Tuesday, September 13, 2011

Mountain Ash Sorbus americana or Sorbus aucuparia Great Bird Food

Last week Ted and I sat in the back yard and watched a parade of birds eating from the grapes and the Mountain Ash.
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This Mountain Ash was planted by birds. I found it and moved it here in front of the neighbors wall which encloses the south side of our back yard. I don’t know if it is the American or European variety.
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Spring brings small white flowers. Summer brings orange berries that the birds love. I love this little tree. It has the prettiest copper looking bark.
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Beautiful shiny bark. The birds ate every berry off the tree.
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Cedar waxwings are expert berry pickers. The robins seemed to drop more than they could eat.
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The robins congregated in the grape vines and ash tree. Then took advantage of the pond and bird baths.
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Group bath time.
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It was hard to catch this little bird. I think it is a catbird. It is dark grey with a bit of rust color under this tail feathers. Later the same day, I was hand-watering out back and a little humming bird circled me 3 times!  He stopped in mid air to check me out! What an amazing moment! I had the camera with me, but I didn’t want to scare him. And yet I managed a bit of a picture.

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You can just barely see him.  The sunshine squash is climbing the juniper tree.  The juniper will draw birds this winter and early spring. Do you know what kind of insect is in the following picture? It looks like a huge black wasp.

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Under the wings is an orange stripe. The tomato is Black Krim.  Please let me know.

7 comments:

  1. The bark on the Mountain Ash is lovely and I have always liked the flowers. However, this tree is not long lived in our area and not recommended. Your photos of the birds are great.

    Eileen

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  2. What beauty!Thank you for sharing!I am not sure what kind of insect that is but I do remember Tyler bringing two orange and black stripped furry catipillars to show and tell in kindergarten and that is what they ended up turning into!I was hoping for pretty butterflies!

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  3. Piękna jarzębina, u mnie też teraz obsypane owocami są. Ptaki rewelacyjne.
    Pozdrawiam.

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  4. Gloria - what wonderful photos of your 'feathered' friends! I always hope for hummingbirds and planted favorites for them this year; now I can only wait next year with bated-breath! The Mt.Ash is an excellent addition to feed the birds; your comment about the Robins (dropping more berries than they ate) made me smile!

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  5. Gloria, Those bathing robins look very happy. The only time I've ever seen Cedar waxwings in my garden, they were eating all the strawberries, and they did indeed show themselves to be expert berry pickers. (They're so beautiful, though, that I didn't begrudge them the berries the way I do when the chipmunks eat them.) -Jean

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  6. Hi I have just found your blog and just wanted to say what a beautiful garden you have created! Mine - all the way over in Australia - is in its formative stages. The infrastructure - well in the back yard anyway, is pretty much in place, and I'm now planting up and just beginning to harvest my food forest. Thanks for such a wonderful, inspiring blog! I will be back often
    Greenie x

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  7. Hello Talibra, Thanking you so much for visiting my blog.

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