One more serviceberry benefit - I've noticed that as long as there are
serviceberries available, the birds largely ignore my blueberries. Also,
the serviceberries at my old place in Nooksack (only 20 miles NE of
Bellingham, but still a noticeably colder and harsher winter climate -
flowering trees, bulbs, etc. were normally two weeks later than Bellingham)
lasted well into July and even, in some years, into early August.



David Given-Seymour

4239 Van Horn Lane

Bellingham, WA 98226

360-527-0598

360-920-7894 (David cellular)

360-527-0599 (fax)

givenseymour at comcast.net

-----Original Message-----
From: tweeters-bounces at mailman2.u.washington.edu
[mailto:tweeters-bounces at mailman2.u.washington.edu] On Behalf Of Bob
Sundstrom
Sent: Wednesday, March 04, 2009 10:30 AM
To: tweeters
Subject: [Tweeters] more on serviceberry



Tweeters,



Native serviceberry is a wonderful source of food and shelter for native
birds, as several people have made clear. It does have a peak season of
berry production in June to early July at lower elevations, so in planning
your plantings for birds you might want to include earlier and, especially,
later small fruit sources. Where we live along Scatter Creek, our front
yard has a perimeter of mature native serviceberry and black hawthorn, now
10 to 15' high, and is amazingly popular with birds spring through early
fall. The hawthorn berries peak after the serviceberries, in late summer,
keeping the food supply plentiful. We also have some bird-planted native
blue elderberries (now 10-20' high) that add food in September. We've used
our yard last summer to teach a couple of gardening-for-wildlife sessions
last summer, and may do it again this year. Still, whatever you plant, a
year round source of water for birds ranks just as high.





Bob Sundstrom

[Lead Writer, BirdNote, etc.]
Tenino, Washington
ixoreus at scattercreek.com