By Roger Witherspoon
October 7, 2004
A little less work in the garden yields a better winter habitat for feathered friends
The Journal News
Tony Ianniello will not spend time this fall pruning his shrubs and trees, bagging
leaves, cutting the grass short and generally making his property nice, neat and trim
in preparation for winter. Instead, Ianniello wants to make sure his Somers home is
a refuge for the scores of birds that will be looking for food and warmth during the
coldest time of year. He'll follow a number of practices to make a bird-friendly yard
so that if snow blankets the region, his yard will be a riot of hopping, chirping color,
just as it was last winter.
"I had piles of wood on the ground," Ianniello says, "and there were robins and
bluebirds, cardinals and other ground feeders out looking for insects."
Ianniello, a 54-year-old electrical engineer, also maintained a heated bird bath.
"I had the littlest chickadees and a red-tailed hawk land on that thing because they
are always looking for open water in the wintertime," he says. "It was a real treat. In
the middle of winter, birds would line up in the trees, hanging around and waiting
their turn to go into the water. It's hysterical watching them."
Taking care of birds during the winter is a longtime avocation for Ianniello, who also
serves as vice president of the Bedford Audubon Society. The more than 70 species
of birds that remain in the region during the winter - and their Canadian cousins who
fly here for warmth - spend a considerable amount of time looking for food and
shelter during the bleakest time of year. Hospitable back yards play an important
role in helping them survive.
"Making a lawn all nice and tidy in the fall is a fashion," says Brooke Beebe, project
director of the Native Plant Center in Valhalla. "But we don't have to do all that work
and we can leave food and shelter for all the birds."
"It's a good idea not to cut down the cone flowers, winterberries, goldenrod, asters,
hawthorns and black-eyed Susans," Beebe says, "because all of these are good for
the migrating birds and the birds that stay here all year."
Cone flowers' seeds, for example, remain on the plant rather than fall to the ground
and attract American gold finches. The seeds are rich in proteins and fats needed by
small warm-blooded birds.
Native grasses such as big and little bluestem also provide seeds sought by birds
that forage on the ground in winter.
The Audubon Society sponsors an Audubon At Home program designed to encourage
homeowners to make their property hospitable to birds year-round. Paul Green, the
program's director, says the society discourages homeowners from pruning bushes
or cutting native grasses in preparation for winter.
"The bushes serve two roles," he says. "If they have seeds and fruit, they are
providing food. And the bushes provide shelter."
Green says when unpruned bushes are covered with snow, particularly if leaves are
packed around the base, an "igloo effect" is created that helps the birds survive.
"It can be close to zero with heavy snow cover in much of the garden," he says. "But
trapped underneath the bush are pockets of air which are kept warm by the soil. It
can be 20 to 30 degrees or more difference inside. It's a self-contained climate that
provides warmth and shelter for small, ground-feeding birds."
When there's snow, piles of sticks or leaves in the yard also provide birds with igloo
sanctuaries, and hibernating bugs can be found in these natural refrigerators.
"On many plants, there will be insects living right through the winter," Green says.
"Black-capped chickadees, the tufted titmouse and white-breasted nuthatches will
probe the vegetation to find these insects.
"If people would just leave the vegetation over the winter, the birds will come."
Green also suggests homeowners resist the natural temptation to clean their yards
by raking up leaves and having them hauled away. The leaves are home to insects
that birds feed on and can be used to pack around bushes for shelter.
The leaves also help keep the base of the bushes protected from the worst of
winter's cold and degrades into rich mulch and fertilizer in the spring.
The Bedford Audubon Society maintains four demonstration gardens at its 450-acre
Bylane Farm in Katonah to show the simple steps people can take to provide winter
homes for a variety of birds. The organization will hold an open house at the farm on
Oct. 23.
One easy way to provide winter housing for birds is to leave dead trees alone until
spring.
"The minute a tree seems to be rotting, homeowners get a permit and take it right
down," says Audubon President John Hannan. "But if the tree is not endangering
your property, you should leave it alone, at least until spring. It's a perfect home for
birds in the winter."
Bluebirds and other "nesters" look for rotted old trees because they frequently have
cavities where they can huddle. Ten or more bluebirds will bundle together and
collectively generate enough heat to comfortably survive nights with temperatures as
low as 30 degrees below zero.
Dead trees also often contain beetle larvae and other hibernating bugs, another
nutrition source for hungry birds.
"The red-bellied, hairy and downy woodpeckers visit these dead trees on a regular
basis all winter long to see what they can find inside," Green says.
A bird-friendly back yard will also attract predators such as owls and several species
of hawks.
"The red-tailed hawks stay around all year," Green says. "They come and eat the
birds. They've got to live as well."
In Somers, Ianniello is looking forward to another winter with a yard full of colorful
birds. He particularly wants to spot the great horned owl he has heard in the trees,
but never seen.
"Birds are always around," he says. "And I'm always looking for the one I haven't
seen before, hoping it will come down so I can get a glimpse of it."
But taking care of the birds in winter has a sober side. Birds are creatures of habit
and tend to return to the same places to breed and eat.
"When the food is here the birds are here," Ianniello says. "And when the food is
gone, a lot of them just die."
Reach Roger Witherspoon at rwithers@thejournalnews.com or 914-696-8566.
For more information
To learn more about providing food and shelter for wintering birds, contact these
organizations:
The Native Plant Center
75 Grasslands Road, Valhalla
914-785-7870
www.nativeplantcenter.org
National Audubon Society, Audubon at Home program
www.audubon.org
Bedford Audubon Society
Bylane Farm, 35 Todd Road, Katonah
914-232-1999
www.bedfordaudubon.org
New York Botanical Garden
Bronx River Parkway, Exit 7W at Fordham Road, Bronx
718-817-8700
www.nybg.org/events/birds_of_autumn.html