Winged Fling A Few Simple Steps Will Attract Butterflies And Birds To Your Yard

FOR THE RECORD: July 15, 2000: Address wrong: Dishman Hills Natural Area is located just south of Sprague and west of Dishman-Mica Road; the access road is Sargent. The address in Friday’s IN Life section was incorrect.

No one in the family remembers when, but at some point someone decided hummingbirds flitting around the deck of the lake cabin would be nice.

So up went a feeder filled with red sugar water, and almost instantly a hummingbird appeared. And another. And another. In fact, the feeder seemed like an inspired idea — until the beak wars began.

One hummingbird would stake out the feeder. When it wasn’t eating, it perched silently on a nearby twig, scanning for interlopers. When one appeared, the fight began. Armed with long, pointy beaks, the birds took high-speed runs at each other. In brief bursts, hummingbirds can fly 60 miles per hour, beating their wings 200 times a second. They’d scream across the deck where we were sitting, inches from our faces.

Such is life in a back yard filled with birds, bees and butterflies. Not always bucolic, but often beautiful.

And, as our experience attests, it’s not difficult to attract birds and butterflies to your yard. Provide food, water and shelter, and they will come.

For butterflies as well as hummingbirds, food means something sweet. Commercial butterfly feeders share shelf space at garden centers with a range of hummingbird feeders. They can be filled with homemade or commercial mixes for sugar water. The recommended ratio for homemade mixes is one part sugar to four parts water.

Red food coloring is optional in the hummingbird mix, although some people find the birds are attracted more quickly to the feeders with colored water. No coloring is necessary for the butterfly feeders.

Well-planned flower gardens work just as well since the butterflies and hummingbirds also dine at flowers rich in sweet nectar.

In general, hummers and butterflies favor brightly colored flowers shaped like trumpets or bells. Plant a garden with foxglove, honeysuckle, fuchsia and day lilies and on sunny days, yellow and black swallowtails will float from blossom to blossom, interrupted by calliope hummers buzzing in ahead.

The size of the garden doesn’t matter to hummingbirds and butterflies. They’ll flock to plants they like in container gardens. Researchers found they’ll even fly as high as eight stories to dine. Apartment dwellers can attract these pretty garden visitors, too.

“Butterflies don’t live that long, maybe a week or so,” says Gerri Krueger, an avid gardener and retired owner of Blossoms and Bloomers plant nursery. The nursery closed when Krueger retired; she’s busy writing books and traveling as a speaker. “One week you’ll have blue butterflies, the next week you’ll have orange ones. They have a relatively short life - they hatch, mate and, if you provide a suitable habitat, they lay their eggs in your yard.”

That, however, is the compromise butterfly gardeners must make. Where butterflies lay eggs, there will be hungry caterpillars, eating leaves and ruining the tidy look of the flower garden. Pesticides and butterflies don’t mix since the pesticides are designed to kill all the insects.

Krueger recommends a moratorium on pesticides in a wildlife garden.

Caterpillars cause damage, but they also attract a number of bird species, who use the them to feed nestlings.

Butterflies more than hummingbirds need shelter, but not merely to spend the night. A number of bird species prey on butterflies, plucking them from the air as they float through the garden or off of flowers.

“On cool days butterflies just fold their wings and get into some foliage,” Krueger says. “They need protection so it’s good to have plants that grow to different heights. They can get in out of the wind there, too. Butterflies also like gardens with a southern exposure and plenty of sun.”

Butterflies are cold-blooded and need the sun to warm their muscles to fly. Caterpillars also develop up to 50 percent faster in sunny locations; researchers say a garden with plenty of sun will produce more butterflies earlier in the summer.

Butterfly boxes are available, but Krueger says they don’t work. “Butterfly boxes are just garden art. Although the yellowjackets do like to nest in them.”

Birdhouses will make the yard more hospitable to some birds, but they, too, are particular about their nesting sites. Many species, hummingbirds included, build new nests every year in trees or shrubs and hedges. Plant trees and shrubs of varying density to attract the broadest range of birds.

Select the appropriate box for species that use nest boxes. Usually the size of the entrance hole is the key factor - too big and predators such as squirrels or larger birds can get in and eat the eggs or young birds. Boxes are marked as to the species that will use them.

Birds flock to water. Bluebirds and chickadees play in a sprinkler like children. Even hummingbirds will sit on branches at the edge of the spray and bathe and preen. And when the days get warm and dry, many varieties of birds will visit a pan of water or birdbath throughout the day.

“What butterflies need are puddles,” says Krueger. “They have a behavior called puddling. They go to a place that has repeatedly dried up and get minerals and salt from the soil.”

Butterflies get the moisture they need from dew on plant leaves. When they congregate at a damp or muddy spot, it’s the mineral-rich dirt they’re after, not water, she says.

For the best butterfly observation, group plants that are butterfly- and bird-friendly near a deck or a place observers can sit quietly. And watch the beak wars begin.

Three sidebars appeared with the story: 1. TIPS Attracting butterflies

These plants are good nectar sources for adult butterflies:

alliums

alyssum

butterfly bush

coneflower

coreopsis

cosmos

daisies

dandelions

goldenrod

heliotrope

lilac

lantana

marigolds

mint

phlox

red clover

red salvias

sedum

verbena

violets

yarrow

zinnia

These host plants will attract egg-laying female butterflies:

apple

asters

cabbage

cherry

dogwood

hollyhock

Indian paintbrush

veronica

Lupine

milkweed

nasturtium

parsley

snapdragon

sweet pea

violets

wisteria Source: Gerri Krueger, retired owner of Blossoms and Bloomers nursery

2. TIPS Attracting birds

Birds that like berries, such as cedar waxwings, robins, catbirds, warblers and finches, will be attracted to the following shrubs and trees:

mountain ash

pyracantha

serviceberry

hawthorn

crab apple

sumac

cotoneaster

golden currant

honeysuckle

dogwood Source: Birder’s World magazine

3. Butterfly tips

Gardeners interested in attracting wildlife to their yards can participate in Washington state’s Backyard Wildlife Program.

The program offers an array of brochures helpful in planning a wildlife-friendly landscape. For information, contact the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife, 8702 N. Division, Spokane, WA 99218, or call (509) 456-4082.

Butterfly watching

An excellent destination for butterfly viewing in the wild is the Dishman Hills Natural Area in the Spokane Valley.

Fifty-nine butterfly species have been sighted in there, 39 of them listed as abundant, common or fairly common.

The species range from swallowtails to sulfurs, skippers to fritillaries.

Butterfly field guides are available at most book stores. The Dishman Hills Natural Area is at 18020 E. Maxwell; there’s parking and a picnic area and an extensive trail system.