Herself’s Houston Garden

The Great Backyard Bird Count

New York, NY and Ithaca, NY—Bird watchers coast to coast are invited to take part in the 13th annual Great Backyard Bird Count, Friday, February 12, through Monday, February 15, 2010. Participants in the free event will join tens of thousands of volunteers of all levels of birding experience to count birds in their own backyards, local parks or wildlife refuges.

Each checklist submitted by these “citizen scientists” helps researchers at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology and the National Audubon Society learn more about how the birds are doing—and how to protect them. Last year, participants turned in more than 93,600 checklists online, creating the continent’s largest instantaneous snapshot of bird populations ever recorded.

“Taking part in the Great Backyard Bird Count is a great way to get outside with family and friends, have fun, and help birds—all at the same time. Anyone who can identify even a few species can provide important information that enables scientists to learn more about how the environment is changing and how that affects our conservation priorities,” said Audubon Education Vice President, Judy Braus. “Everyone who participates in the GBBC—families, teachers, and young people—will get a chance to hone their observation skills, learn more about birds, and make a great contribution to the future!”

GirlWindow_TerieRawn_NY09_web.jpgAnyone can take part in the Great Backyard Bird Count, from novice bird watchers to experts. Participants count birds for as little as 15 minutes (or as long as they wish) on one or more days of the event and report their sightings online at www.birdcount.org. One 2009 participant said, “Thank you for the opportunity to participate in citizen science. I have had my eyes opened to a whole new interest and I love it!”

This shrub will easily reach 6′ tall in Houston and 4′ across. It is a very dense shrub right down to the ground. There’ll be no bare legs hanging out underneath.

Thryalis prefers full sun, it will grow in part shade but it’ll get leggy on you.

Blooms prolifically mid spring to early winter.

Drought tolerant once established. Excellent for barriers and low maintenance areas.

Birds, bees and butterflies are attracted to this plant.

Hardy to zone 8 but will die back in the winter in zone 8.

This did not survive not sure if last summer’s drought, this winter’s freezes or a combination of the two is responsible.

Propagate by cuttings.

Sometimes referenced as thryallis

Nothing interesting to report yet, this plant is only glancingly referenced in my books and I just picked it up this week.

Who knew? Recently gardening for insects to attract birds has been making the rounds in gardening circles. After all if you want to attract birds that eat insects, you need to offer them food, same as you do for your suet and seed eating birds.

It turns out that birds are also attracted to trees that show insect damage. So don’t be too quick to lop off those damaged limbs. Birds use the damage on the trees and increased levels of volatile organic compounds to locate the insect damaged trees.

An understanding of the evolution of potential signals from plants to the predators of their herbivores may provide exciting examples of co-evolution among multiple trophic levels. Understanding the mechanism behind the attraction of predators to plants is crucial to conclusions about co-evolution. For example, insectivorous birds are attracted to herbivore-damaged trees without seeing the herbivores or the defoliated parts, but it is not known whether birds use cues from herbivore-damaged plants with a specific adaptation of plants for this purpose. . . [ read more From Plants to Birds: Higher Avian Predation Rates in Trees Responding to Insect Herbivory]