Everything arrived today! Also feeling chipper about Chipping Sparrows in a non-standard prairie planting
14 views
Skip to first unread message
Joel Geier
May 1, 2026, 9:53:50 PM (5 days ago) May 1
to Mid-Valley Nature
Well, it seemed like almost everything!
I spent most of the day working out in the garden, which is a good way to find out what birds are around.
I spent most of the day working out in the garden, which is a good way to find out what birds are around.
First-of-year detections for our yard included Lazuli Bunting, Warbling Vireo, Western Tanager, Evening Grosbeak, and Hermit Warbler (heard from the tall trees way up on the ridge). The male Bullock's Oriole is still calling (not really "singing" yet) on a circuit around our yard and our neighbors' yards.
What makes me most happy though, is that it looks like we could have Chipping Sparrows nesting here this year, for the first time since we moved to this house in 2004.
In past years we've had migrant chippers stop by for a day or two, feeding in our garden and our neighbors' horse exercise area before they move on. But this year, one that showed up on April 8th has stuck around, singing daily. In the last few days I've been seeing him together with what I presume is a female. And today he got into a territorial squabble with a junco in our walnut tree, as the male of a nesting pair of Western Bluebirds looked on.
What makes me most happy though, is that it looks like we could have Chipping Sparrows nesting here this year, for the first time since we moved to this house in 2004.
In past years we've had migrant chippers stop by for a day or two, feeding in our garden and our neighbors' horse exercise area before they move on. But this year, one that showed up on April 8th has stuck around, singing daily. In the last few days I've been seeing him together with what I presume is a female. And today he got into a territorial squabble with a junco in our walnut tree, as the male of a nesting pair of Western Bluebirds looked on.
This is especially gratifying since we've been trying to make our 1.25 acre yard more "chipper friendly."
This place came with a flat, sand-and-gravel terrace that a previous owner built as part of a plan for a larger horse arena, before she ran out of money. That left kind of a wasteland, in terms of habitat. We built a garden in some raised beds on one part of it, but what to do with the rest of that gravelly area?
I finally got inspired while doing bird surveys at Kingston Prairie (south of Stayton, now managed by Greenbelt Land Trust and well worth a visit, this time of year). This native prairie site has very thin soils atop basalt bedrock. In terms of hydrology, that's similar to horse-exercise areas which have compacted crushed rock (usually basalt) below the sand layer.
After I explained the situation to Lynda Boyer at Heritage Seedlings, she suggested broadcasting a "vernal pool" native seed mix. I did a bit of "contouring" of the sand to create a few shallow pools and "stream courses." Some plants in the seed mix worked, and some didn't.
But we wound up with a nice area of low-stature forbs (with weedy annual grasses) that looks perfect for Chipping Sparrows and bluebirds. Early on we had lots of Oregon saxifrage blooming (we would have more, but it turns out, the local deer really love to chomp on saxifrage stalks -- no worries, they left the basal leaves so they'll come back next year). Now the small-flowered lupine is in peak bloom, with patches of popcorn flower, western burnet and a bit of bare-stemmed Lomatium (plus black medic which isn't native but I've made peace with it). There are scattered clumps of Oregon sunshine ("woolly sunflower") and entire-leaved gumweed, as well as elegant madia, all of which will bloom later in the season. Pollinators love it too.
It's been an interesting lesson in working with what's there. Even something that bears no resemblance to a natural landscape still might have potential. And if it works for Western Bluebirds and Chipping Sparrows, that seems good to me!
Sorry no pics at the moment, but I'll try to get some in the coming weeks.
This place came with a flat, sand-and-gravel terrace that a previous owner built as part of a plan for a larger horse arena, before she ran out of money. That left kind of a wasteland, in terms of habitat. We built a garden in some raised beds on one part of it, but what to do with the rest of that gravelly area?
I finally got inspired while doing bird surveys at Kingston Prairie (south of Stayton, now managed by Greenbelt Land Trust and well worth a visit, this time of year). This native prairie site has very thin soils atop basalt bedrock. In terms of hydrology, that's similar to horse-exercise areas which have compacted crushed rock (usually basalt) below the sand layer.
After I explained the situation to Lynda Boyer at Heritage Seedlings, she suggested broadcasting a "vernal pool" native seed mix. I did a bit of "contouring" of the sand to create a few shallow pools and "stream courses." Some plants in the seed mix worked, and some didn't.
But we wound up with a nice area of low-stature forbs (with weedy annual grasses) that looks perfect for Chipping Sparrows and bluebirds. Early on we had lots of Oregon saxifrage blooming (we would have more, but it turns out, the local deer really love to chomp on saxifrage stalks -- no worries, they left the basal leaves so they'll come back next year). Now the small-flowered lupine is in peak bloom, with patches of popcorn flower, western burnet and a bit of bare-stemmed Lomatium (plus black medic which isn't native but I've made peace with it). There are scattered clumps of Oregon sunshine ("woolly sunflower") and entire-leaved gumweed, as well as elegant madia, all of which will bloom later in the season. Pollinators love it too.
It's been an interesting lesson in working with what's there. Even something that bears no resemblance to a natural landscape still might have potential. And if it works for Western Bluebirds and Chipping Sparrows, that seems good to me!
Sorry no pics at the moment, but I'll try to get some in the coming weeks.
--
Joel Geier
Tampico Ridge north of Corvallis
Reply all
Reply to author
Forward
0 new messages