The Avant-Garden Shop: Your Garden & Bird Store

birds

Garden Tips: Helping Birds through Citizen Science

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Birds are in Trouble! The populations of many bird species are declining. The number of individuals of many species is half what it was 4 decades ago and is expected to decrease by another half in the next 40 years. Local Ornithologist (professional bird nerd), Andrew Jobes, has written the blog posts for our monthly … Read more

Garden Tips: Backyard Blues (Jays)

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Many people who love feeding birds dislike Blue Jays, because they can be loud and aggressive. Although this is true, there’s so much to love about these intelligent and charismatic creatures! Jays are in the Corvid family, which includes ravens and crows. They are very intelligent, capable of problem solving and mimicking the calls of … Read more

Garden Tips: Supporting Birds in the Winter

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Certain needs must be met to for any living creature to survive: food, water, and shelter from inclement weather and predators. These elements work together to form a critter’s habitat. No matter how ideal a habitat may appear to be in one or more of these areas, it will not be used by wildlife if even … Read more

A Pane in the Neck: Reflections on Birds and Windows

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We’ve all heard it: the unmistakable thump of a bird smashing into a closed window. We rush outside to assess the situation. With luck, there’s either no bird there or it’s resting on the ground, panting and dazed, and flies away in a few minutes. Sometimes, the little one’s not so lucky. Window strikes are … Read more

Garden Gate Episode: 133 – Annual Backyard Bird Count with guest Drew Monkman

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  Drew Monkman is a retired teacher, author and local naturalist.  Drew has written the book “Nature’s Year in the Kawartha’s”, an updated version renamed “Nature’s Year” and co-written another “Big Book of Nature” with Jacob Rodenburg of the Kawartha Environment Centre. On this episode of The Garden Gate we talk about the Great Backyard … Read more

Garden Gate: Episode 67 – Neonicotinoids – What are they and why are they bad? Guest Mark Bennett

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bees_chart_neonicotinoidsCHEX TV airdate: Friday July 10th, 5-6pm

Click link to watch this episode online.

We’ve been hearing a lot in the news about Neonicotinoids (Neonics).

This relatively new class of insecticide affects the central nervous system of insects, resulting in paralysis and death. ?Plants that have been grown using Neonics are harmful to bees, butterfly’s and birds because they ingest the nectar or pollen and the insecticide along with it.

honey-bee_shutterstock_56017861_300My guest, Mark Bennett from Wild Bird Trading and Millcreek seed, discusses Neonics with me on this episode of The Garden Gate.

redpolls
Picture courtesy Fred Jennings from Longlac

All of our Millcreek bird food is Neonic FREE! ?So you can be rest assured that when you feed our Millcreek brand of bird food to your birds you are not harming any birds, bees or butterfly’s!

Garden Gate: Episode 52-Discouraging large birds

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CHEX TV airdate: Friday Dec. 12th, 2014 Click link to watch it here! Finch feederFeeding and watching the birds is a wonderful past time. ?You can spend hours watching the chickadees coming in to grab a seed one after another. ?Polite little birds! Then there are the goldfinches. They have such a pretty song, I could listen to them all day. They will come in large flocks and sit all day taking turns eating your Nyger seed. Bright red Cardinals appear and we almost jump for joy! ?When they are courting or have little ones to feed you might enjoy dad helping to pass on a seed or two. ?FUN! Aww, bsb+ut then the fun ends. Sir Squirrel or Gastly Grackle moves in….birds fly away and these two devour everything in site! On this episode of The Garden Gate, I’ll give you some tips on types of feeders that discourage squirrels and grackles as well as bird food that they don’t like. Feel free to drop in to see these feeders or to get more information. We’re here to help and to make your back yard bird feeding more enjoyable! Note: we do not recommend bird food with cayenne. ?If a squirrel gets the cayenne pepper in their eyes they can do serious damage to their eyes. ?Also, it has been shown that it affects birds stomachs. They can’t necessarily taste it, but their little tummies don’t like it. ?

Garden Gate: Episode 24 – Bella Luz studio

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CHEX TV air date: Friday Nov. 1st, 2013

Click here to view this episode of?The Garden Gate.

This summer, my husband and I traveled to the West Coast to visit the Bella Luz studio just outside of Seattle, Washington. ?

Artist Joline El-Hai has been creating her beautiful works for many years and welcomed us into her studio.

We currently carry her beautiful copper night lights called “Luminettes” and her “Tri-Corner Lanterns” which reflect beautiful light in all directions.

While we couldn’t take CHEX TV with us to Seattle, we did take some photos which are posted on our Facebook page.?

The 5 o’clock show, November 11th, 2012, A visit to The Avant-Garden Shop

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5 o'clock showTheresa Kazuba from CHEX TV visited The Avant-Garden Shop in late 2012 to learn more about backyard bird feeding and bird watching.? Special guest Drew Monkman also joined us for a segment of the program.

Well worth watching if you’d like to learn more about choosing the right bird food, quality bird feeders and even a little about the local Blue Bird population.

This video is a little longer than the others but can be seen here.

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