Rare or familiar, they’re all welcome sights in the garden

A great article about birds and their vital role as gardeners in our gardens (“Winged and Welcomed,” by Emily Green, Feb. 19). I especially appreciated the “Do’s and Don’ts,” and the idea of layering a birdbath with pebbles.

I just love to hear bird songs and sounds. Apart from the nightly arias of the mockingbird not far from my bedroom window, I love the lilting song of the finch as it grows in crescendo until it explodes. It is so joyous!

Barbara Kowalski

Alhambra

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Build it and they will come. Mallards come to my swimming pool from time to time. You were fortunate to see a heron in your yard.

I have a hedge of bottlebrush bushes that attracts many kinds of birds, including the Western tanager. Rufous hummingbirds swarm around it like flies.

Grace Hampton

Burbank

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It is amazing that one would have “flocks of ... yellow crown kinglets” sweeping through their garden. They are not very common in the lowlands, as far as I understand. I have never seen golden-crowns here, though the ruby-crowns are a common sight in my garden. Still, there were many good thoughts and philosophies in the article.

Re the list of jasmines (“Teasing Apart the Jasmine Vines,” Feb. 5): I was quite disappointed. J. angulare deserves to be better known for its different fragrance, different blooming schedule and more controllable size. And my Stephanotis was positively downcast to learn it wasn’t quite thriving; it thought that vining up my chimney and blooming every summer without attention was a good imitation anyway.

Michael Zarky

Moorpark