five acres of farmland into a nationally certified Backyard Wildlife Habitat.
“A backyard wildlife habitat could be on someone’s deck if they were in an apartment, and it could be a backyard in a suburban area,” Hallie says. “To qualify, you have to provide food, water, cover, a place to rear young and sustainability.”
The Wilsons’ habitat is a bird magnet that has attracted more than 100 species. Cardinals, blue jays, house finches, chickadees, titmice, Carolina wrens and pine warblers are among the permanent residents. Through November, other species will arrive, either to stay for the winter or to refuel for their southward journey to other habitats.
“We can see them from our screen porch,” Harry says.”They’re almost within arm’s reach.”
The Wilsons have already seen several migrants. Recently, during a single day they saw a rose-breasted grosbeak, a black-and-white warbler and the black-masked, common yellowthroat.
The conservation-minded Wilsons had supported environmental causes for years but became frustrated by the growing number of bulldozed open spaces and wanted to do more. “I’m thinking … I can’t stop development,” Hallie recalls. “But we can do something about our own property. We can make that as wildlife-friendly as possible.”
Six years ago the couple learned about the wildlife habitat program and set to work, creating a couple of beds a year. They built a 6-foot-deep pond, removed sod and created 1.5 acres of island beds built up with ground mulch, compost and leaves from the Raleigh yard-waste center. They bought native plants at Niche Gardens in Chapel Hill and studied the garden’s catalog to learn which plants were attractive to various kinds of wildlife.
Creating a wildlife habitat
Today their habitat has four levels of vegetation to sustain birds, butterflies and other forms of wildlife: annual and perennial flowers; berry-producing shrubs; dogwoods, redbuds and other understory trees; and overstory trees such as oaks and maples. Each level provides habitats and food for different bird species.
Some birds like to feed off the ground, some like to stay in shrubs and others are more comfortable with the redbud size, Hallie says. “Birds like the scarlet tanager, you’re only going to see in the canopy of tall trees like oaks and maples.”
To attract birds, you end up creating a whole ecosystem, she explains. “For example, down in the mulch, you have worms and insects eating the leaves and they become food for the birds. And the plants you’ve grown not only produce seed for seed-eating birds, but they have insects on them that insect-eating birds come by to get.”
It works in drought
Even during the drought, birds can eat their fill of the bountiful berries, seeds, nuts and insects in the habitat. The Wilsons use hoses and pond water to water shrubs and shallow-rooted dogwoods, but most of their plants are drought-resistant natives. Some, like the 4- to 7-foot sunflowers, starry rosinweed and other “meadow giant” perennials weren’t watered all summer.
Read More:News & Observer
