Hudson River Audubon Society

Beverly E Smith Butterfly
and Hummingbird Garden

volunteer

Work sessions will be planned throughout the 2024 growing season. Whatever your level of skill or strength, our garden team will find a place for you. Contact James Judy, our garden chairperson, to be on his email list of scheduled volunteer days.

donate

Our garden needs funding as well as workers. Contribute through PayPal or send a check to Hudson River Audubon Society, P O Box 616, Yonkers, NY 10703.

Introducing the Garden 

Our motto is plant it and they will come. If you provide a welcoming environment for hummingbirds and butterflies, they will reward you with their presence. These exquisite creatures have specific, although different needs. It is easy to combine plants in a garden that will satisfy both of them. The key is supplying nourishment, shelter, water, sun and protection from wind. Our garden is planted to attract and nourish the species of butterflies which live, reproduce or migrate through our region. It isn’t enough to plant flowers to attract adult butterflies; there also must be plants that will provide places for eggs to be laid and for larvae to feed. Some butterflies, like the beautiful and endangered Monarch, will only lay their eggs on milkweed, because that’s the plant that will nourish their larvae.

Butterflies must also have shelter from severe weather and for hibernation. They will squeeze into narrow spaces between logs in brush piles. Butterflies need shelter from the wind, which trees and shrubs can provide. They need sun, at least 6 hours of direct sunlight; as cold-blooded creatures, they need to warm up to start their day.

Plants for hummingbirds are different from ones that attract and nourish butterflies, but they easily co-exist. A hummer's long bill is adapted to drinking nectar from tubular flowers. The trees, shrubs and vines in the garden provide nesting sites. We think of hummers as delicate sippers of flower nectar. They are that, but also voracious insect eaters which ornithologists suspect could be up to 50% of their diet.

We have only one species of hummingbird occurring regularly in the East – the Ruby-throated Hummingbird. We have had two visits from a species normally occurring in the West - the Rufous Hummingbird. This species was observed in our garden in Nov & Dec of 2001 and again, same months, in 2011. Birders came from all over the Northeast to see this wanderer.

Our garden was started by Beverly E Smith in 1995, with help from her husband Neil. It's located in the Lenoir Nature Preserve, a Westchester county park. We welcome you to spend time sitting in the garden, watching for butterflies and hummingbirds, reading or meditating. And of course, volunteering to help!

If you are planning to start your own butterfly and hummingbird garden, we suggest the following resources. Even if you don’t have a place to garden, you can advocate for plantings to attract them. If there are plantings around your apartment building, encourage whoever is responsible for them to eliminate pesticides; plant pollinator attracting flowers, shrubs, trees. If you have a terrace, you can pots with beneficial plants (like fuschia) or hang a hummingbird feeder - just be sure to keep it clean (more about feeding hummingbirds at Cornell Lab of Ornithology’s All About Birds).

The following list comes from Tod Winston who gave a program for us recently. He is a birding guide, as well as a Research Associate and Associate Director of Content, for NYC Audubon. He shares his list of favorite web sites for planting to attract and nourish birds.

National Audubon’s Plants for Birds Program / Native Plants Database
NYC Audubon’s Plants for Birds
National Wildlife Federation’s Native Plant Finder
Doug Tallamy: Bringing Nature Home, The Living Landscape, The Nature of Oaks
Biota of North America Program (BONAP) Database
Landscape Plants Rated by Deer Resistance
Pesticide Info and the NY State Birds and Bees Protection Act
Make Your Windows Bird-Friendly

… And Some of Our Favorites

Books

Bringing Nature Home – How You Can Sustain Wildlife with Native Plants by Douglas Tallamy, Timber Press. Tallamy is an entomologist and wildlife biologist. A passionate plea for understanding the interdependence of the environment and wildlife. Excellent information about butterflies and their host plants.

Designing Gardens with Flora of the American East by Carolyn Summers, Rutgers University Press. How to garden with native plants, attract butterflies and birds.

Websites

Pollinator Pathways are gardens established by homeowners with pollinator friendly plantings. You may have noticed small signs in your neighborhood indicating that a private garden is part of the pollinator pathway project. The website will give you help in establishing one of your own. Excellent references and help.

Native Plant Nurseries

Earth Tones Native Plant Nursery in Woodbury, Connecticut

Native Landscapes & Garden Center
991 Rt. 22, Quaker Ridge Plaza, Pawling, NY 12564
Tel: 845/855-7050 Fax: 845/855-7016
E-mail: Pete@nativelandscaping.net

Photo: by Thomas Warren