KELSEYVILLE — If you”re an avid bird and wildlife watcher, one way to ensure that the critters visit your yard is to make some adjustments to landscaping and turn your backyard into a wildlife habitat.
Jess and Newrene Hollar of Kelseyville did just that. Not only do they see a plethora of birds and butterflies visiting them, the National Wildlife Federation (NWF) has recognized their property as an official Wildlife Habit site.
“We were interested in doing this,” Newrene Hollar said, “mainly for the birds.”
Hollar said that they have a lot of pileated woodpeckers, and red and yellow finches, among many others.
They also are visited every morning by red-shouldered hawks, “who wake us up like an alarm clock,” she said, noting that red-shouldered hawks were better than roosters — they don”t begin calling until 6 a.m. — and they”re “just as loud.”
The NWF began the wildlife habit certification program in 1973 and has since certified more than 58,000 habitats nationwide. The majority of the sites are homes, but NWF also has certified more than 2,400 schools and hundreds of business and community sites, according to an NWF release.
Hollar said that certification involves providing a habitat conducive to wild animals, such as leaving a stack of small limbs on the ground from the oak trees, rather than cleaning up, because that will attract quail.
Some suggestions NWF gives for attracting wildlife to your yard include providing food by leaving and planting native plants, providing water in either a birdbath or pond, offering cover and places for wildlife to raise their young and conserving resources ? mulching around plants, composting, using drip irrigation and removing invasive plants.
Some of the steps that the Hollars have implemented to attract and preserve wildlife include maintaining native vegetation on the creek bank (their property borders on Kelsey Creek), using no herbicides or pesticides, and growing deer-resistant plants such as salvias, sages and herbs — including thyme and oregano.
NWF teaches the importance of environmental stewardship by providing guidelines for making landscapes more hospitable to wildlife, which helps conserve natural resources by reducing or eliminating the need for fertilizers, pesticides or irrigation water. And it can benefit the homeowner.
Realtors will promote the certified status of homes for sale because they see it as an added selling feature, according to the NWF. “It”s an attractive element to many potential home buyers looking to share their landscape with Mother Nature,” an NWF release states.
Any habitat enthusiast can create a certified habitat and learn the rewards of gardening for wildlife as the Hollars did by visiting www.nwf.org and adjusting some of your landscaping practices. Your rewards will be many, including the joyful songs of local birds.
Contact Terre Logsdon at tlogsdon@record-bee.com.
