Beginning with the raptors (birds of prey) in March and culminating in Warbler Season in May, and then again from August through October, birds face an incredibly dangerous journey, flying between their summer nesting territory and their winter residences.
It’s always been dangerous for reasons related to weather and predation, but with the conditions imposed by us, it’s now a gauntlet. First we had the advent of guns and market hunting that, two centuries ago, began wiping many out. In the last century alone, communications towers and hydro lines and glass buildings and habitat loss and so on have amounted to Billions of birds lost.
The other day, I watched a documentary by New Hampshire Public Television on bird migration. I learned a few startling facts about habitat loss and other pressures that decimate bird populations. Most alarming of all was that birdmortality while migrating is as high as 85%. I doubt that’s due to hurricanes and low seasonal food, though these are real risks that birds have always faced. I’m sure that most are due to human activity:
Building and tower lights on at night throwing birds off course, exhausting and killing them. Birds migrate at night, and the light of the moon used to guide them. Now, our overlit cities and buildings misguide them.
Bird strikes on power and cellular telephone infrastructure — guy wires and towers also are responsible, it’s not just wind turbines.
Critical habitat loss on migration routes. Birds need to land and feed, timed with their food source according to the season and weather, before proceeding north (or south) again.
Bird strikes on buildings, now more than ever. Glass architecture is killing millions of migratory birds. And it’s not just big buildings! An individual home may only be killing a handful of birds a year, but there are so many homes out there that those numbers really add up quickly.
And the grand winner: Our pet and feral cats are the biggest killers by far. Do not underestimate the carnage that your sweet kitty causes. It’s not good fun. If you absolutely insist on putting your cat outdoors – you’re wrong, but still – do it only at night, when birds are in flight. During the day, they need to come down and search for food, water, and rest. They need it. The cat’s just playing. (So put a BirdBeSafe collar on kitty!)
In 2015, I posted about converting a standard residential parking spot into a green driveway. It’s a pictorial, part of our Project portfolio. Three months later (from mid-May to August), I’d gotten used to the results and I was quite happy!
Having now seen the results over the next seven seasons, I’m still pleased. It’s like an extra yard with cobblestone wheel paths, and after I got rid of my car, a space for my Adirondack chair.
Winter conditions
In February, the driveway is typically under a foot and a half of snow. With no car, I have little need to shovel it out. But if I did, the effort of shovelling a green driveway is different than that of a standard one.
For example, you cannot use salt, but nor do you need to clear the driveway right down to the ground. You shovel out the sidewalk and right-of-way on the street, and you shovel out your access to the car doors. When the snow packs and turns to ice, if you need it, you can put down sand, crushed cinders/grit (which I actually collect in the spring from leftovers on the sidewalk and street gutter), or sawdust.
Spring, summer, and fall conditions
There are a few issues with having a green driveway I have to mention: It’s not the place to store a car long-term, nor is it a place to leave a poorly-maintained car (but then again, neither would inter-lock or any pavement you want to keep clean).
If one parks for too long on the green driveway, the plants under the car die back without the sun. So long as you use the car several times a week during the day: no problem! Otherwise, just make sure you occasionally use or at least move the car during the day. If you forget for too long: move the car, water the driveway, and wait a few days. The green will come back.
Another time, someone else parked in my driveway with an oil leak. Hydrocarbons (oil, gasoline, solvents) kill plants. They do biodegrade, so if the vegetation isn’t killed at the root, it will grow back about two weeks (given the season). A green driveway conceals an oil stain better than hard surface, but if you can catch it in time, throw down some sand and/or wood shavings (just like with winter ice). That will help absorb the excess, which you can sweep up and throw out.
2025 update: There's a third issue that may affect you if you're in a high-parking-demand area: it goes through fits and spurts, but some people are not aware that your driveway is permanently your right-of-way and they can't park in front of it (without your permission, anyway). Quite a few assume, even with the curb cut, that since it's a grassy area, it's fair game. You can call the city on them and get them ticketed or even towed; usually I gave them a verbal or written warning and called the ticket police when they were really inconveniencing me. However, the summer of 2023 was hell on wheels for all the people thinking they could block my driveway. It's like driver's education and common courtesy went right out of their brains. I finally put up a "no parking" sign in front of my garage door, and trimmed the wheel paths really well so that they could see it was inarguably still a parking spot. That took care of 95% of the problem.
Green driveways do others good
Last summer when I came home from a run, I had the satisfaction of yet more proof that this driveway idea was a great thing to do. On my way into the house, I startled a small flock of chipping sparrows who were foraging near the garage door. Success! They wouldn’t have been there if the driveway was asphalt or pavers. They felt at home.
Since 2012, when I really started paying attention to the birds here in Little Burgundy, the Chipping Sparrow seems to be increasing in numbers. Populations fluctuate, but increases are good. At first I was confused about whether the birds were Chipping or American Tree Sparrows. I haven’t heard the distinct call of the Tree Sparrow, but I often hear the distinct call of the Chipping Sparrow in spring. This persuaded me which one it was. (You can easily see different photos and hear calls the birds make at the All About Birds links here, above and in the photo caption below).
Chipping sparrow
So it’s not just that the driveway provides me with the physical and psychological benefits of having more leisure space and a cooler property and retaining rainwater for my garden. The green space adds to green space, literally.
Cities need more green space, less urban-heat-island hardscape, and they also need help preventing flood surges on big rain days. Homeowners can provide all of these, with native habitat for the birds and animals. There’s already ecological census data indicating that cities are beginning to be beneficial environments for many species, and not just skunks and raccoons!
If you have a driveway that could stand converting over from hot and ugly old asphalt to something a little more cool and welcoming, don’t hesitate to reach out. I’m here to help!
I enjoy looking after the birds out back, where I feed the house sparrows and any other bird that comes by in winter. It’s good to have a garden that produces food for birds, but water is just as important as food in the winter. My pond is what makes my backyard home to so many creatures besides myself.But I also put the pond to bed when winter comes.
With the onset of truly cold weather, with snow on the ground that sticks around, water is pretty much everywhere — in solid or powdered form. Birds don’t do as well as dogs and humans at eating snow for water, so that makes it hard for our furry and feathered friends to get enough to drink. In fact, in winter, birds can suffer even more from lack of water than from lack of food.
Don’t feel guilty if this might not have occurred to you already. Even after creating a proper backyard habitat, it still took me years to provide them this basic need in winter.
(For those few lucky enough to have a solarium, their roofs are great for melting snow, giving you a real view of the birds that drink from it.)
I used to put out a dish outside the patio door (see image above). I cleaned and refilled it when needed. If you use this method, I should warn you: terracotta is ruined by freezing – the dish will crack and flake.
Then one day, I had the brilliant idea of how to make a heated water source with things I had on hand, in under 5 minutes (once all objects were located). And when you get to the bottom of this post, you’ll know why this is very timely, indeed!
Window crashes, also known as bird strikes, kill millions of birdswith *every* migration.You might not think it happens to your windows, but it does, and you’re not there to witness it. But we can stop it entirely.
I was in Toronto this week. The Corktown Common park was a joy to visit. It has a constructed wetland that they seeded well with native species. It has reeds, duckweed, and native water fleur-de-lys, making it a wonderful habitat for birds. I only wish it were larger, but that it is so accessible to wandering humans means they have a chance to see nature they won’t otherwise see. It whets the appetite for the real thing!
On the walk to the park, we also saw a lone swan nesting, or resting, by the viaduct. It was strange to see that in a “no-man’s-land” off the eastern part of downtown, but as always, it was welcome. I also saw a red-wing blackbird feeding his nestlings. Or, more like, I saw him arrive with food, heard the cacophony of chirps, and then saw him fly off to get more.
There’s a newly constructed glass building in the new West Don Lands area that used bird-friendly glass, with dots impregnated into the glass every 8-10 cm (ideally, though, it should be every 5 cm). Birds need to see that the reflective glass is not “air to fly through,” so interruptions or obstructions in the reflected light are necessary.
Toronto is in the middle of a flyway. Though we need to carry out bird-friendly design (and leaving some places alone to be wild) everywhere, Toronto recognizes its problem, and since 2010, Toronto has mandated bird-friendly glass on all new construction. The official design guidelines are here.
This is a long-running “lifestyle” blog about the pleasures of living like a farm kid in an urban context. There’s a big focus on ecology and wildlife because this has brought me joy – and this is also the greatest potential we have of restoring some balance to nature where we live.
I write practical content for people to do little projects that basically make things beautiful, but also support climate readiness (energy efficiency, heat reduction, drought tolerance, flood prevention, and more). I’m a relentlless promoter of having a live-and-let-live attitude towards biodiversity.
Comments and questions are welcome! And if you’re anywhere near the Montreal region, you can also use my “Rewilding” service to landscape your property using native plants, convert to a green driveway, and prevent your windows from killing birds.
