Nature Scoop November 2022
Dark-eyed Junco in Leaves in My Yard
Good news: An all-solar powered Florida town with native landscaping along their roads, located 12 miles from Fort Myers, was hit by near-category 5 Hurricane Ian. Afterwards, residents had water, electricity, internet and no major damage like the surrounding areas did. The storm waters stayed out of their homes and in their specially designed roads landscaped with native plants with deep tap roots soaking up the storm water. A reader, Alli, has a relative who lives there. Learn more and be inspired.
In recognition of Thanksgiving, I want to thank you for caring for wildlife in your yard and helping others to do the same. Conservation isn't something that can only be practiced in natural areas, but can and should be done right in our own yards. If we are planting native plants, adding water, avoiding chemicals and removing invasive plants in our yards (no matter what the size), we are practicing conservation at home. We are creating food, water, cover and places to raise young sustainably. We have the opportunity to watch plants bloom, see wildlife up close and personal, learn new things and enjoy our yards throughout the seasons. I started gardening for wildlife with native plants in 2002, and my yard became certified by the National Wildlife Federation in 2003. If you want your yard to become certified, click here.
In spite of having a tiny, postage-stamp sized yard, I immediately noticed a difference in the abundance and diversity of wildlife as I started adding native plants. It was and is so exciting. Here's my video reminiscing about seeing my yard's wildlife habitat visitors from when I first started creating the habitat. Since then, I have grown my gardens to contain 90 species of native plants that bloom from early spring (spring ephemerals) to late fall. I'm looking forward to my 20-year anniversary next year. After all these years, I still see new kinds of wildlife appear simply by looking out my window. Take pride in all the wildlife you save in your yard. Enjoy your yard every day. Thank you for saving native plants. Happy Thanksgiving.
- Winterize Your Yard for Wildlife
- Fall Habitat Maintenance
- Put down the rake: keep next year's butterflies and other wildlife that overwinters in leaves. Leave the leaves - place whole leaves underneath trees and in your garden for cover. We put leaves from the lawn on a plastic tarp and pull them to the areas where they can pile up, such as underneath my trees and bushes in the backyard where there is no lawn
- If necessary, mulch excess leaves on the lawn with your mower and leave in the lawn for fertilizer
- Make repairs to birdhouses in preparation for keeping bluebirds, chickadees, nuthatches and other birds that roost nightly in them warm and safe
- Plant evergreens for cover near birdhouses and birdbaths
- Birds require clean water year-round. Keep water moving as long as possible. Then put in a heating element or replace with a heated birdbath. Fill with a bucket
- Increase the number of bird feeders because birds increase food consumption as the temperature drops
- Feed birds high-fat foods such as black-oil sunflower seed chips (without the shell) and suet
- Save fall pruning and pile it in a corner organized into a brush pile for birds or a larger brush pile for wildlife to create cover, if regulations allow
- Cover bare soil with leaves. Thick mats of leaves provide a good insulating blanket for your perennial beds, but break them up before growth starts in spring. Dispose of leaves along stream banks because they will smother ground-cover plants whose roots are holding the soil in place
- As leaves decompose, nutrients seep into your soil, and the cover allows for greater water retention
- Winterize Your Earth-Minded Rain Barrel video
- Put an insulating layer of leaves over your compost or put the compost on garden beds to decompose over winter
- Please throw plastic, trash and other debris into your trash to keep it out of your street gutter. The street gutter leads into the storm drain, which then goes into our streams and rivers, polluting our drinking water. Keep leaves out of your street gutter because so many additional leaves in our waterways cause a loss of oxygen and too much nitrogen, which is harmful to wildlife
- If you use a rain barrel, disconnect it and reconnect the downspout. Position the downspout so that it carries rainwater away from your foundation
- Clean leaves from your roof gutter. Not only can clogged gutters cause water damage to your home, but they also release nutrients that harm our streams when leaves and leachate are washed into storm drains
- Leave plants standing until spring
- Nuts for Wildlife
- In fall, invasive bushes (Honeysuckle, Privet, Burning Bush, etc) remain green after the native plants are losing their leaves, so it's easy to see these invaders. Cut the invasive bush off at ground level and cover it with cardboard or plastic. Plant a native bush in its place in spring
- Don't Get Fooled by the Fall Colors of Evergreen Trees
- Remove Bagworm sacks from your trees (usually on evergreens, but occasionally on some deciduous trees) after bird migration is over, put them in soapy water and throw them in the trash - they resemble pine cones, so look closely
- A Coyote Is In Your Backyard. What Should You Do? Remove garbage and pet food outdoors, clean around the grill, keep cats and small dogs inside unless you have them on a leash, close trash bins tightly using a bungee cord if needed. Clap your hands and shout to scare the Coyote away. If it doesn't stay away, install motion-detectors that make sound (voices), squirt water and/or turn on lights
- Scan the road ahead while driving in dusk and dawn when deer are visibly active (Oct-Dec in Ohio), and put on high beams when traffic is not oncoming to avoid a car crash
- As leaves fall from trees, it's easy to see birds and other wildlife and much easier to take photos of them. Try shooting pictures through your windows
Please send your backyard conservation educational event with a link the month prior to the registration deadline (e.g. May 1 for June issue)
- Would you please email me if your group would like to schedule a ZOOM presentation by a National Wildlife Federation certified Habitat Ambassador at no cost?
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