Yeah, they prefer softer dead snags for nesting. But they love to eat ants on the ground, so there is a good chance you might see one foraging on a lawn, field or golfcourse. Keep the fingers crossed.
Birds I donāt want in my yard would include messy Canadian Geese! To see favorite waterfowl (herons, ducks, etc) I have to go by bodies of water.
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Theyāre not rare but I enjoy seeing the bush tit gang that regularly gleans my garden. I doubt theyād use a bird box. My in laws retired in a very rural place near Pt Reyes Nat, Seashore. My father in law grew vegetables year around in pen completely enclosed in a fine mesh chicken wire to keep out the deer and every other sort of varmint you can imagine including most birds. But bush tits had no trouble coming and going into that place and once made one of their communal nests there among his Italian beans. It was a mossy looking thing about the size of a Christmas stocking. Iāve read only one pair lays itās eggs in it but all help feed the chicks. If my gang ever chooses to nest in my garden that would be a high point.
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We have three (large) Live Oaks, and one (large) water oak, plus the dozens of saplings that I pull up.
They are fairly common around here.
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I (and my father) seem to be among the primary contributors to the bird lists for Cherokee & Spartanburg Counties, SC and Cleveland County, NC. The previous spring migratory count in Cherokee Co. set a new record highest number of species, about 110 (previous was mid-90s). We found 106 of those. I think my all-time (two years) list for our (large, older, YMCA-run golf course) neighborhood is in the mid-90s.
I do a decent amount of bird photography, and have gotten to about 350 species photographed, out of a 400-species life list.
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Wow! That is a really impressive effort and I envy the diversity of birds in your area. Contributors to local bird lists such as yourself are another way that ācitizen scienceā can contribute to knowledge of bird population trends, so good on ya! Be careful with that listing, it can become addictive (wink). Iām not from the States, but checked my U.S. list which stands at 457 at the moment. Total life list 2488ā¦but that still only a fraction of the worldās birds. Still so many to discover!
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I have only had 17 years to work on the list, which is probably part of why it is shorter than yours. Also, not having been to any countries other than the US and Canada.
The list was that long because we hit near-peak wood warbler migration (20 species), and a few other nice rarities, in addition to getting all of the standard things.
ah, yes you are still a young 'un with plenty of prime birding years ahead 
Wood warbler migrations are especially colourful and fun, although they tend to give me āwarbler neckā. Iāve managed to see most of the warblers in central and western parts of North America but havenāt spent any time in the east, so there are still several species missing for me. ohā¦for a prothonotary and a ceruleanā¦
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I have seen Prothonotary on several occasions, with some of the marshy areas around, though it is more common near the coast. Cerulean seems to only be farther into the mountains. There are a few that I have only heard, and never seen, like Worm-Eating.
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Has anyone here tried to get younger kids into bird watching? Since I was never into it until very recently I only worked on getting kids interested in plants with scientists , colors and coevolution. Most of the little kids I know wonāt really enjoy sitting still and watching birds with binoculars, especially since the et struggle with using them. But I was planning on planting some scented shrubs and dahoon hollies outside of their windows and placing a bird feeder near the other window so they can hopefully see them more. Also planning on taking them to the zoo which has a pretty nice and up close bird observatory.
Also, the windows can still be used as fire escapes since at least 2 windows per room are not obstructed incase it came up.
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Younger than me, yes. Though those I have done so with have tended to have some, if low, level of interest already.
Probably shouldnāt try that with my room: I would have to stand on the bed, open the window, find some means for removing the screen, crawl out head-first, and fall 6 feet.
Well if youāre escaping a window itās better to fall 6 feet than burn to death. Fire escapes are residential laws and it can affect landscape design too. Not just building codes.
But ultimately, if someone needs to escape from a house on fire and canāt go out the door itās important to keep that option available. Make sure a ladder can go up, or that you can drop without landing on something and so on.
But with all the windows available it allows me to plant in front of some of some of them.
Fires are scary. We were camping in Arizona twenty odd years ago when the warehouse next door against which ours had been built as a lean-to caught fire. Their exterior brick wall formed formed one of our interior walls. In California earthquake is equally concerning and weād always been concerned about that brick wall coming down on and into our bedroom. Amazingly that larger brick buildingās roof collapsed when the metal beams melted and yet our building survived albeit with some smoke damage.
My wife is someone who thinks through every contingency of anything that can go wrong. So, since we live on the second floor and there are no ground level windows we have a roll up ladden that can be lowered out one of our few windows in the front. We keep wrecking bars and crow bars in strategic places and have had an earthquake activated automatic shut off put on our gas main.
The garden served us well during the first year of the pandemic when we were either unable or unwilling to take hikes other places. It is nice to have a bit of nature ready to handnn
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Definitely good to have nature on hand. Iām lucky that I have very few nearby neighbors. The neighbors off my backyard are about 650 feet away and between us is forest with a creek running through it. To the side of them and across from me is about 3-4 miles of woodland and prairies and I can kayak 2-3 miles down the creek through other creeks and into a wetland that more river than land and out into the bay and Gulf of Mexico. I could also drive 45 minutes north and be in the āAmazon of Americaā where there are spots where itās just wilderness for 16 miles in every direction. Iāve been camping before and not see another person for 2-3 weeks.
Speaking of the water im looking forward to paying more attention to aquatic plants this year. Went and checked out a handful of books on native aquatic plants and water gardens. Been studying the aquatic plant flora for the last week. Really looking forward to finding the āNuphar ulvaceaā . Seems it has less than 20 populations worldwide and only 3 populations in alabama and one of those populations was marked 20 years ago about half an hour from my house. So Iāll definitely be kayaking the creek this spring. There seems to be about 5 native plants in the Nymphaeaceae family broken up between water lilies and pond lilies near me. Making a list so hopefully by next year Iāll be able to get permits to collect and breed the ones I want for some of the gardens here. Going to be diving into the families of azollaceae, plantaginaceae, scrophulariaceae, cabombaceae and so on. Still looking for the aquatic ferns near me. Looking forward to also studying the native small freshwater fish here to in order to work with being able to use them in the ponds as well. Trying to convince people to move away from the koi fish as just living ornaments and going with some of the cool local fishes.
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Thought you guys might be interested in the trailer for this new IMAX film Wings over Water. The cinematography is great and it will be stunning in IMAX.
Speaking of birds, bird flu has been detected in my state!
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