[Birdtalk] Jensen habitat

[Clay Johnson]

This morning I received an email asking about our habitat and choice of
feed, since we get such a variety of birds.  I have often wished for
thumbnail sketches of local habitat while reading other postings to this
forum.so I am happy to start.

 

We are on about three acres in Brush Creek-a small canyon at about 5,000
feet elevation tributary to the Green River near Jensen in Uintah County.
Brush Creek is perennial (although heavily diverted for agriculture), and
the canyon bottom is flat and green with (mostly) pasture and alfalfa.  The
canyon is cut through a bench composed mainly of Mancos shale.real ugly,
barren stuff. The bench surface is covered with Pleistocene river
cobbles-and about one teaspoon of dirt per square inch.  We live on a small
patch of bench overlooking the canyon bottom.  Our rule is to count as "home
birds" anything we can see from our yard, which includes flyovers and birds
on the neighbor's pond.  The natural vegetation in this area would be sparse
low cactus, greasewood and spiny horsebrush with desert wildflowers like
evening primrose, Indian paintbrush and mustards. The canyon bottom would
have Cottonwood, willows, current, serviceberry, skunkbush (Rhus sp.),
sagebrush.in general more lush vegetation.while the slopes and bench would
be sparsely vegetated.  Winter temperatures have reached 45 degrees below
zero, although five or ten below is more common.  Summer temperatures can
get over 100 degrees, although mid-nineties is more common.  Over the past
thirty years we have gotten warmer, so that winter temperatures are seldom
as severe as they used to be.

 

Over the 30 years since I moved here, our neighbors have pretty much burnt
off or bulldozed flat all the natural vegetation along the floor of the
canyon, replacing it with leveled pasture or hay fields, buildings, cleared
fencerows, parking areas, corrals, and ATV scars.  A canal that used to run
along a slope above the canyon bottom was turned off and put into a pipe.
On the plus side, one neighbor put in a small, shallow pond area next to our
property to help store irrigation water; although it is often dry, the pond
attracts some waterfowl when it has water in it.

 

In contrast, we have left most of our place in the native vegetation:
greasewood, spiny horsebrush, wildflowers, cottonwoods, skunkbush, sagebrush
and cactus in an unmanicured state.  We have added (and water) fairly rugged
plants in a variety of heights and growth patterns.  We have a small
vegetable garden, and crabapple, apricot, plum, cherry, apple, aspen and
mountain ash trees. We have planted fruit-bearing and sheltering perennials
such as gooseberries, sand cherries, Nanking cherries, Virginia creeper, an
heirloom yellow rose, elderberries, chokecherry, lilacs, and evergreen
shrubs.  We keep a variety of perennial and annual flowers also.  We have
one power pole in the middle of the garden, which is Western kingbird
territory.  We have a little water feature, but don't always manage to keep
water in it.  We do not have a cat, and our dogs are not allowed to chase
birds.  I suspect that a large part of our bird bounty can be attributed to
the fact that we have maintained and augmented natural vegetation and cover
while our neighbors have removed natural vegetation and contours.

 

Of course without Cliftia's year-round feeding we would have a lot less to
report.  She has six feeders (including two hummer feeders) scattered around
the yard.  The feeding areas are all quite visible from our windows and
porch-an advantage of a naturally less-than-lush environment.  Cliftia uses
good quality thistle seed in sock nets and in one feeder, keeps two
hummingbird feeders out from spring through fall for hummers and the
orioles, feeds whole sunflower seed in a box feeder and scattered on the
ground, and prefers a high quality mixed bird seed for other feeders (and
some hand-scattered).  She says she may spend fifty dollars a month in the
winter; in the summer she drastically reduces the amount fed.  As I noted,
she prefers good-quality feed, but product choices are often limited in
rural areas, so she often feeds whatever is available in Walmart.     

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