The yard is my primary playing field for the 2015 Backyard Big Year. No matter where you live, your yard has strengths and weaknesses as a birding site. My yard is 2.7 acres in Union Township, Hunterdon County, New Jersey. All the houses in may area have septic systems, so large lots are required.
Here’s a tour of my yard to help you get a feel for my playing field.
Here’s an arial view of my yard, the long bent lot in the middle. Lot lines are off a little, should be shifted a hair to the right, with the row of small conifers along the driveway forming the eastern boundary.
My yard has several major features, as well as several smaller areas that will be important for the Backyard Big Year–including the front yard, side yards, backyards, creek, patio, and feeding station.
Bing birds eye view of yard looking north, taken a few years ago before we put in the walkways.
Bing birds eye view of yard facing east. Patio is in the shadow behind the house. The small conifer on the left of the picture in line with the blue dot is one corner of the yard.
Bing birds eye view of yard facing west, showing front yard, driveway, side yards, and backyard.
Front Yard
My yard slopes about 30 feet from the top of the lot near the road, down to the creek at the back end of the lot. The front yard is the highest area, and is mostly open lawn with shade trees, boarded on one side by the side yard and by the driveway and a row of small conifers on the other. This is my best view of the sky, and will be where I put up my 15 foot tripod deer stand to get the biggest view.
Front yard looking towards the road from the house.
Foundation plantings along front of house are worthless for birds, and need to be replaced. Can you envision a nice hummingbird/butterfly garden here? Me too!
Back Yard
My backyard is a sloping lawn with trees on all sides. From my patio I can sit and watch all the trees as if in a giant wide-screen birding Imax. Trees include large oaks that attract a lot of migrant warblers, and large grape vines that cover the smaller trees and bring in a lot of thrushes and fruit eating birds in the fall. The back yard is usually the best area for watching birds moving through my actual yard, though the trees limit my view of the sky. It is also the part of the yard I can most easily watch from inside when I am working on the computer.
Bing birds eye view of backyard looking east–showing patch of trees on side yard to east, and tree line along west.
View of the back yard from house living room window. Note the OldBird 21c on duty to record nocturnal migrants and other birds. View of sky narrowly constrained by trees in side yards.
Small conifer on my side yard to the west. The black creeping Dalek on the left is a compost bin. I’ve got a small water pan in front of the tree and have spread seed on the ground here for sparrows. This is a prime site for a critter cam.
Side Yard
The western edge of my yard is in a conservation easement to protect the local watershed. It forms a link between larger wooded patches in my neighborhood, so many birds move along it as they cross my landscape. This patch of woods attracts many migrants, as well as wintering sparrows.
View of lower part of side yard to the east from the back yard. Trees and shrubs provide good cover for migrants and wintering birds.
Creek
Down at the bottom of the yard I have a small section of a creek that feeds into Mulhockaway Creek–the primary water source for nearby Spruce Run Reservoir. It is really small and intermittent as it flows through my yard, but still provides a byway for some birds. I’ve even had the occasional Belted Kingfisher (Yard Code 3) come up the creek this far.
Small creek at bottom right, flowing from my side yard woods, AKA Winter Wren lure.
Feeding Station
I usually provide a Nyjer feeder, Black Sunflower feeder, and suet feeder on the back of my patio–visible from my kitchen table. I will be providing additional food sources here later in the year, and will create additional feeding stations near the side yard, closer to cover for more shy birds. Fruit, mealworms, and cheap millet seed will all be in the offering, as well as sugar water for hummingbirds.
Patio and feeding station in backyard are on north side of house, and very shaded for most of the day during the winter.
As long as I’m hanging out so much in my yard this year, I will be taking the opportunity to improve this habitat, and look forward to charting the changes in my yard as we make them this year.
So–yard strengths: large lot, many trees and bordering woods, decent feeding station. Yard weaknesses–too much lawn, trees obscure horizon, no real water, could do a lot more birdscaping to attract birds.
Of course the actual yard is only part of the playing field. The surrounding area can have a big impact on what birds are nearby and visible from your yard.
Coming soon–Lay of the Land II: The Neighborhood and Lay of the Land III: The Local Area.
