Gardening for the birds

A couple of things have crossed my path this week on Facebook.  One is this review of Jane Goodall's new book,  Seeds of Hope.  I really like her analogy of the yard as a gas station for migrating birds.  Read an excerpt here.

More specifically for us in the Pacific Northwest, there's Living with Wildlife and Landscaping for Wildlife which can be found at http://wdfw.wa.gov/living/book/ .  I used the Landscaping one to learn about which plants to use when I first started birding.  Very informative and not a bad gardening book, either.

The living page on the wdfw website is particularly useful in giving info about wildlife and what to do about it.  I used it to identify an unknown animal I saw in my backyard.  Turned out to be a Mountain Beaver, a totally new animal for me.  So now, it's my go-to page for learning about Washington wildlife.