Transcript
Alexis: It's a rainy day here in the bluegrass. I got my little a cup of tea feeling all cozy today. How about you guys?
Plant People: Oh, got some decaf. And I don't know where I went wrong in my life. I'm drink drinking decaf.
Jessica : I need some caffeine and I was surprised that it like actually like thundered this morning.
Alexis: It's like lightning.
Jessica : Yeah.
Alexis: I was like, oh, OK, we're doing this.
Plant People: Yeah, it was a big flash. And um I mean, it's bad when your Christmas lights get turned off because of the extremely bright lightning.
Alexis: All right.
Jessica : Oh, that is.
Plant People: Yeah.
Alexis: Yeah, I know because it's so dark outside.
Plant People: I was like. Because it was very dark, even at at the you know the day that we're recording this on here in December.
Alexis: Mm hmm. It was like, set yeah, seven thirty. It was still dark.
Plant People: Yeah. Even at 930 at my office, it was like though the lights were still on, the outside lights were still on because it was so very dark and foreboding even.
Alexis: ah
Plant People: So, yeah.
Alexis: What about you, Brett?
Plant People: I should have had caffeine. I was over 400 milligrams of caffeine, and so I need to stop.
Alexis: not
Brett: I feel, I feel kind of grumpy today.
Plant People: Grumpy?
Jessica : Oh.
Alexis: So a grumpy gill, that's okay.
Plant People: If you were a Smurf or ah maybe a dwarf in the Disney classic, which would you be?
Brett: Yeah.
Brett: Well, I would be, I would definitely be blue, but that doesn't really narrow it down, I guess.
Plant People: Just answer that.
Plant People: Well played. Smurf Village.
Alexis: I ah feel like Brett butt would be Doc, that would be my, yeah.
Jessica : Oh yeah, that's kind of fitting.
Plant People: Oh, yeah. it was kind of He was kind of the leader.
Alexis: My grandma used to call me Snow White.
Plant People: Hmm.
Alexis: I don't know why. I think that she just had so many grandkids.
Brett: Nah.
Jessica : you
Alexis: I don't remember their names. And so she would just make up Disney characters.
Brett: After saying I would be docked now I'm feeling bashful.
Plant People: i
Jessica : Oh.
Plant People: I'm stuck on this word.
Brett: No, the weather, I don't know. Maybe it's the, I'm going to blame it on the weather, but you know, in Harry Potter and in real life, one of the things you can do to turn the frown upside down is to eat some, some chocolate.
Alexis: Yeah.
Jessica : Good, yeah, good excuse.
Brett: And I have a question for you all to take us off today.
Plant People: Hmm. Let's go.
Brett: Not related to that. That was just the fact that I, no, I'm just kidding.
Alexis: Oh, I was like, I'm chocolate.
Plant People: Oh, man, I was like getting excited.
Brett: Just kidding. Just kidding. Just kidding.
Alexis: I just ate a chocolate cookie.
Brett: If you had to rank dark chocolate, milk chocolate, white chocolate in order of your preference. One, two, three. What would the order be?
Plant People: oh
Jessica : Um, that order as,
Alexis: I guess if I was like, are we can't work out? I know that's exactly that order. Dark chocolate milk, chocolate white, because white chocolate, really chocolate, right?
Jessica : as dark chocolate is number one, dark chocolates, number one.
Alexis: I mean.
Plant People: Dark chocolate or white chocolate would be my last my least favor probably.
Alexis: It doesn't have any cocoa in it, right?
Brett: What's that?
Brett: Hmm.
Plant People: It would be lowest on my list.
Alexis: Mm -hmm.
Plant People: dark chocolate for me. And, you know, as I've gotten older, I like this. My favorite chocolate is actually like the semi -sweet baking chocolate.
Alexis: Mm -hmm.
Jessica : Mm -hmm.
Plant People: I don't know because it's not as sweet and the love it.
Brett: oh my god you all are this is this is a this is a i mean it's fine it's fine this this feels this feels very millennial foodie food preference to me if i'm just being honest
Plant People: We're disappointing.
Jessica : Tell us Brett, what are you going to tell us about white chocolate?
Plant People: doctor
Alexis: He's disappointed.
Plant People: He's got something in his pocket.
Alexis: I'm honestly a little surprised.
Jessica : Could it
Plant People: We're going to have to add video to this podcast to capture these facial expressions.
Jessica : be like a good debate?
Jessica : What?
Plant People: and Gen Z over here.
Brett: Yeah. It feels very like, you know, like as if, ah as if milk chocolate isn't the chocolate that built America.
Plant People: and So what do you got?
Alexis: Ray's like, offended.
Jessica : Built cities, her Hershey, Pennsylvania.
Brett: Uh, and it's, it's, yeah, i I, I just think, I think there's been some milk milk chocolate erasure.
Plant People: The built mediocrity.
Brett: Uh, and I'm not surprised.
Plant People: They're trying to clean them.
Brett: by the answer that I'm getting here today. I'm a little surprised that Ray did not rep milk chocolate more than the other ones.
Plant People: No, now you know, I used to be, Brett, all I used to be team milk chocolate, but I don't know. I like my wines a bit drier and my chocolate a little less sweet nowadays. I don't know what it is, Brett.
Jessica : I guess it depends on the kind of milk chocolate you're getting, right?
Brett: well
Jessica : You got to think about that because there's different kinds that I would prefer.
Plant People: The quality does vary quite a bit.
Alexis: yeah Milk chocolate has kind of it's kind of gotten a bad rap a little bit like it because it's like made and you know it's like like if you get really cheap candy or whatever that's just like not high quality.
Plant People: Yeah.
Jessica : Right.
Brett: Sure.
Jessica : yeah Waxy.
Alexis: w Yeah, it's waxy.
Plant People: Or if it's, yeah, if it's been marinating in their Halloween bucket.
Alexis: so like I feel like you get that less with dark chocolate. so but I don't know.
Plant People: Yeah.
Alexis: My mom always had dark chocolate at the house.
Plant People: I love dark chocolate.
Alexis: so like
Plant People: The heavy cocoa or whatever, you know, that's in there, the powder.
Brett: Okay. So, so within the, within the dark chocolate realm, how dark are you choosing to go? Like, is it?
Plant People: I don't know. It's kind of like my soul all the way dark.
Alexis: Uh, 60%, 60, about 60%, 60 to 70, but like 60 is usually.
Plant People: I mean, pretty dark.
Brett: So um I'm thinking, i think what's that?
Plant People: 60, 65 % is about as, I mean, anything more than that, the bitterness is real.
Jessica : Yeah, it gets too bitter.
Brett: Okay. Okay. So the you all are, you all are. Okay. All right.
Alexis: I feel so judged.
Jessica : Well, tell us, tell us Brett.
Plant People: We feel like, Alexis, it's like we're not committed enough on our percent.
Alexis: Well, I know I just, I expected the man who drinks like black coffee to be all about the dark chocolate.
Plant People: 89%.
Alexis: So I'm just like a little surprised.
Brett: No, I enjoy, I enjoy dark chocolate.
Plant People: Yeah.
Brett: we We buy mostly dark chocolate in our house.
Plant People: elder
Brett: And so I'm, I'm as disappointed with myself as I am with any of you.
Jessica : Oh.
Brett: Um,
Plant People: but didn't didn't milk truck
Brett: I was just hoping, I was just hoping that it that it wasn't as homogenous as it is. Cause I think that it's, I don't know. I mean, I'm not an advocate here for white chocolate. Like I think it's actually should not even be considered chocolate.
Brett: It's its own standalone thing that has, has value.
Plant People: It's a waxy thing.
Alexis: Mm -hmm.
Jessica : Yeah.
Alexis: It's like candy. Yeah.
Brett: But, um, yeah, I've, I've just been re appreciating milk chocolate again over the last couple of years and wanted to open it up. But, um, yeah.
Jessica : I recently had some brought to me that was from Switzerland and it was amazing and it was milk chocolate, right?
Alexis: Mm -hmm.
Alexis: Mm -hmm.
Brett: Yeah.
Jessica : But it doesn't taste like as we've already discussed, like the normal milk chocolate that we think about.
Alexis: Mm -hmm.
Jessica : So I think it really depends on what brand, who's making it, all that kind of thing.
Alexis: one time when I was little I was at my grandparents for Easter and uh I was probably like one of the youngest kids there and my mom's from Pittsburgh right and so there's really good like candy places and there was like this little candy shop that made like homemade chocolate bunnies and they were like the solid ones not the you know hollow ones or whatever well I was probably maybe like six or seven
Plant People: Oh, yeah.
Alexis: And I ate my entire Easter basket, which included two like solid junket bunnies, and I threw up.
Plant People: Two four pound breaks of chocolate.
Jessica : Nice.
Plant People: What a waste.
Brett: Because you were so happy about your achievement and you were just so excited that you...
Alexis: i i yeah yeah I was so excited that I that i threw up. that's Yeah, that's the only time. But man, that was good chocolate because it was like made up the street, you know, and they poured their own chocolate bars and stuff.
Alexis: And I remember my mom being like, oh, well, this is a good chocolate. And then I proceeded to eat it all in one sitting.
Jessica : Then Alexa said it at all.
Brett: Well, so if I was, if I were, if I were trying to provide some sustenance and treats to hort culture hosts through the wintertime, I would offer them dark chocolate.
Brett: It sounds like maybe put it on a stick, put it in a small dispenser outside so that you could come up and access it at any point.
Alexis: Mm hmm.
Plant People: Yes, indeed.
Plant People: Yes.
Alexis: similar to that also liked feeders.
Jessica : Yes.
Brett: Let's just say hypothetically, I had some other friends across species friends like birds, for instance.
Plant People: ah Chocolate on a stick.
Jessica : Like.
Brett: that also like to eat things, but maybe didn't have such a preference for dark chocolate.
Jessica : Ah.
Brett: Maybe we can talk a little bit about, I don't want to get into litigation, Ray.
Plant People: Instead of suet, Brett, we could do chocolate.
Jessica : Hmm.
Plant People: Instead of suet, just I would. OK. OK.
Brett: I just, I think we can work out.
Plant People: We don't want to go there. We don't want to confuse our listeners.
Brett: Yeah, so what what are we talking about today?
Alexis: Time out some birds, which is not the normal thing we might talk about here on hort culture. But it is winter. And for a lot of us, we don't have a lot of plants in our lives right now.
Alexis: And so it can be nice to you know do something for our our other garden friends, our feathered friends.
Plant People: our feathered friends.
Jessica : Our wildlife that we have.
Alexis: Yeah. Jessica and I were talking about how, as millennials, we are probably not great. ah We're not great millennials because we're not huge birders. But yeah.
Jessica : And that's, that's a thing right now for millennials is like, you're supposed to hit a certain age and then you're suddenly going to be like, Oh my gosh, there's birds all around us, but maybe, yeah.
Alexis: Yeah.
Plant People: It's either Civil War history, or it's birds, or it's barbecue. I mean, and pit take your pig.
Alexis: I think it's because we're like really into plants. I think we fell too hard on the on the plant track.
Jessica : Yeah, I really into plants.
Plant People: Gardening. You're on the gardening. OK, gotcha.
Jessica : We're outside all the time. So like we already notice birds, but but maybe we just don't know all their names, right?
Alexis: Yeah. Yeah.
Jessica : Like, hey Oh.
Brett: i I also think, and here's a hot take, I think that that other that a lot of people are into it at a level of casualness where their knowledge is probably similar to what you have, but they talk about it as if they're really, really into it.
Alexis: Yeah.
Alexis: Mm.
Brett: And the people on this group are like, you know, if they're into something, they're very into it.
Plant People: You're like into it all the way.
Jessica : A little bit.
Brett: And
Plant People: Cut out good chocolate all the way.
Brett: So, so I would don't, my my point here, just mainly just don't feel, don't feel bad. You probably are into birds as much as many of your, your cohort. Um, it's just that you're not as into them as you are into like, uh, rock or what is it called?
Plant People: Will birds and gardening go together?
Brett: Uh, dish gardens, you know?
Jessica : Oh, thank you.
Alexis: Yeah, yeah, sure.
Plant People: Yes.
Brett: ah So give you cut, cut yourself some slack.
Plant People: All the succulents. Fair point. Fair point.
Alexis: I appreciate that, Brett.
Brett: Yeah.
Alexis: I appreciate that you were recovering us into the millennial generation.
Plant People: Yeah.
Jessica : Yes, it is important.
Alexis: So thank you.
Brett: Yeah, of course. Well, you love dark chocolate, so you're clearly, clearly part of that. um ah did Well, did you all did you all get into any of the bird anything during COVID at all?
Plant People: Uh, the bird apps, uh, we had, and we had after COVID, I think it's post -COVID, we had like actually a horticulture meeting, but yeah, it's a, there was an app that would listen to bird calls and identify birds.
Alexis: o Yeah, Tyler has that.
Jessica : Uh
Brett: but Chicken wings or?
Plant People: And then we had a program on that from a naturalist in the Eastern part of, uh, the state here in Kentucky.
Jessica : -huh.
Brett: is This is Merlin bird ID.
Alexis: Yeah, that's all we have.
Plant People: Uh, that was one of the ones that she discussed, but that got me, uh, that kind of reignited my interest in birds because now it's easier than ever. I mean, I don't have big binoculars on me all the time or anything to actually do a sighting of the bird, then do the ID that way.
Plant People: But it fascinates me that there's ah tools available on your phone. You can just go out in a quiet location where there's bird calls and you can get IDs. Your phone can give you IDs from an app.
Jessica : h
Plant People: And that kind of got me interested in birds again. Yeah.
Jessica : I like use, and this is not real, it's it's about birds.
Brett: Yeah.
Jessica : So it's kind of on topic, but not like we're talking about feeding birds in the winter. So at my farm, I have a lot more, I guess, predatory birds, hawks, and a lot of different owls.
Alexis: Mmhmm.
Jessica : So it's been really cool for me. to figure out what owls I'm hearing at night.
Alexis: Mmhmm.
Jessica : And a resource that I have used is like the Kentucky Fish and Wildlife, or I'm sure wherever you're listening at, whatever your state, you know, Fish and Wildlife, they often have profiles of the different birds in your area and like ranges they're in and will also have like sound profiles.
Plant People: Wow.
Jessica : So like that's how I was able to figure out that we have both screech owls and great horned owls that are nesting around our property because I can hear them you know at nighttime and stuff like that. So that's like another way if you start getting interested in what you're seeing or hearing some of your local fish and ah wildlife places can help you with that.
Plant People: Yeah, and it doesn't surprise me that, you know, in more more rural locations, you have this diversity of birds, large and small, raptors and otherwise, and probably lots of, ah you know, field -type birds and the smaller finches and things, I guess, orals, robins, all kinds of things.
Alexis: Mmhmm. Mmhmm.
Plant People: ah But it seems like in rural areas, you get this you know vast diversity of birds, both in the summer and the winter in Kentucky.
Jessica : Mm hmm.
Plant People: That's not to say that you can't have a pretty good diversity of birds in more urban areas, but I just notice the diversity of birds. And it makes sense because you know today we're talking about not only feeding birds, that's only like one part of the equation because birds are animals and animals need more than just food, you know, they need cover and water and some other things, but it's so cool when you go out into a natural meadow or here locally where I live in Scott, kind of in the central part of the state, I will go walking in wild areas that have like, you know, undisturbed meadow type openings, sunny meadow openings. And just, I always notice how much noise is made by the birds and it's so cool because I don't have, you know,
Plant People: quite as many birds here in Georgetown.
Alexis: Mm hmm. Mm hmm.
Plant People: But in those areas, it is really neat that you get such a diversity here in Kentucky, as I said, both winter and summer.
Jessica : Mm hmm.
Plant People: So it's pretty
Alexis: So I have a kind of a question. So when you think about feeding birds, do you think about like when somebody says, do you feed the birds? Are you thinking immediately like a, like a bird feeder, like a supplemental, you know, you're putting out seed of, you know, some something that's not in the garden and planted.
Plant People: Hmm.
Alexis: or are you thinking about yeah so I'm the same way like we don't feed the birds here but I make sure I leave my plantings that I know are you know particular to birds like there's certain like finches that like Rebecca and you know all those kinds of things and I leave all those up until like March for you know both cover as well as to let them forage a little bit in there and that's what I always think of but I know a lot of people
Brett: No.
Jessica : happy Yeah.
Jessica : Right.
Jessica : Right.
Alexis: Yeah, there's just like kind of two ways to think about that.
Jessica : Yeah.
Alexis: And then there's.
Jessica : Yeah, that's, I do the same thing at home. Leave some of those plants that I know, like you said, the finches especially that they like to feed on.
Alexis: Mm hmm.
Jessica : um But like here at our office, like we have more like the landscape plantings are more of like that traditional low maintenance, you know, evergreen stuff.
Plant People: Yeah.
Jessica : So they're not really getting anything from them. So like we have bird feeders out that we feed pretty much all year around and of course it fluctuates because you know once summer gets here there's more food and variety for them to eat so they're not going through as much. But that's how I've always done it and I think that's like our plant minds at work thinking you know certain plants that can benefit wildlife as well.
Alexis: Yeah, that's a really good point. Like if you do have a really, you know, high, like at your house or your whatever, if it's mostly, you know, conifers or plants that don't produce some sort of seed, then you might want to supplement if you want to have more bird population.
Jessica : h
Alexis: um But maybe you don't necessarily need to if you've got like a rain garden planting with a lot of these kinds of things or a lot of native plants. So that's a really good point, Jess.
Brett: So do you, do you specifically select things because they provide that?
Plant People: Yeah.
Jessica : thanks
Brett: Be honest. I'm just kidding. But, um, it, cause cause I, Oh, yeah.
Jessica : Be honest, I'm usually planting for bees.
Alexis: yes Yeah.
Jessica : So it kind of goes hand in hand sometimes.
Plant People: Nice bread and even that one.
Brett: Be yourself, Jessica, do what you want to do.
Jessica : Thank you.
Alexis: Yeah.
Brett: Um, cause I think, well, you'll, you will see in, in seed catalogs or in, in nursery catalogs and on nursery tags, it will say,
Alexis: No, I'm not.
Plant People: Mm -hmm.
Brett: You know, beneficial to wildlife and XY, you know, and that's what it usually means is either for cover or for food or for those other things is literally, you know, what we're talking about because the other thing I think about too is the more kind of plant mass and um spaces that I bring in the the more room I'm bringing in for.
Brett: better for worse and for some people, insects and small rodents and things that owls and hawks, but also other you know smaller birds eat insects. And so it's kind of like this e called this little micro ecosystem that's providing sustenance is another way I think of it.
Brett: But if you'd asked me when I was growing up, I would have thought of a bird feeder.
Jessica : Yeah, me too.
Brett: And I think most people that's kind of the vibe because that not everybody wants a wild
Alexis: Yeah, this sound there's no like wrong answer to it. I was just curious on what the.
Plant People: No. I mean a bird feeder is a concentrated thing if you want to if because you know one of the motivations for feeding birds is not only for the benefit of the birds but for the benefit of watching the birds ah so you can locate those at a certain spot you know either far away from window or close to a window we'll talk about that as we get into that but yeah I love the habitat angle of ah feeding birds because if you have a habitat that supports
Jessica : Mmhmm.
Alexis: That's true.
Plant People: You know, some of the native plants um that are good for wildlife, even non -native plants or some non -natives that, you know, different ones that that could be good. But if you have plants that are good for birds, that means you are thinking about the habitat and you're thinking about things like probably thinking about things like shelter and nesting sites. And you mentioned evergreens. You know, if you have evergreens, that's an important shelter location for birds. But I really like that angle.
Plant People: because you're taking the kind of the thousand foot approach as you're probably considering more than just feeding the birds. You know, and that's what this conversation is starting out as, I love that. um Because you can feed birds and have birds in an area, but I believe from a sustainable standpoint, if you address some of the the plants to go along with, you know, bird feeders, it's it's a better approach.
Plant People: Uh, because those plants are going to be out there, uh, when the bird feeder may not be full or be filled or, you know, otherwise not available to birds.
Alexis: What is um the thought process behind, you know, I feel like I've heard, you know, feed the birds in the winter or don't feed them unless it's a really hard winter, really long winter, don't feed them at all.
Plant People: i Yeah.
Alexis: And I feel like that can be that can be a toss up.
Plant People: Yeah, it's hard to nail down. I mean, some people say if you start feeding the birds in the winter, it's important to keep feeding the birds in case a habit develops.
Alexis: Mm hmm.
Plant People: And there's, there's information, I don't know about you guys, but as I was looking over some of the info, the info is not super conclusive on that.
Alexis: Mm hmm.
Plant People: As far as, uh, you know, do birds develop habits?
Jessica : Right. it's
Plant People: Do they become dependent through those habits on just coming to feeders or if you feed birds to the, does the population grow too much and.
Jessica : Yeah.
Alexis: Mm hmm.
Plant People: and becomes unsustainable. There's a lot of these issues around feeding birds that, you know, there's many angles you could talk about as far as bird feeders.
Jessica : Yeah. There's a lot of mixed, like you said, mixed information about, like I read somewhere that like, um, you can see like an increase, like, you know, increase in population of, um, or survival of chicks, basically, like versus like, if they weren't being fed, maybe they lay like four eggs and they're going to be lucky if two survive, but they've like noticed like birds that are being fed, like you know, have a regular food source.
Alexis: Mm -hmm.
Plant People: Yeah.
Alexis: Mm -hmm.
Jessica : Those chicks are, you know, you might have all four eggs you know survive with it.
Plant People: Yeah, yeah.
Jessica : so um And then vice versa with some of the other you know things Ray, he just mentioned too.
Plant People: I mean, birds obviously need more energy through the wintertime, and that's a given, especially when there's heavy snowfall. And in future podcasts, we'll talk about snowfall from a different angle. But ah when there's heavy snowfall, there's not as much forage available, especially for those ground feeding birds. ah And I guess that leads us to another point is, you know we talked about bird feeders, but they're not all created equally, and they're not all designed equally. Was it you, Jessica, that mentioned finches?
Plant People: ah
Jessica : Yeah, I think, yeah, both Alexis and I mentioned them.
Plant People: which, yeah, you guys mentioned finches and those bird feeders are completely different because the seed mixes for finches tends to be little and they are specific for finches um in many cases, um but not all bird feeders are the same and not all birds feed up high where you would hang a bird feeder maybe six, eight foot, you know, to keep it away from raccoons and squirrels and things.
Alexis: Mmhmm.
Plant People: Some birds in Kentucky, we have a whole, I don't know, bunches of different birds that feed on the ground, they're ground feeders. So that's an important note. When we're talking about bird feeders, we'll acknowledge the fact that, ah you know, there's a lot of different types of bird feeders and they each have their own kind of space and their own scenario to use those. And using a variety of different bird feeders, when you go to do your own research, um that can lead to a greater variety of birds.
Alexis: And I'm watching as a a fluffy creature crosses Ray's camera, which reminds me that we should talk about cats.
Jessica : i Same.
Plant People: Yeah, sorry. Yeah.
Jessica : Those fluffy creatures.
Plant People: That's why I don't have bird feeders now. this is This is a neighborhood cat that they're seeing.
Alexis: Yeah.
Plant People: I'm sorry that our listeners can't see this. We'll add video on the future maybe. But um yeah, prep predation is another, you know, we talked about some of the potential downsides, potential downsides of feeding birds, but a big one here where I live is predation from cats.
Plant People: Because if you have a bird feeder that accumulates the birds in one spot and it can be a real issue.
Brett: so So just to just to kind of close that out with ah hope not I mean, not to say clarity.
Plant People: Yeah. We were jumping. I was jumping, yeah.
Brett: No, no, you're not not at all. But I think in case anybody was waiting to hear It's definitely a terrible idea to have a bird feeder through the winter, or it's definitely a great idea to have a bird feeder through the winter.
Brett: It seems like we don't really exactly know, which means that it's probably some blend of both.
Plant People: So it's fine.
Alexis: Research is inconclusive.
Plant People: Yeah.
Jessica : In conclusive, yeah, it's probably okay.
Brett: And, you know, one of the things I try to, I try to keep in mind with, with some of the activities that we do, you know, on a scale of of one farm or one house or whatever, it's like, we're you know, we're not going to make or break the world with that, those types of interactions.
Plant People: Yeah.
Brett: And so as long as it's not, uh, you know, you're going to go out and plant some Bush honeysuckle or something like that.
Alexis: Mm -hm.
Jessica : Please don't do that.
Brett: A lot of activities, I don't know.
Alexis: who
Brett: It's, it's kind of like, you know, you, you can do it and you're probably, you know, so, so it's, I think if you want to have a bird feeder, seems like it's okay to have a bird feeder.
Plant People: Yeah, sure. And most of the information leans far towards that direction than the other, because especially in northern climates where you you do have lots of snowfall and there might not be that native habitat and those native habitat plants around, it is important to provide a food source and energy source for the different birds.
Plant People: It's much more of the information points to that than the contrary. So yeah, and you can enjoy that.
Jessica : So.
Alexis: And I feel like if you're if you're on the fence about it, ah or you know or you're not sure, then just ramp up your you know plants that support that population. So those are gonna be native species, they support a variety of things.
Plant People: Mm -hmm. The habitat, yeah.
Alexis: And I feel like I've seen, and if anybody else has seen this say something, but um this is Alexis's memory and not, I can't pull it pull the research out, but I feel like I've seen where they say like like suet or supporting them maybe with like fats rather than just seeds can is maybe is supportive and like um really beneficial ah if you're worried about, you know, like over like high energy and like upping the population too much with the seed or having issues with squirrels or something like that.
Plant People: Mm -hmm. You get a different ver variety of birds.
Plant People: The high energy, yeah.
Jessica : Mmhmm.
Alexis: um
Plant People: And I love woodpeckers, and I mean, that's one of the things that I can, I know that if I want to attract, you know, some of our woodpecker species is put out suet. I just know that that's going to bring those guys in. There's certain types of birds that that goes back to suet feeder, oftentimes comes in blocks, suet does, which is a high fat product, a blend.
Plant People: of animal fats, but it's often in a cage to kind of protect that because everything loves and is attracted to that stuff. But that goes back to the fact that that's a different type of bird feeder and it attracts a completely different type, ah different types of birds than maybe the finch feeders would.
Jessica : h
Plant People: ah So that, yeah, that's a good point, Alexis. And that is high energy food and some of the larger birds tend to really like that specifically.
Jessica : And one of the other, besides the cats, as we watch the cat walk by again, um is I think a lot of people have issues with squirrels. Like that's like one of the big, big ones.
Plant People: Oh yeah.
Jessica : um And I know they make, you know, you see now where they're marketing those squirrel feeders right bird feeders that if a squirrel climbs on them it kind of like closes it up so it's like the bird shouldn't be heavy enough right unless it's a really chunky bird for the winter or something I guess so like stand on it and like close it but it should close off every time the squirrel gets on there but I feel like a lot of people you know once they find out you know that you have a bird feeder and that seed or whatever is available they're kind of challenging to keep to keep out
Plant People: Squirrels are so, um they can defeat a lot of different systems. That's why you'll find a lot of the, you know, on online order sources or local departments, or it'll feature prominently like squirrel proof, you know, bird feeder, you know, usually involves a wire cage.
Jessica : Mm -hmm.
Plant People: And there's all kinds of other novel mechanisms like the spinning squirrel feeder that you see that, you know, we all watch the funny videos on social platforms of the squirrel that just gets on there and flies around tail straight out but yeah there's lots of yeah there's lots of novel approaches to add to keeping um the undesirables out like squirrels but a lot of those are just ah maybe as simple as a very small opening depending on the type of bird that you're trying to attract or or that cage cages are what i see most nowadays is uh cages around the opening so that the birds can get to that small birds can but this squirrels can't
Jessica : Yeah.
Alexis: I was just gonna say that I was like,
Jessica : Yeah. Till they shoot off.
Alexis: The raccoons, yeah.
Brett: Have you.
Brett: Have you all seen the Mark Rober video of the squirrel? Like, um I guess you would call it an obstacle course sort of that he creates, that it's a squirrel getting to a bird feeder and it's like multiple panels and he filmed the whole thing and to see if this squirrel, it's ah it's he's he's the same guy who like did the poor the porch pirate ah glitter bomb boxes, you know, where the person goes to steal the Amazon package and it blows up like it,
Alexis: I don't think so. I don't know.
Alexis: ah I think I have seen that, yeah.
Jessica : Ah Oh my gosh, I've not seen that
Brett: Like ah but you know he's like a pretty famous YouTuber.
Alexis: Blows glitter on their face.
Brett: He makes like a couple of videos a year with a ton of money going into them. And so he has one that's a pretty good, he has like these really awesome like slow -mo video of like squirrels like jumping, you know, dramatically or when they fall, you know, they're kind of there.
Brett: He talks a little bit too about like them using their tails to fall and how they're able to do all that kind of stuff. But anyway, if you're, if you're looking
Alexis: They're crazy. and like listener listen If you go out in the woods and you you irritate them and they just like chat at you and they squawk at you and you're like, okay, excuse me, I'm rude.
Plant People: Thank you.
Alexis: They get pretty upset when they can't get to the bird feed. It's pretty funny. um
Plant People: Yeah, they do not they do not like being excluded.
Brett: One of Annie's coworkers was telling me ah that they, so they, they have a bird feeder, but their, uh, yellow lab just like eats the bird seed just nonstop.
Plant People: and The yellow lab is a ground feeder.
Jessica : I know ah somebody that Alexis and I both know really well, they had a lab do the same thing and then eventually had to take it to the vet and pay a hefty vet bill because it ate so much bird seed.
Plant People: Oh, goodness.
Alexis: Yeah, I love when um i I remember getting like these random calls.
Jessica : Um, yeah.
Alexis: I feel like there wasn't a couple of years ago, people were worried about the bird. Maybe it was like a rough winter and people were worried about the bird. So a lot of people have bird feeders out. And the next spring I got several phone calls ah that were about they were like, these random sunflowers have just like popped up in my yard.
Jessica : Oh, yeah.
Alexis: and And I was like, what? And they were like, yeah, it's just like in the middle of the grass. I don't know how it got there. And I was like, did you have a bird feed it out?
Jessica : Yep.
Alexis: And they were like, oh, my goodness.
Brett: Have you been, have you been listening to a lot of post Malone lately?
Alexis: And it was adorable.
Plant People: There you go.
Alexis: It was adorable.
Plant People: Little sunflower reference, Brett. Nice.
Alexis: Yeah. And they were like, the birds are just thanking you for feeding them this winter. So black oil sunflower seeds are a great bird seed.
Jessica : Very, very popular.
Brett: We were so, so Ray did some, Ray did some good, uh, some good detective work here.
Plant People: The most common mix. Yeah.
Brett: Ray, did you want to talk a little bit about some of these, um, food preferences that you pulled together?
Alexis: and
Plant People: Yeah, I guess so we've kind of alluded to it in different points here. ah But different birds, it's important to note here that different birds have different food preferences.
Alexis: Mm hmm.
Plant People: For instance, blue jays, cardinals, that lots of birds like the different sunflower seeds.
Alexis: Mm hmm.
Plant People: They specifically like the striped sunflower seeds. We mentioned that finches, they really love thistle seed, which are very small. and sometimes take a specific cedar. And you can even use peanuts for larger birds like ah blue jays and woodpeckers.
Plant People: They enjoy that as a food source. um The Proso millets, that's a lot of different species. And then with suet, we mentioned that the woodpeckers love that along with nut hatches.
Plant People: So I guess as you do your research, just know that not only is there different bird feeders, there's different birds
Alexis: Hmm.
Plant People: feeders for specific seed types and there's a lot of different seed types out there and some of the seeds can be a little bit expensive if you're trying to um attract specific bird species.
Jessica : No.
Plant People: Now you're going to find and find sunflower seeds and you know straight runs and a lot of a lot of ah bird feed and that's a great place to start because a lot of birds ah love those like the black hole sunflower seeds the dark sunflower seeds.
Plant People: ah They're really easy for small birds to crack open But yeah, it's interesting how different birds have ah very specific preferences in some cases. And I was working with a wildlife biologist and some of the bird feeders that I noticed, ah they were they were around the station, they're really, really messy and they were doing some kind of study and he said there was a preference study.
Plant People: they were using mixes and what they found out that the birds, and I don't know which, I don't remember which kind of birds, but they were going through and picking out only what they wanted and they were just tearing up the bird feed.
Alexis: Mm hmm.
Alexis: Hmm hmm.
Jessica : That's neat.
Plant People: And there was just bird seed, you mentioned, you know, plants coming up around a bird feeder, but there was a radius of 15 feet around this one bird feeder that they had a mix in it that they didn't like, but one of the five or six, you know, seeds that were in there, but they were just scattering most of the seeds everywhere.
Alexis: ah huh
Jessica : That's pretty cool.
Plant People: Yeah, but it was really interesting, but that that kind of hit home with me that birds have birds definitely have a preference.
Jessica : Yeah.
Alexis: And, and there's some things like to stay away from necessarily like basically the things that would be filler that are not going to be, you know, preferred by birds are going to be discarded.
Plant People: They really do.
Alexis: And so, you know, if you look and look at the ingredient list, you can stay away from those and not, you know, waste your money on basically these filler seeds. So you've got like. Wheat, whole oats, rice, rye, those types of things are usually discarded.
Alexis: And so you can create a weed problem for yourself if you're not not careful and there's no use you know spending money on something that's not.
Jessica : Right.
Plant People: A lot of those in a really cheap mix are kind of bulking agents. I guess I consider those like the bulking agents.
Alexis: Yeah. Yeah.
Plant People: Yeah.
Jessica : And we've talked a lot about feeders and I just remembered like a couple of years ago, we may had a class of like making your own kind of bird feeder.
Alexis: Right.
Alexis: Mm -hmm.
Jessica : So like something like in the winter, if you want to do yourself or if you have a kids, like the classic taking a pine cone and like rolling it like in peanut butter and then, you know, bird seed, or I've done one before where we've taken like,
Alexis: Oh yeah.
Jessica : ah like mini like mini little plastic bundt pan kind of things. And you just take your regular birdseed mix and you mix it with ah clear gelatin.
Alexis: Aww!
Jessica : and then and then put it together in the mold or you could do it or you could put it like in cookie cutters that way and then you let it set up you know obviously put like a hole in it so you can like string it and tie it onto the trees and you can put those out and they'll yeah and like they'll they'll hang out there and feed on those and you can kind of decorate your tree in the winter
Alexis: Little bird seed jello.
Alexis: So cute.
Jessica : Um, and have a, you know, a food source that way and something a little fun, fun to do on like the colder wintery days.
Alexis: Oh my gosh, it's a Christmas tree for the birds.
Jessica : It is.
Alexis: Just decorate that cute little tree.
Plant People: I remember when that was really popular, specifically the pine cones and the peanut butter trick.
Jessica : hu
Plant People: And I believe that was a master gardener or gardener program that we did four or five years ago. And it was so cool. And it worked. I brought one home with me. It was really messy. I had it in a little bag and I was like, how is this thing going to work?
Plant People: And I think they rolled it in peanut butter with birdseed in the peanut butter.
Jessica : Mm hmm.
Plant People: And birds came and scarfed it up right outside of the window.
Brett: I'll just let you know they are they are delicious.
Plant People: And did you enjoy them?
Brett: and there yeah A little crunchy, you want to have something to drink, but...
Plant People: Yeah. High on vitamin C breath.
Jessica : Yeah.
Plant People: Bread also enjoys them, apparently, folks. He does.
Jessica : Oh.
Alexis: It's ah similar to chocolate covered pretzels, peanut butter covered pine cone.
Jessica : Yeah, same thing.
Alexis: It's the same vibe.
Plant People: Yeah. I do love some peanut butter.
Brett: Listen, we all have traditions, family traditions.
Plant People: Yeah.
Alexis: So I know we're talking about feeding the birds and I feel like this is on point, but who would I be if I didn't ah britain bring this up of just sort of, you know, as you're thinking about feeding the birds and we talked about birds that you may want to um focus on, like kind of target with your seed and your style of bird feeder. Are there any birds that you anyone would say are like extremely or just like partially beneficial towards like gardening?
Plant People: obnoxious.
Alexis: Well, I'm just thinking like, um like birds as you know, which ah the birds, mostly the birds we're talking about are going to be you know, like seed eaters, which is which is great, but a lot of them are also insect eaters.
Plant People: Oh, I want the beneficial for gardening.
Plant People: who Oh, yeah.
Jessica : Mm hmm.
Alexis: And so are there ones, you know, if I had a choice, I you know would definitely want to attract this kind of bird, hoping that it'll stay around and eat up a bunch of my caterpillars in um you know in the summer.
Alexis: I don't know. It's kind of like a general question if anybody has any thoughts. Because I know from like a predatory bird standpoint, but I'm thinking about smaller birds eating insects, like house finches and stuff like that.
Plant People: Yeah, there's a lot of birds that I see. I don't know if it's their preference, but yeah, there's birds that eat. I mean, lots of different birds eat insects depending on food availability um and fruit it for that matter.
Alexis: i've seen
Plant People: because i
Jessica : what's What's the lens that everybody puts all the houses up for to help with mosquito control?
Alexis: Oh, Martin's the Martins.
Jessica : And yeah, right?
Alexis: That's a good one.
Plant People: and Martin's.
Alexis: Yeah. I forgot about those.
Plant People: Yeah.
Jessica : Yeah.
Alexis: Yeah. Martins. Yeah.
Jessica : um
Alexis: Martins are are good ones. um I was reading some um information about it. ah There actually was a UK entomology student who did her research on how birds, like canned birds, be incorporated into an integrated pest management program, and I thought that was really fascinating. and so um You know, there's a bunch of studies that have been done, a lot of them in like cherry and grape, like vineyards and orchards, you know, more out in like California, sort of West Coast stuff, uh, because fruit birds are, birds are a problem in fruit. And obviously there's a lot of insects, but they actually looked at a lot of things from a predatory bird standpoint, which I think I brought up before, but just like, because I like to talk about Falcons in general, um, the, you know, putting up, um, uh, like.
Alexis: places for falcons to roost or areas a areas where like kestrels might want to be can be great for um keeping those birds that might eat your crops out because they're you know intimidated by these predatory birds.
Jessica : Mm hmm.
Alexis: So just putting up these perches, they found what was really, really helpful in vineyards and in Cherry orchards, which I thought was really cool. And then like it basically just said like kind of research was still out on whether or not, um you know, birds are great for IPM.
Alexis: It's, to me, it sounded like For fruit, it was kind of one or it might be one or the other as far as birds that attacked insects. But for veggies, where veggies aren't necessarily as big of a um bird attractant, you know, not the same way that a fruit might be.
Plant People: Mm.
Alexis: And for low, they even said like strawberries, I guess, because they're low to the ground versus like like a tree fruit um that, you know, birds like ah Blue jay, um not blue jays like bluebirds and like house finches and you know A bunch of those kind of smaller ones were actually really helpful because they ate up ah There was one where they were saying like the kale um They had but cabbage loopers they ate like 80 % of the cabbage loopers on this kale crop um and I was you know by just having birds and attracting birds vibe with you know nesting areas and stuff like that so
Plant People: Wow.
Alexis: Just something to think about if you're really trying to diversify your um ego's little ecosystem that you know birds might be an option. um If you're not growing super sweet things, that is.
Plant People: Yeah, some of the birds I was thinking I've seen robins when we used to grow some strawberries actually peck on things. I i mean, some of the ground feeding birds that if you have strawberries growing on bare ground specifically, ah they would get in there and they would pick on the fruit.
Alexis: v
Alexis: Yeah.
Jessica : Yep, I've seen that.
Alexis: Yeah.
Plant People: Yeah, they'll kind of they'll kind of get in there and do some damage.
Alexis: Yeah, I'm just wondering, like from like a veggie standpoint, you know you don't have birds necessarily pecking leaves and cabbage and things like that.
Plant People: Yeah, I don't know.
Alexis: Zucchini, you know there might be benefits benefits to having, like bringing in birds if you're growing more of, like ah like I said, a low sugar, or if you're growing cut flowers, ah having them come in for insect um for the cucumber beetles and stuff like that.
Jessica : h
Plant People: From a food safety standpoint, it's a little bit problematic with like the the birds.
Alexis: That's true, yeah.
Plant People: and And I didn't think about that until you mentioned that.
Alexis: Mm -hmm. That's true.
Plant People: ah you know We talk about what power lines, that you know electrical transmission lines that run overhead, and birds sitting there. And the problem is the birds pooping on everything.
Alexis: Mm -hmm.
Jessica : Right.
Plant People: So yeah, I wonder.
Alexis: Mm -hmm.
Plant People: I never thought about it from that angle, from that perspective. ah Lots of these fruit and veggie fields are you know the they are in more rural areas. And more rural areas may have more birds.
Alexis: Mm -hmm.
Plant People: And producers always worry about, you know because if a bird flies over and defecates on ah had a head of cabbage, technique you have to not harvest that head of cabbage or whatever once it's contaminated ah with feces.
Alexis: Mm -hmm.
Plant People: So yeah, I could see where there's a lot of different considerations yeah on that that end.
Alexis: It's a good point.
Plant People: So we're diversifying our food sources, not only that, but we're diversifying the bird feeders. There's little bird feeders that looks like houses that are decorative. There's bird feeders with cages that help against, you know, keep squirrels and raccoons out.
Plant People: And there's the tube top finch feeders, which I think it's so cool. The tube finch feeders, I see, I think it's only the finches that hang upside down and they get in. I've noticed, I thought it was so weird the first time I saw a tube feeder that had the little, uh,
Alexis: The perch was above the opening.
Plant People: Yeah, the perch was above and it was, a and they said, oh yeah, they, had they have that ability to feed upside down.
Alexis: Yeah.
Plant People: You'll see them. And I started noticing that it's so cool, but, uh, there's a lot of different types of feeders. So, uh, if you address those things and you have what else, uh, we haven't talked about water yet, have we?
Alexis: Oh yeah. Yeah, that's true.
Jessica : Yeah, like think about i I think about it like if when you're doing your pollinator gardens, right we think about all the extra things that we need to put out for our butterflies and stuff.
Plant People: ah water A water source.
Plant People: Uh -huh.
Plant People: Like butterflies is what I was thinking about.
Jessica : The same same thing like with the birds.
Plant People: Yeah.
Jessica : It's like helpful to have a water source, especially there in the winter. Maybe if we've had ah quite a few days where it's been really curled and frozen, just to have a little
Alexis: Yeah.
Plant People: That's shallow.
Alexis: It's frozen.
Plant People: Yeah, the f frozen is a problem, yeah. ah now
Jessica : Like not to, you know, a cat water dish, something small like that, not to lure in the cats, but you know, nothing, nothing too big, but shallow where they'll be able to find it.
Alexis: Yeah.
Plant People: Just something shallow, it seems like. um And I see a lot of the bird baths on online order sources now, they so really prominently specify, hey, this is a heated ah you know bird bath where it we won't it won't freeze over because that freezing is an issue, of course, in the winter when a lot of bird feeding is going on.
Alexis: Hmm. Fancy.
Plant People: But like you said, I see a lot of folks ah here in our neighborhood, and that they watch birds because we live along ah ah pretty good a pretty good size creek here with a tree line along both sides of it. But I see people setting out like on their back deck patios, they'll set out a shallow dish because they don't have any kind of heated bird water or anything. And, you know, I talk to our neighbors and that was for feeding the birds. They put it out next to their bird feeder just to have a water source in the wintertime when everything's frozen.
Plant People: So yeah, that that's the we've talked about the food. That's the water um Talked about habitat. We haven't talked about placement of bird feeders Because a big problem with feeding birds to me is window collisions um And it seems like there's ah two strategies that you can um to use to sort of mitigate that, ah control that a little bit. And you can either put the bird feeder, you know, close to the window, the information if you look over that and do research online, it'll say either within three feet of the window,
Plant People: So that, you know, that, that helps with collisions because they'll, they'll shoot for the bird feeder and they're slowing down naturally any which way to get to the bird feeder, put the bird feeder close to the window or far away from the window, but not like in that 10 to three foot range.
Alexis: Hmm.
Plant People: Because if you get in that range. and put a bird feeder near a window. And that was a problem for us at first, because we have a large back patio sliding glass door. And we had a probably a feeder on the end of the deck, and it was not it was eight to nine feet to the corner of the deck.
Plant People: And we were having a lot of bird collisions with the window. And of course, Reed thought that when our son was younger, he thought that was the coolest thing ever. He's like, birds are saying hi. And I'm like, oh gosh, we have got to address this before a bird gets hurt.
Alexis: Oh, listen let's hope they're not still out there.
Jessica : Yeah.
Plant People: and but I made that mistake and started reading and it said you either do the through within three feet close to the window.
Alexis: Hmm.
Plant People: And so we moved it to the side within probably a foot of a window. So our son could you know go up to the window and watch the birds.
Jessica : Yeah.
Plant People: But that in between area is problematic for window collisions.
Jessica : it's
Plant People: You'll have more problems.
Jessica : Yeah, it's absolutely insane how many like birds die from window collisions.
Alexis: Mm hmm.
Jessica : So like on another nature animal podcast that I listened to, um, yeah, I want to say maybe Columbus or Cleveland somewhere, a bigger city in Ohio, a bunch of migratory birds fly through there every year and thousands of them were dying from collisions into like buildings.
Jessica : And so they've actually passed.
Plant People: like surfaces are a big problem, reflective surfaces like on a lot of skyscrapers, yeah.
Jessica : Yeah. Yeah. So they passed a thing like in the um like at night during that time. All those buildings leave their lights on for like a set you know week or two when the mass amounts of them are migrating through.
Plant People: Oh wow.
Alexis: Hmm, window of time, yeah.
Jessica : And they've seen like a great like reduction in the number of bird collisions because where they're doing that at nighttime and
Alexis: Mm -hmm.
Jessica : other things that they're putting on windows and stuff. just se because you just add I think it's something you don't think about until it actually happens, right until you have a bird flying through your window.
Plant People: Yeah.
Jessica : Because we have it happen, unfortunately, all the time at my office that where we just hear it and everyone's like, oh, there's another bird.
Alexis: Yeah.
Jessica : So we need to probably adjust our bird feeders at our office.
Plant People: we we did not We didn't have trouble at home until, and I read while this was, we did not have trouble with our patio door until I opened the curtains.
Alexis: Mmhmm.
Plant People: And that's when they would fly into it. So window treatments apparently help a great deal, like blinds, because that looks like a barrier.
Jessica : Mmhmm.
Plant People: And if the window's not at an angle where it's reflective, which also confuses birds. But ah if you have blinds or some kind of window treatment, that also helps a great deal. It's windows that are open that looks like an opening that Is is a problem
Alexis: I don't know why birds hit our back window. It's not like super often, but a couple of times a year. Cause like we don't feed the birds and it's like blocked by a tree. And, but they still manage to just like smack into it.
Alexis: And like the whole, the whole, the dogs lose in their minds about it. But I'm like, and it's, it's kind of scary. Cause if I'm like sitting in another room and then I just hear this big like bang in the back of the house.
Jessica : Yep.
Alexis: I'm like, Oh God, this is how I die. I'm dying. Somebody's coming in. Somebody's breaking in. This is how I die.
Plant People: This is the end. This is the end.
Alexis: This is the end. And it's a bird. And like they always get up and fly away. So it's like, is was it a bird? I always have to wonder. I'm like, wasn't a bird?
Plant People: You look for the feathers, but don't go outside because you never know.
Alexis: Unless I'm...
Jessica : Sometimes you see like their print, like on the window afterwards, which she was like, oh, that's terrible.
Alexis: Yeah.
Plant People: Yeah. The silhouette. Yeah.
Alexis: You're like, oh, Betty, you hit that hard.
Jessica : Poor bird. Yeah.
Plant People: That is, it's it's a problem.
Brett: It feels very Lenny Tunes.
Plant People: Yeah.
Alexis: Yes.
Plant People: Yeah.
Jessica : Yes, very much so.
Alexis: Yeah.
Plant People: Roadie Roadrunner. Yeah. Kind of. smashed up against the window um what else with bird feeders we we were talking a little bit earlier about you know it's recommended for bird feeders because they collect bacteria if the seed source gets wet especially it can set up a lot of mold and bacteria which is very very bad for the birds clean those once a month you know keep bird feeders clean that's an important thing um I should not tell this on my wife, but I remember there was ah there was a bird feeding station that you could turn a little doll and it would dispense a um seed in your hand and you could take it and feed the birds by this lake. well
Plant People: There was a lot of mold and it ended up being maggots in there. Well, she put that in her hand, it went and it looked like a lot of oats, but the in her hand and here she goes carrying that. And then I grabbed her hand, I was like, what is that?
Plant People: And she was not paying attention. She looked down and yeah, chaos ensued and people thought some of those are, yeah, she did not have a good reaction to that, but that was not a good scenario for a bird feeder.
Alexis: yeah
Plant People: It had a lot of wet feed in there, so keep your bird feeders ah clean also, because that can cause a lot of issues. And some birds, I believe it's finches, that have a really strong preference that if there's a mold present or wet food, they will not go to that feeder at all.
Plant People: So certain birds won't approach a feeder with moldy food in it, and they learn to avoid that.
Alexis: Good for them. Okay, let's not all get like what what was it?
Jessica : Mm hmm.
Plant People: Very discerning pallets.
Alexis: What's it called like and wheat is it ergot?
Plant People: Yeah, ergot a rye or whatever, yeah.
Alexis: Yeah If your birds start losing their minds, maybe they they've been poor boy.
Plant People: It's bad for you.
Alexis: They have a fungus poisoning them Yeah No bird feeders, yeah
Brett: do all Do you remember a couple of years ago when they were, when they were at, you know, you were supposed to not have bird baths and not supposed to have bird feeders because there was some, some disease going around.
Jessica : Yes.
Jessica : Mm hmm.
Plant People: Yeah, I can't remember.
Jessica : Right.
Alexis: We never, I feel like we never got good information on that.
Brett: it's
Brett: That's mystery.
Alexis: Like, as far as like, why can we do it now?
Jessica : That, yeah.
Alexis: Was it like, was it a fluke? Did they figure out what caused it? Um, I'm not, I have.
Jessica : Yeah. It's just everything went back to normal, right, suddenly.
Alexis: But it does recirculate certain times of year. Probably like coming up, you all'll start I would start getting calls um because someone would like dig it up from the archives and you know share it across social media.
Plant People: Yeah.
Alexis: And you're like, this article is from 2018. and ah
Brett: Yeah, the the last one was in 2021 when there was lots of communicable diseases going around.
Plant People: um Okay.
Alexis: yeah
Brett: So it's it's they still ah seemingly don't know what it is.
Alexis: Interesting.
Brett: Affected birds develop crusting around the eyes and neurologic signs such as tremors and paralysis.
Plant People: So in that case, I guess they would not want birds to accumulate in a single area.
Jessica : oh Right.
Brett: Right, just trying to slow down the spread.
Alexis: Mhmm.
Plant People: Yeah. Gotcha. Gotcha. And that that's.
Alexis: Ugh.
Brett: the birds The birds refused to stay six feet apart and wear masks.
Plant People: No, I refuse to.
Jessica : oh So dramatic.
Plant People: so like
Brett: That might be people, I don't know.
Plant People: those of you guys that are for plus one for habitat modification, because that's your social distancing for birds. Maybe that if they're going to all the different calling flowers or seed sources, they can space themselves out a little bit.
Plant People: It was also funny that, um you know, the folks from North Carolina is looking at a piece of their information. And one of the disclaimers towards the end of the information kind of made me smile a little bit. It says, if you notice heavy bear activity around your bird feeders cease feeding immediately, I'm not going to go out and refill the feeder
Alexis: Ugh. Please.
Jessica : Heavy bear.
Plant People: a heavy bear activity. Oh, it didn't mention squirrels, it mentioned bears. But bears do, they are attracted to sometimes those seed sources like sunflower seeds and stuff specifically, or suet.
Plant People: Suet will really bring in some animals.
Jessica : Yeah, I imagine so.
Plant People: But yeah, if you notice bears eating out of your bird feeders, you might not want to approach for a refill.
Alexis: says Yeah, maybe don't refill it moving forward.
Plant People: I'm just, you know, I'm just just throwing that out.
Jessica : yeah Just let it run out. Give it a few days.
Plant People: Just
Alexis: Or hang it higher in a tree or something.
Plant People: this ah Yeah, bear -proofing, we're not even going to try that.
Brett: Put up a sign that says no barriers.
Jessica : at bear level.
Alexis: No bears.
Plant People: Yeah. ah We talked about cats. And if you have a problem with neighborhood cats, which we do here, we don't have a bird feeder out now because we had a ah pack of cats, a large grouping of cats that were running around the neighborhood visiting all the bird feeders.
Brett: no
Plant People: And and it was kind of sad.
Alexis: The cat pack.
Plant People: We, yeah, the cat pack, we ah just saw groupings of feathers in the backyard.
Jessica : Oh, yeah.
Plant People: where they would they were taking down the songbird, so we took down her bird feeder ah for that reason.
Jessica : Yeah.
Plant People: We currently don't have it up because, as you guys mentioned earlier, I had one of the neighborhood cats in the basement wandered in and was making a racket. And she's one of the perpetrators. And Reed calls it the cat with the murder mittens because she's a very efficient hunter.
Jessica : oh ah Murder bins.
Plant People: So Reed's like, oh, that's that's the cat. That's the murder mitten cat. And I'm like, murder mittens? He says, yeah, her claws. She catches lots of birds. I'm like, oh, gosh. So, yeah.
Alexis: I'm always worried about birds at our house catching catching the the corgis because we've got, I've said this before, but we've we've got a pack of black vultures that roost in an old um tobacco stripping shed.
Plant People: Oh, yeah.
Alexis: And ah yeah, they're little fluffy babies. And then when they're like old enough to fly and they just like creep around and ah they're like very, very close.
Jessica : Mm -hmm.
Alexis: I'm like, okay guys, I'm starting to A little uncomfortable and the corgis are like,
Plant People: It's bigger than I am.
Jessica : Well, everyone already knows us on here, but we've had some incidents with hawks taking out chickens at my house. And so my oldest son, who is four, is convinced like the hawk is the apex predator, not the coyotes that we see, the foxes, like,
Jessica : the hawk because he will talk about like, we yeah, he's very concerned about baby calves, which, you know, they're born like close to a hundred pounds.
Alexis: They're taking out the cows.
Jessica : Some of them, you know, I'm like, that they're going to be taken out by hawks.
Alexis: Hawks are gonna get Um, I just blanked.
Jessica : So ah the red tail hawk is the apex predator on our property.
Brett: Well, not to get too too political, but to close out here, do you all have a favorite bird or a one that you've you been feeling?
Plant People: the top of the food chain.
Jessica : ah hu
Plant People: I like a Robin. I mean, I'm kind of basic. I like a Robin. They're pretty versatile.
Brett: Hmm.
Alexis: Um, no, there's, uh, oh crap. Somebody else go. I've just lost it.
Jessica : Um, I, I don't really know what my favorite bird is. I told Alexis, I enjoy those red wing blackbirds like in the summer.
Plant People: Yes, they're so cool looking.
Jessica : And I think it's just because it's like, Oh, it's summer.
Plant People: Yeah.
Jessica : Right. And I see them flying around our hay fields.
Plant People: Mm -hmm. Edges of meadows and hay fields, yeah.
Jessica : And yeah, them and like the barn swallows cause they're like kind of kamikaze birds, right? Cause if you're like, yeah, if you're like out on a tractor in a field and they just like dive right in front of you the entire time, um, getting all the insects and stuff, but those red wing blackbirds are pretty cool and they sound kind of cool too.
Plant People: Swoopers.
Alexis: Mhmm.
Plant People: Dive bombers.
Plant People: Yeah.
Jessica : And, um, yeah.
Plant People: Her harbingers of summer, yeah.
Alexis: We have a I think mine might be the bobwhite quail because we have like a little pack of them around the farm and I've seen them and they're yeah they're really cute but I just love like I'll be in the field and all of a sudden you hear bobwhite and I'm like oh hi so yeah I do I whistle back and and they're probably like god who is this perpetrator ah but they're they're fun I think birds in general I think can be really fun but those ones just like always make me smile so
Plant People: Yep.
Jessica : Yeah. They're cute.
Plant People: um mean Hello.
Jessica : you whistle Do you whistle back to them? Yeah.
Plant People: and This is a weird accent. Yeah.
Plant People: Brett, we know you have a favorite.
Brett: There are, I've heard, well I've heard two different, and I'm sure there's more than that, like folkloric traditions that, ah about a robin, and the same thing about a cardinal, that when you see those, they are ah ah a deceased loved one.
Plant People: Mm -hmm.
Alexis: Mm.
Plant People: Yeah.
Plant People: Out of window, specifically?
Alexis: Carnolia?
Brett: visiting you and ah you know thinking of you, and which is just kind of cool.
Jessica : um
Plant People: Yeah. Mm -hmm.
Brett: I've been really feeling grackles the last number of years.
Alexis: Yeah.
Plant People: OK.
Alexis: Yeah?
Brett: they're like ah They feel like the black cat, ah like the yellow -eyed black cat of birds, and they do not give a hoot.
Jessica : Hmm.
Alexis: <unk>
Plant People: in any cares at all.
Jessica : Yeah.
Alexis: They really, yeah, they really don't, do they? They're just like, they like prance around, you know?
Brett: they're they're in their they Yeah, they look,
Plant People: I mean, the name crackle is perfect for them. It's perfect. Yeah.
Brett: It is, it is. they they are So they are not in the you the Crow family. They're actually ah in the Blackbird family, but they look like a little mini Crow.
Alexis: Mm hmm.
Brett: um I like Crows a lot. They've gotten a lot. they've I feel like they've kind of become really popular in the last number of years. Shout out to our friend, Neil Wilson, who has been a corvid head back, way back, way before anybody else was talking about him.
Brett: um But we have we have a lot of crows and ah grackles in our backyard. And and speaking of of birds that eat a lot of insects, that's one of the reasons that I'm down with the grackle.
Alexis: Mm.
Brett: um But yeah, they're they're fun and they hate they make just unhinged sounds, which is fun.
Alexis: Yep.
Jessica : Mmhmm.
Plant People: They're rackety.
Brett: Yeah, yeah, they let out a grackle, if you will.
Plant People: They make a racket. Yeah, they're rackety.
Alexis: Well, cool.
Plant People: Birds, a lot of different ones.
Alexis: Well, something a little bit different on the pod for our plant people. But remembering birds can play a you know vital role in our ecosystems and in our gardens. And, you know, even just for our mental health in the winter, it's nice to those little bird cameras.
Alexis: ah The amount of I have some friends with the little bird feeders that have cameras on them and take pictures when the bird comes up to eat. And the amount of joy that brings some people is a beautiful thing.
Jessica : Mm
Plant People: Yes. i would and I would love to have that set up.
Jessica : hmm.
Plant People: Yeah.
Alexis: Yeah, yeah, well, you know, Christmas is coming, um or well, Christmas is past when this episode comes out, but but hopefully you get one for Christmas then, right?
Plant People: OK. We'll have to have a cat cage around our bird feeder.
Plant People: I hope Jennifer is listening.
Alexis: But yeah, yeah, Jennifer, pay attention.
Plant People: Shout out.
Alexis: ah So, well, we hope you enjoyed it and that you can follow us on Instagram at Hort Culture Pod. You can shoot us an email, which will be in the show notes if you've got any questions or thoughts.
Alexis: While we're not bird experts, we can certainly If you have a very specific bird question, ah we can certainly ask our resident bird experts, which yes, we do have some in the forestry department ah here at UK, so grateful for them.
Alexis: ah so But if you have any about that, you want to hear maybe about different birds or, you know I don't know, we'll do our best. Maybe we should have a bird expert on here. Maybe we need to call Lori or Jeff ah and see what see what's going on over there.
Alexis: But ah follow us. Well, thank you all for being here, our little true leaves. And we appreciate it. We hope you have a great time and that you join us next time. So we're talking about snow, which yes, can be fun. So anyways, have a great one, y 'all.
