At long last

As a bird photographer and bird lover, it is my objective to lure birds to our backyard. Feeders are the obvious choice, but the feed can be pricey. Much more natural, if you disregard the initial price tag, is planting trees and shrubs for birds. For years, I'd been longing to get a serviceberry. Everything about them seems perfect: Their spring blossoms are beautiful, their nectar feeds insects, their fall foliage is attractive, and birds and people savor their berries.
There was one problem, though. We had no space to plant another shrub without removing something else. Last November, we finally had our silver maple removed. Not only did its shallow roots grow too close to our patio, but the tree itself was so vulnerable to storms that we feared it might fall onto our house or car some day. Lesson learned: Don't plant a tree that has shallow roots.
On Saturday, we set out to buy a serviceberry. Luckily, the selection was much better than years ago. The nurseries seem to carry more native plants than they used to and our biggest problem was what size shrub we wanted to buy. The smallest ones were quite inexpensive and would have fit into our car, but they would take years to mature. We settled on a medium sized shrub (about eight feet) that will hopefully bear fruit this year or next year. Will we attract cedar waxwings with this shrub? We shall see.