Backyard Birding: Our Home Birding Sanctuary

As you already know, I really enjoy nature photography. I enjoy it so much that when I am not out in the “field” with my camera and gear, I will be in the backyard ready and waiting for a photo-op. Yeah, I’m a pretty big camera nerd nowadays. With that said, I decided this past weekend to create a birding sanctuary in the backyard to hopefully create a greater number of photo-ops.

The way our property and home are oriented, the backyard is narrow and long (24’x60’ approx.) which tends to keep birds away when anyone is on the patio as it is in close proximity to the majority of the yard. Having noticed that most of the birds have been loitering around the far end of the yard, I decided that was probably the best place to construct the “sanctuary.”

I began to channel my inner-avian to create a mental image of what would be ideal for the neighborhood birds. I came up with several ideas and began the hunt around the yard and the house for items to implement for this project.

I just love to repurpose items from around the house after they have outlived their usefulness. A few weeks ago our clothes dryer burnt out and had to be replaced, so I’ve had a large appliance taking up space in the garage. After stripping the dryer of parts and pieces, I decided to keep the large drum to paint and use as a planter in the backyard bird sanctuary. I am so frigging clever huh?

Next, I used some landscaping stones that had been stacked away in the corner of the yard to build a small retaining wall around the aforementioned planter. I then moved an unused shepherds hook as well as some plant hanger hooks I’d had in the garage collecting dust into that area of the yard. With things beginning to come together, Kris and I visited the Home Depot and picked out some hanging plants, summer flowers, a bird bath and new bird-feeder (the old one broke horrifically from a close encounter with a diabetic squirrel earlier in the day).