Best Part Of Back Porch Is Viewing The Visitors

July 30, 2007

When we moved to Charlotte four years ago, we debated whether to live in the heart of the city or in the country.

We were thrilled to find the best of both worlds: We live in the University City area and jump on Interstate 85 to theaters, restaurants and sport events in 15 to 20 minutes, and still feel we live in the country because there are trees and wildlife.

We picked a home in the older section of Highland Creek, in large measure for the screened porch in the back of the house. Sitting on the porch feels like sitting in a tree house.

It didn't take us long to lure the birds singing in the trees closer to our home. We hung three birdfeeders and one suet feeder off the back of the house, in front of floor-to-ceiling windows. We hung a hummingbird feeder on the side of the screened porch.

Now we live in an aviary.

After researching what kinds of birds populate North Carolina, we bought black sunflower seed and thistle to feed the local birds. American goldfinches, house finches, purple finches, evening grosbeaks, pine siskins and song sparrows like thistle. Northern cardinals, blue jays, tufted titmouses, Carolina chickadees and red-breasted nuthatches like black sunflower seeds.

We feed a large number of Carolina wrens and a variety of woodpeckers with suet: hairy woodpeckers, downy woodpeckers, red-bellied woodpeckers and red-headed woodpeckers.

Ruby-throated hummingbirds like the hummingbird feeder. (Boil 1 cup of water and stir in 1⁄2 cup of sugar to make hummingbird nectar.)

Once our family got involved in feeding birds, I set out to learn more about them. I bought the National Audubon Society Field Guide to Birds Eastern Region and placed it on the coffee table, close to the bird feeders.

I researched them online and found out about the Great Backyard Bird Count sponsored by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. Every year people all over the world count birds anywhere over a four-day period, counting birds of each species seen together at any one time. They submit a checklist online to the Great Backyard Bird Count site.

I took a cup of coffee and the newspaper to the family room on a Saturday and Sunday morning last spring and counted birds. Over two days, 17 species came to our feeders.

As of March 5, participants had submitted 80,744 checklists documenting 11,066,350 birds of 629 species, according to the Great Backyard Bird Count site.

The next thing I did was read about N.C. plants that attract birds and butterflies. I went to the UNC Charlotte Botanical Garden plant sale last October. Larry Mellichamp, the garden director, guided me to buy native plants such as honeysuckle, coneflowers, bee balm and butterfly bush to keep the birds and butterflies happy.

I also urged everyone in the family to pay attention to the feeders. This spring, my husband asked me what kind of bird was eating sunflower seed. I looked at the feeder and saw a bird with brilliant black, white and red on its chest.

I flipped through the Field Guide and found that it was a rose-breasted grosbeak. He was migrating and stayed in our backyard for three days.

It felt as though we had provided a short bed and breakfast stay for him, and I hope he'll find his way back to the inn on his way home.