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Planting for Bluebirds (Part 1)Date: Wed, 14 Mar 2001 20:26:39 EST what would be a good variation to plant for the visitors ?? thanks ed Date: Wed, 14 Mar 2001 21:14:34 -0600 (CST) Estew- Depending on what your 20 is (location), North or South of the Mason Dixon, East or West of the Rockies or the Mighty Mississippi, in New England, or the Banana Belt of the Northwest, this will be a deciding factor on planting for wildlife and avian creatures. Most States have Agriculture Extension, or Natural Resource Departments that have publications that address planting for birds and wildlife in your area / Some States have "Wildlife Bundles" that consist of seedlings for wildlife at reduced rates / Often State Universities also are a good resource for info on plantings that are suggested for conditions of your locality. Temperature extremes, rainfall, winter hardiness, etc. come into play.
"ONE FLEW OVER THE CUCKOO'S NEST AND FOUND THE BLUEBIRD OF HAPPINESS" "HAPPY BIRDING" http://www.homestead.com/BLUEBIRDSOVERAMERICA/BLUEBIRDS.html Date: Mon, 04 Jun 2001 23:23:01 -0500 I have to report that my BB pair started on building their second nest yesterday! She is working a bit faster than the first nest. Think she is got the swing of it now. hee I seen 2 of the 3 baby BB fledglings today they were perched on our old tv antenna w/ their Dad. It is the first time I have seen them out of the trees. I do believe all 3 are alive n well. They haven't come to the mealy feeder the the parents eat at. Which isn't the typical BB feeder they don't like the enclosed feeder I keep trying to teach them to use it, but it never works out. I want to get them used to it before the season is out. I want to keep them around in the winter. Winter...that brings me to a question I wanted to ask...What would be good plantings for food for the BB's in the winter for zone 5? I live in NorthCentral Indiana on the Eastern side. I want to try n keep the BB's in my yard, but don't want things that other birds are going to drive the passive BB off. I bet that is going to be a difficult thing to really do. Joleen in Indiana Date: Tue, 5 Jun 2001 06:32:18 -0500 Joleen writes: "What would be good plantings for food for the BB's in the winter for zone 5? I live in NorthCentral Indiana on the Eastern side." Hi Joleen, holly bushes are the greatest. I had Bluebirds to stay last winter and they loved the holly berries. I'm planting more this year. I've also heard they like the Rose of Sharon. Dottie, Brown County, Indiana Date: Tue, 05 Jun 2001 11:25:39 -0500 Joleen and all, At the Minnesota Bluebird Recovery Program conference this year and last year, chokeberry bushes were sold to be planted for Bluebirds. Mine haven't produced any berries yet, but we were told that the birds love them. This year they also sold cranberry bushes, so I planted some of them too. Mary Roen, River Falls, WI Date: Tue, 12 Jun 2001 00:15:03 EDT Hi Joleen and all, Linda - Ind. Use what talents you possess, From: "From Laura" from_laura"at"hotmail.com Hello, I am fixing up an area behind my mother's house to hopefully attract bluebirds. It was completely overgrown with high weeds and was very "snakey" last summer. I would like to plant some type of ground cover that will perhaps mimic a prairie cover where the bluebirds will be able to hunt. I was advised not to go with fescue grass as it encourages
Japanese Beetles (my mom has roses and I have finally convinced
her not to nuke her yard). Also, I would prefer not to go with
something that we would need to mow. We live in central North
Carolina. Incidentally, whenever I am out clearing and raking
a flock of bluebirds come and flutter all around the house that
I put up. They seem to notice that the area is slowly becoming
a good habitat for them. From: "Fawzi P. Emad femad <at> fpemad <dot> com To Laura and all. I am sorry I don't know much about ground
cover, but I want to say that if you have snakes in the area,
you really need to make sure the snakes will not be able to
climb up to the nest and eat the eggs or babies. I think it
is best to use metal posts (3/4" EMT conduit) in combination
with a stove pipe predator guard (8" dia. by 24" long.)
If you need more details about this, please let me know... From: Birderinkansas"at"aol.com
I can't really tell you what grass will mimic a prairie region in NC (in general, there's brome, bluestem, dropseed, Indian grass, switch grass...). Your best bet would be to contact your extension agent. They will know exactly what you need to do, & *may* even recommend things for you. As far as Japanese beetles, they are attracted more to a lush, well fertilized yard than just tall fescue. They do have a preference for cool season grasses like fescues, but those are one of only two types of lawn grass (warm & cool season), so you're better off easing up on the fertilizer & keeping the grass strong & healthy than trying to plant around the beetles. Hope this helps! James Y. From: Keith & Sandy Kridle, txbluebirder"at"sbcglobal.net Keith Kridler Mt. Pleasant, Texas It is good to use native plants in your yard but in some areas like southern California they had NO native fruit or berry producing bushes, vines, shrubs or trees that provided the birds with a reliable moisture source or food during the summer. Of the major crops grown in the US from 1800 > 1920 only tobacco and Indian corn were native. In 1870 the US government was distributing seeds, seedlings, or cuttings of more than 140 plants, bushes and trees from all over the world that the average farmer could grow and produce either cooking oil or lamp oil for home use as they already knew the whales, seals, hogs and fur industry could not keep producing enough fat and oil for expanding human populations! In this one year alone the US sent Russia over 4,000 different plants in exchange for over 1,600 of their native plants. We shipped Russia more than 190 different grasses in 1870 from the Great Plains used by foraging American Bison who ironically were to be exterminated in the wild in just 7 more years! By 1870 there was a thriving industry in South Carolina producing Tea leaves from trees imported from China, Japan and six other countries! They list more than 100 other plants you could get from the US plant research stations to grow for producing tea or beverages. Many of the research stations were at colleges and those in Southern California were busy importing every known plant and tree from Australia, the deserts of Africa, Asia and Turkey! They devote more than twenty pages on the best varieties of opium poppies imported from different countries and the best states to grow them and how to harvest the raw opium! They even list an untried plant from South America called coca that produces a very stimulating substance they called cocaine! By 1870 private nursery's in just two states, Indiana and Illinois were annually shipping more than 150 million trees, many of them were imported or tested and then recommended by our government. In contrast it was not until 1930 that the US governments state sponsored/funded tree farms produced 150 million trees annually! The US government along with all the other governments of the world were working at a dizzying pace to exchange plants, insects, birds and animals and release them all around the world. MANY of the "native" plants and insects that we see are REALLY not native at all! We have just forgotten they were brought into this country! One of the top plant research stations in the US at this time was Cornell University! They were busy importing grapes and fruit trees and plants from areas around the world with similar climates to their location. Every state research station was working at importing plants from overseas in areas very similar to their growing conditions. The government and some states paid a bounty annually to individuals or companies who imported and grew certain plants that were clearly "superior" to normal species, clones or hybrids already being grown. These bounties were usually in excess of $1,000. At this time you could hire "skilled" adult labor for less than $1 a day and "skilled" child laborers were to be had for less than 25 cents for a 12>16 hour day. There was a huge incentive to those traveling abroad to bring back seeds, cuttings and other materials. The population of the USA in 1870 was just over 38 million people with just over 320,000 immigrants coming into the country in 1869. 40% of these 38 million had at least one parent who had been born in a foreign country. (Remember at this time getting married at 15 years old was not unusual!) It is interesting to note that once again in 1869 less than 23,000 immigrants settled either south or west of the Potomac river! The southern and western states were unable to entice new immigrants to cheap land away from those high paying factory jobs in the New England states. KK From: judymellin, judymellin"at"netzero.net "Keith Kridler Mt. Pleasant, Texas: It is good to use native plants in your yard but in some areas like southern California they had NO native fruit or berry producing bushes, vines, shrubsor trees that provided the birds with a reliable moisture source or food during the summer." This statement confuses me because I am not sure of any area of the country that has native plants that produce fruit or berries in the summer. In 1992, I attended a presentation by Dr. Chris Whelan, then Behavioral Ecologist at the Morton Arboretum in Lisle, IL.(he is now with the Medewin National Tallgrass Prairie Restoration at the site of the former Joliet Arsenal) titled Bird and Plant Interaction. Here are some of his comments: "Birds and plants exhibit diffuse convolution, that is, plants respond evolutionarily to various bird species. Fruits mature in fall to coincide with bird migration. Fruits want to be eaten so that seeds can be disbursed away from the mother plant to prevent competition." I cannot imagine that this is a Midwest phenomenon so I can only conclude that native plants everywhere do not set mature fruit of berries until fall that is then available to migrating birds. We do have a native strawberry that matures early and our native prairie develops a hip that doesn't really ripen until later in the season but both of these precede migration. I believe there is also a strawberry native to So. Cal. and a native rose so these might be exception there, too. Judy Mellin, NE IL From: MJShearer, eshearer"at"comcast.net Sent: Thursday, December 04, 2003 8:00 PM Subject: Re: Native plants I can't imagine where you got the idea that fruits only mature in fall to coincide with migration. I don't know about northern plants, but I know southern native plants begin producing fruits and berries in the Spring and continue through the fall. Each has it's season. Plants tend to bloom and produce fruit earlier in the South where the growing season is longer. Think: dewberries, blackberries, plums, cherries, to name but a few. MJ Mary Jane Shearer; Tucker, GA From: Gary Springer, springer"at"alltel.net Keith's post describes how exotic plants, not to mention their host bacteria, viruses, insects and other hitch-hiking exotic organisms, had been spread in large quantities to North America since the 1800's. This spread of species to North America at human hands actually began well before the 1800's. The colonists were importing millions of tons of products, plants and materials not only from Europe but also from places as far off as China where they shipped ginseng harvested in the American forests in payment for millions of tons of all sorts of finished goods, raw materials, seeds and living plants, all of which made their way onto the colonists farms freshly carved into primeval forests. And, it is also finally becoming recognized that the oceans are not impenetrable borders that prevent the spread of species from continent to continent without mans' assistance. The belief that man is the only species capable of traversing the oceans seems to be rooted in egocentricity. This by C. B. Heiser, 1990: "The bottle gourd cannot be considered an indigenous plant of North America; its entry could have been as a weed, with or without human aid. The possibility even exists that it came to Florida by ocean currents from South America " Because plants and animals were traversing the oceans before man constructed his first boat, using man's written history as a guide to classify species as to exotic or indigenous can not yield accurate classifications. To be meaningful, when using exotic to describe a species it is necessary to also state a time period. Many of the plants in North America which we call indigenous simply because they were here when the colonists arrived actually originated on other continents and had made the trip to this continent eons before man. Yes, man did expedite the spread of species from continent to continent, but, the introduction of all species to all parts of the globe was inevitable with or without man. Lets not forget that we ourselves are by far the most invasive and destructive exotic species on the continent. If exotic means bad or useless, what does that say about you. As intelligent exotic creatures I believe we should use more objective criteria to classify a plant or animal species as beneficial or harmful than a guess about its place of origin, its time of arrival to North America, or its mode of transportation. Gary Springer From: Keith & Sandy Kridler, txbluebirder"at"sbcglobal.net Mary Jane mentioned some good summer fruits. The new hybrid blackberries and boysenberries will produce ALL summer now. In the north and east there were raspberries, blueberries and cherry trees were one of the must numerous trees east of the Mississippi. Many of the holly's hold their berries on the plants until early summer. You also have to remember that birds and animals don't wait until many fruits are ripe and nuts and acorns are eaten when half matured. Trees and plants ripen seeds and fruits at different times at different elevations even in the same county. Elm tree seeds ripen very early in April in our area and wild plum thickets are filled with birds and animals in early summer to eat this wormy fruit. Figs produce for three or four months depending on the variety. Don't forget one of the very best fruit trees for birds is the Mulberry. Many of these are not really native to all parts of eastern states but on large properties you should include many different species of fruit producing trees and vines that people like for if the birds miss some of the fruit you might even get a bite or two every couple of years:-))) Don't forget to plant some of the tiny cherry tomato's for the birds especially in the dryer parts of the country! Keith Kridler Mt. Pleasant Texas From: MJShearer, eshearer"at"comcast.net Just to clarify things, native plants are species that were growing on this continent before the colonists arrived. These plants evolved over time and are uniquely adapted to the climate and conditions of the area where they naturally occur, which usually makes them hardier plants that are more resistant to drought, disease, insects -- and even fires. Many alien plants are beneficial food sources and provide other benefits to the environment; but when ornamentals hybridize and escape to the wild, they can crowd out common native plants, depriving threatened species of their habitat. Invasive aquatics can clog waterways, disrupt groundwater flow, and degrade water quality. Non-invasive alien plants may require more water and pesticides to survive in regions where they did not originate, and their natural defenses may not protect them from disease in a new environment. Invasive plants don't have to come from another country. Native plants from one part of a country can be invasive when introduced to another part of the same country. Any time we tinker with nature, we should think long and hard about what *could* happen, whether it's flora or fauna we're relocating. We only have to think of kudzu and English ivy shrouded trees and power lines -- and of course, HOSPS and starlings. The fact that birds like the fruit of a plant may simply serve as means of widespread distribution of the seed. If a plant is disease, drought, cold and pest resistant; if it self propagates and grows fast -- beware! It could become invasive. We can't control plants that arrive on wind or ocean currents, but we can be more ecologically responsible when we choose our landscaping plants. Think before you plant. Do you really want *thousands* of that thing you're so carefully adding to your landscape? MJ Mary Jane Shearer; Tucker, GA From: Linda Violett, lviolett"at"earthlink.net Judy is correct; nature provided dry So. Calif. with its own set of fruits (including grapes) and flowers (roses). Our varieties are drought resistant and tend to be smaller than the imported versions. Because residents of So. Calif. can literally grow just about anything from anywhere and at anytime, we do exactly that. Thus, our natives are being cast off as second-hand "weeds." When water rationing kicks in big-time, I'm hoping enough local specimens have been collected and preserved by foresighted individuals. I'm trying to do my part; yesterday I was digging up (with permission) native plants from areas scheduled to be bulldozed. Today I was purchasing rare native plants (which are becoming rarer). Plants are highly specialized to serve specific areas; milkweeds necessary for butterflies in my area flyway can be poisonous to butterflies in other states .... , go to Las Palitas Nursery web page: and then look under "M" and scroll to "Milkweeds" and read the warning about not using these plants outside California. Linda Violett - Yorba Linda, Calif. From: Keith & Sandy Kridler, txbluebirder"at"sbcglobal.net There are 723 species of butterflies documented in North America. 294 of these can be found in just three counties of Texas in the far southern end of the Rio Grande Valley. There are more species of butterflies in this tiny area of South Texas than in entire states such as Florida and nearly as many as are found in the entire state of California. Moths are the overlooked plain clothed cousins of butterflies and they provide food for most of the cavity nesters we will attract to our nestboxes. The many of the caterpillars we see the bluebirds, titmice and chickadees carrying to their young are the larva of moths or butterflies. The key to attracting either native or imported butterflies or moths to your yard and thus creating more food for your birds is planned bio-diversity in your yard or neighborhood. Plant a plum tree and you attract tent caterpillars, fall web worms, leaf miner and leaf rollers (all moths) and maggots that infest the fruit along with many, many other leaf munching or bark boring, root eating, nectar drinking insect species. Plant ANY species or hybrid grape and you provide food to attract another whole class of birds, animals, insects, fungus and molds and mildews! Any species or variety of corn attracts a whole host of new insect types from aphids to cut worms, silk and corn eating worms (baby moths) as this is a species of grass. Bamboo is grass also. To really attract a whole host of insects, birds, animals, rust, fungus, nematodes and diseases, go and buy some of all of the seeds for a normal garden. Mix them all together for a summer and fall planting mix and then plant them in a tilled area in one of your flower beds or along the edge of your garden and don't use ANY chemical! You will find that these grains and vegetables that were brought to this country from every part of the world each have HUNDREDS of species of birds, insects, animals, that we can see with the naked eye that will feast on them. Just TRY to grow a single head of lettuce or cabbage hidden in your yard and NOT have moths or butterflies find it and lay eggs on it! By the way lettuce is an imported "milkweed"! I have had a lot of people write to me off list this week now wondering if they should plant ANYTHING since they don't know if it is native or non-native, invasive or non-invasive! I am sitting watching a flock of several hundred cedar waxwings stripping the six "Killer trees" in my front yard of fruit which were formally known as "Bradford Pears". Each one of us needs to be planting enough long lived trees to absorb all the carbon dioxide our cars and heating systems are producing. We need to be planting ANYTHING that produces food for other species in our area. Measure the area your house, driveway and other structures cover up at home and at work and plant this much area in food plots for insects (in other words plant a complete garden as large as your house and driveway:-))). If you can buy it from a catalog or nursery or garden center then it is already widespread in this country and legal to plant. Every large tree in America is going to blow down or be cut down someday! If you are sleeping under it or parking your car under it, when it falls something will get hurt! ... Keith Kridler Mt. Pleasant, Texas From: Gary Springer, springer"at"alltel.net An off list response has caused me to attempt to clarify my writing. The purpose of my two previous posts was to show the fallacy of the commonly held belief that without exception, exotic means unnatural, which in turn means invasive, which obviously means "bad:. There are several examples of exotic plants which, at present, the preponderance of evidence suggests most other indigenous species and man would be better off had they not been introduced. But: 1) Their introduction may have occurred by now without the aid of man with the same result. 2) The idea of a pure, static, and indigenous landscape never existed. 3) There are more constructive ways to invest in conservation than fighting unwinable wars with these plants. 4) To suggest that all exotic plants have negative consequences is like saying all plants are poisonous because eating some plants will cause death. 5) Many exotic species actually help man make less of a negative impact on the environment. Exotic plants that have large, nutritious fruits and seeds enable us to feed ourselves and wildlife while cultivating less of the land mass. Exotic trees that grow more rapidly enable us to permit more natural forests to remain forever wild. "Plant native plants" is an easy formula to use to determine which plants to grow in a landscape. The results you achieve if you use this formula may be politically correct among some shortsighted conservationists, but they may not be the best alternative for many different objectives including feeding and providing cover for wildlife. In closing, I agree that it would have been nice had we made less of an impact on the natural order of life on North America. But, what was and what is are two different things. I too feel good about seeing indigenous plants occupying the landscape. I can however appreciate the benefit to wildlife of even some very aggressive plants. Even kudzu, one of the most hated exotic plants in the south, is not only great food for deer, elk and buffalo and excellent cover for many other animals, but it is good for human consumption as well. And, it requires no fertilizer, erosion causing tilling to grow or pesticides to protect. The only reason kudzu and poke aren't both sold in the grocery stores is probably because if people were aware they were good food, vegetable sales and profits at southern grocery sales may plunge. When selecting plants for my property I am far more concerned about the origin of the specimen than the origin of the species. I would feel more comfortable about planting an exotic chinaberry tree or kudzu vine from a neighbors farm than an indigenous flowering dogwood which may host insect eggs or other pathogens because it came from a nursery with a plethora of live plants coming and going from all parts of the globe. Gary Springer From: judymellin, judymellin"at"netzero.net Once
again, this statement is not true. Just one example is Japanese honeysuckle. It
is sold through various nurseries that are listed readily on the Internet. Yet,
it is banned in IL. because of its invasive nature. This is information
from the IL. Nature Preserves Commission website. "Current Status From: Evelyn Cooper, emcooper"at"bayou.com I visited near the Arkubutla Wildlife Refuge in Coldwater, MS during the holiday and while there, I cringed looking at the Kudzu choking out so many trees and bushes everywhere. Where will the birds nest that did use the trees? I like Linda's way of doing things. Good work, Linda! Evelyn Cooper Delhi, LA From: Keith & Sandy Kridler, txbluebirder"at"sbcglobal.net As the bluebirds begin nesting in your area look around to see what natural fruits and berries are still available as a food source. In our area the best that I see still on the trees and bushes are:Yaupon Holly (large landscape bush), American Holly (large landscape tree) deciduous holly (medium fence row bush) Japanese Privet (good/prolific invasive fence row and woodland edge large shrub) Eastern red cedar still has berries under the trees, covering the ground. Birds (starlings) are still feeding on the berries of Chinese Tallow down at the end of our street. There are many other hollies and pyracantha that have berries still but few birds ever seem to eat them except when desperate. Anyway we had far more fruits and berries in East Texas this year than we did birds. The Bradford trees in our yard have formed a solid mass of dried/rotted fruit under them because of a lack of robins and cedar waxwings and even starlings this winter. ... From: Tina Phillips
[mailto:cbp6"at"cornell.edu] Tina Phillips From: Joe Baker [mailto:rok90"at"adelphia.net] From: Bet from CT With help from people on this listserv and others, I've compiled a list of plants that bluebirds will supposedly eat, and noted those that are confirmed. See http://www.sialis.org/plants.htm . For hollies, I only had the three you mention. If anyone has corrections/additions (including confirmations) I'd love the input. Bet from CT From: Ann Bigger [mailto:abigger"at"charter.net] From: XXX I also did a Google search for “ Michigan native plant nursery”. The following sites look promising: http://www.nohlc.org/MNPPA.htm http://www.qnet.com/~johnsonj/Natives.htm http://www.greatlakesnursery.com/ and that's just a beginning. Most states have native plant societies. For others looking for natives, a search for their state's native plant society would be a good place to start. From: Dottie Roseboom
[mailto:rosedot"at"mtco.com] From: Burnham, Barbara
[mailto:Barbara.Burnham"at"zzz.zzz] http://www.sialis.org/index.html Now if I could just find a database that would tell me what the birds like, the deer don't like, thrives in my area, is not invasive, or poisonous, or too big or too messy, with pictures in spring and fall, and don't require a green thumb, etc. etc. Barbara Burnham, Ellicott City , MD From: Jim & Ann Koehler
[mailto:jimnann"at"midwestinfo.net] From: Elizabeth Zimmerman [mailto:ezdz"at"charter.net] Sent: Tuesday, August 17, 2004 1:33 PM Subject: Note sent to NABs on educational materials I sent this note into NABS (on one of my pet peeve topics). By the way, the packet did have some other neat stuff in it - including a word game, instructions for a musical nesting game, children's coloring pages, and directions to make a bluebird mobile. **************** Yes, bluebirds may eat fruits from invasive plants. One of the reasons their populations have exploded is precisely because birds eat the fruit and then disperse the seeds when they defecate. But these aliens can cause serious ecological harm, taking over whole habitats and choking out native species. Bluebird enthusiasts should go with native plants whenever possible--they are more likely to thrive anyway. (An exception would be poison ivy for obvious reasons.) Bet Zimmerman From: Keith & Sandy Kridler [mailto:txbluebirder"at"sbcglobal.net] The second berry shown is probably the Multiflora rose. In the days before herbicides is was considered invasive because this "wild" rose makes a very large bush that has very sharp thorns and horse and mule drawn plows could not get close enough to the main roots to "grub" out the thorny problem. As we switched to tractors for plowing then the long limbs of the rose bush would reach out and rip the clothes of the people on the tractors. Today, when most farmers own herbicide sprayers and they own front end loaders for their tractors they simply eliminate the rose bushes from their farm land and fence rows. Historically the Multiflora rose was used as the hardy root stock that hybrid Tea roses and flora-bunda roses were grafted to since the multiflora was more resistant to disease and insect pests and more vigorous growing. When the hybrid rose died it often left the root stock alive and this species of rose comes up easily from seed. Birds of MANY species rate this as one of the best tasting fruits or berries and by eating the fruits with seeds inside they often spread them miles away as they migrate. Multiflora roses were planted in highway medians to stop traffic from crossing from a divided highway and entering the oncoming traffic. They were rated as the MOST efficient and safest material to stop a car and do the least amount of damage to the car or occupants. It takes up to 10 years for a single rose bush to reach full maturity from seeds or cutting. These roses have been used as living fences and will keep in the most rambuncous farm animals. In spring the new growth shoots up through old dead thorny limbs and makes a large rounded ball (it can be 8 feet tall and 15 feet wide!) of bright green leaves and is covered in white flowers about the size and shape of a small blackberry blossom. It is an excellent food source for honey bees and insects because it produces vast quantities of pollen and nectar for several weeks. From a distance when in bloom it looks like you threw a white sheet over a Volkswagen Beetle During summer the thorny bushes are used by many species of birds to nest in because the thorns make it impossible for cats, raccoons, fox, possums ETC to climb up to the nests. Only snakes are able to crawl through these thorns to find the nests. In fall/winter the berries ripen and the birds flock to the berries stripping the top berries first and then birds like bluebirds, mockingbirds and thrashers will enter the thick bushes to feed on the "hidden" berries. The rose bush is deciduous and the open limbs allow small birds to fly into the heart of the bush at high speed while preventing cooper or sharp shinned hawks from pursuing their dinner through the limbs like they do with thornless trees and bushes. These bushes provide excellent food and cover for most rodents and rabbits and quail especially benefit from this plant. We moved to Texas in 1964 and entire fence lines were lined with these roses. Forty years later, I don't have a SINGLE rose bush ANYWHERE along ANY of my bluebird trails. Larry Zeleny said that the Multiflora rose in Maryland was the BEST plant for bluebirds. It offered food most of the winter, Starlings would strip the top berries in fall leaving the berries down inside the thick bushes for the bluebirds. Bluebirds could feed in safety inside the thorn covered limbs and some of these berries stayed on till early spring for emergency food. Unlike Bradford pears, Cherry Laurels, Eastern Red cedar, Hackberry (other good bluebird food producers) which are often destroyed by ice storms the Multiflora rose bushes easily survive any storm. KK From: Deb Cohen Hi Cher -- finally something I know something about -- that is, invasive species and biodiversity. Maybe the multiflora rose isn't a problem in Texas, but certianly in the east it is considered highly invasive. In fact, the Invasive Plants Council of New York State http://www.ipcnys.org/pages/top_20.htm has it on its primary list of invasive plants. I strongly urge seeking a second opinion before encouraging the multiflora. Yes, it does provide food for song birds, but it spreads so aggressively that it excludes other native plant species -- and that, as they say, is not a Good Thing for biodiversity. Anyway, just my two cents. ...Deb in upstate New York From: Cher [mailto:bluebirdnut"at"a-znet.com] From: Elizabeth Zimmerman [mailto:ezdz"at"charter.net] From: judymellin [mailto:judymellin"at"netzero.net] Current Status =========================== I assume it is the same status in some other states and everyone might want to check before considering any "encouragement" of this highly undesirable shrub plant. I think the easiest way to identify it is in the spring when it is the most fragrant thing around. The scent envelops you, particularly on a warm, humid morning. But, as enticing as the aroma is, this is a bad shrub that will rapidly crowd out the good plants- and the birds will spread it everywhere! Judy Mellin NE IL. From: Elizabeth Zimmerman [mailto:ezdz"at"charter.net] Keith, I have the utmost respect for your opinions and experience, but I must respond to any testimonial on the value of multiflora rose. Multiflora rose (rosa multiflora) is an INVASIVE EXOTIC and is one of the most noxious weeds in the eastern U.S. Invasive exotic plants create cause SERIOUS ECOLOGICAL HARM, taking over whole habitats, reducing biodiversity, and choking out native species. Nationwide, three million acres are lost each year to these aliens. About half of the species on the Federal Endangered Species List are there in part because of invasive species. Think of the damage to the ecosystem and economy caused by introduced birds such as house sparrows and starlings. This is not a legacy we want to leave for future generations. Multiflora rose USED to be recommended for wildlife cover and food - that is how it spread all over the U.S. It was brought over from Japan back in 1886 as a rootstock for cultivated roses. In the 1930's, the U.S. Conservation Service encouraged farmers to plant it to control soil erosion. The nursery industry also promoted the shrub as a "living fence," to control livestock. It was touted by wildlife managers as late as the 1960's as an excellent source of food and cover for wildlife. Zeleny's book was written in 1978, before many people were aware of the damage caused by invasive introduced plants. According to Underwood et al., 1996, multiflora rose now infests more than 45 million acres in the eastern U.S alone. A single, vigorous, mature plant can produce up to half a million seeds a year. Where plants become well established, a huge seed bank develops that can continue to produce seedlings for at least TWENTY YEARS after removal of mature plants. Severe infestations of this thorny, impenetrable bramble have lowered land values for agriculture, forestry, and recreation. It is now illegal to propagate or sell multiflora rose in many states. I know we've had this discussion before on the BBL, but I think it's worth emphasizing again, especially for folks new to the list. Even though birds may eat their fruit, those committed to responsible conservation and an ecosystem-sensitive approach should avoid invasive plants, and work to eradicate them if they are on your property. There are MANY native alternatives available (See www.sialis.org/plants.htm - server may down temporarily, should be back up soon.). Bet Zimmerman See Underwood, J. F., M. M. Loux, J. W. Amrine, Jr., and W. B. Bryan. 1996. Multiflora rose control. Ohio State University, Extension Bulletin No. 857. Columbus, Ohio, USA Also see info on the introduction of house sparrows at www.sialis.org/hosphistory.htm From: Keith & Sandy Kridler [mailto:txbluebirder"at"sbcglobal.net] You should ALWAYS check with your local agriculture department and follow their recommendations as to what is invasive! For example the multiflora rose issue I tried to give a general history of this plant and fully expected others to point out the invasive qualities of this plant in the northeastern states....I am West of the Mississippi and we do need to repeat these discussions on these plants as new members come and go on the list from year to year! Invasives are out of control worldwide as just in the Great Lakes a new species is showing up in the water every 8 months! Chinese Tallow in Galveston county. My niece lives there along with about 100,000 registered cars and trucks. Back about 80 years ago when this island county was "rural" 10,000 people died in ONE hurricane! Most of the county will be covered in Bermuda Grass lawns or St. Augustine grass with 6 dogs and 12 cats per acre of green stuff to welcome exhausted migrating birds that have just crossed the gulf. I have traveled the gulf coast area from Mexico to Florida and it is one big development. There are more acres of garages, driveways and parking lots in Galveston than there are acres of Chinese Tallow. There are not very many species of plants that can take the salt and the water and air pollution of the gulf coast. When warblers and other birds migrate to the gulf coasts there are not very many insects on anything in early spring on any native or non native plant in the "wild"! City yards are worse for finding insects because people spray their trees, lawns and shrubs every time a bug is seen. Just off of the coast, birds migrating through Texas are greeted with millions of acres of bare rice and sugar fields waiting to be planted for summer. Most imported plants arrived with the insects that eat them. I believe that Chinese Tallow does have insect pests and will check into that. If they do produce such high powered fruit in fall and winter then the LAST meal many fruit eating birds will have before leaving the Texas coast for that 300 mile flight will carry them 2 to 4 times further than the same weight of native fruits and berries they might have been forced to eat:-)) Just because a native tree or bush produces berries doesn't mean it will save birds in the dead of winter! Blueberries, blackberries, raspberries, mulberries, elderberries, dogwood and on and on produce berries the birds love but they are gone with the first freeze! Hundreds of thousands of acres of Chinese Tallow were planted along the gulf coast more than 100 years ago. When oil drilling got better and they refined kerosene it replaced the need for the wax from the Chinese Tallow tree. Before they piped natural gas to homes and businesses early coastal settlers cut down and burned nearly every scrap tree along the coast for cooking fuel and to heat their homes with wood. Turn off the electricity, shut off the gas and 30,000 acres of Chinese Tallow will just about cook one meal for the residents in Houston! KK From: Keith & Sandy Kridler [mailto:txbluebirder"at"sbcglobal.net] Sent: Friday, January 14, 2005 8:55 AM Subject: Re:attracting bluebirds to your feeder Keith Kridler Mt. Pleasant, Texas Early season cultivated fruits in the south that bluebirds occasionally eat are Dew Berries (wild early black berry) blackberries, elder berries and blueberries. In the north or middle states add cultivated cherries and the wild or ornamental cherries and raspberries. Many other species of birds peck any cultivated fruit that is moist or sweet which include pears, plums, peaches, grapes, tomatoes, strawberries ETC. In the south common large evergreen trees that provide food and good shelter/leaf cover for bluebirds are Eastern Red Cedar, American Holly, Foster Holly, Bradford pear (loses leaves very late, plant the different varieties as they produce fruit at different dates.), Cherry Laurel & some large junipers. Southern Magnolia feeds the larger woodpeckers as the red seeds are too large for bluebirds. Large commercially grown evergreen bushes with berries include Buford, Willow leaf, Chinese, Yaupon, Deciduous, Oregon Grape, Helleri (all of these are hollies). Wax Leaf Ligustrum, red tip photinia, all privets provide food and cover. Nandina's and "fire thorn" pyracantha provide red berries and a large clump of fire thorn is great cover but the fruits from these are seldom eaten by birds. Some Euonymus varieties provide berries. In the wild, vines provide a wide range of fruits and berries. In the south many grape varieties have escaped cultivation to climb to the tops of large trees. Virginia Creeper, Poison Ivy, Poison Oak, Cat's Claw or Greenbrier, Japanese Honey suckle and related varieties. Cultivated vines include all grapes, English Ivy and Boston Ivy. Large deciduous trees providing berries in the south are Hackberry, Chinese Tallow, cultivated cherries, Mistle Toe is a parasite that grows in large/small trees and provides food. Small deciduous trees/large bushes are dogwood, huckleberry, crab apples, sumac ( some of these are from varieties that are bushes to real trees), roses like multiflora and the wild varieties or species types. These are some off the top of my head to get started without being spell checked:-))KK From: Kathy Johnson [mailto:krj"at"patmedia.net] Sent: Friday, January 14, 2005 10:12 AM Subject: Re: attracting bluebirds to your feeder For summer or autumn fruits: For winter fruits: There is also a honeysucke bush that is not invasive. Kathy From: Humbirdhill"at"aol.com Sent: Friday, January 14, 2005 6:29 PM Subject: Re: attracting bluebirds to your feeder Great list Keith, but I must take exception with including
such invasive non-natives as Chinese privet, wax leaf ligustrum,
Chinese tallow and Japanese honeysuckle in plantings for a
state park. The native coral honeysuckle vine and
black cherry tree would be better choices and the native
hollies like yaupon and American holly that you listed would
serve the same purpose as the privet/ligustrums. You
also might include mulberry, service berry, and devil's
walking stick (Aralia spinosa). From: Evelyn Cooper [mailto:emcooper"at"bayou.com] Sent: Friday, January 14, 2005 8:50 PM Subject: Planting Shrubs And Trees For Fall And Winter Food I have gotten great help from Dottie, Hickory Hollow, Kathy Johnson, Shane, Pauline Tom, USA, Keith and Yvonne. I have done some research on Yvonne and Bet's website and all of the information from all of you is of great help. It will be compiled in categories. One thing in particular I am looking for is late winter berries. I have found two Fosteri #2 female and High Bush Cranberry. From what I read that should be one of the greatest considerations when planting for birds to make it through winter and spring. Evelyn Cooper From: Keith & Sandy Kridler [mailto:txbluebirder"at"sbcglobal.net] Sent: Monday, January 17, 2005 8:46 AM Subject: Black Gum Tree Keith Kridler Mt. Pleasant, Texas The Black gums are normally hollow trunked by the time they
reach 36" in diameter and created homes for Chimney Swifts,
bats, squirrels, coons, possums ETC. Honey hunters would cut
down these massive hollow trees to get at the bee hives and
then the old hollow trunk would provide cavities for vultures
and other animals for years to come. (A neighbor of ours cut
down These trees are slow growing and can be planted on poor soil even in flood plains. In fall the foliage turns a brilliant blood red retaining this color well after the first frost. They begin bearing fruit when they are only about 15 feet tall and are easily grown from seeds. They need sun to develop into a nicely rounded tree but are often found as tall poles in river bottoms. Another common name of this tree is the "tooth brush" tree.
This is one of the few trees that make good tooth brushes.
You take a live twig about 1/4" PS Honey bees also created cavities as they produced the first
widely available sugar and thus created cavities in teeth severely
worn by eating "stone ground" flour. Christopher
Columbus and company introduced and grew sugar cane in the
Caribbean in the 1500's but this sugar went back to Europe.
In the sugar cane clumps Mr. Columbus brought from the "Old
world" From: Paula [mailto:PaulaZ"at"columbus.rr.com] Sent: Monday, January 17, 2005 11:53 AM Subject: Re: When planting for wildlife Lynn et al, We have Bradford Pears lining our street. We live in central
Ohio. I was the one that founded this little tree planting
project about 15 years ago. The amount of fruit born by these trees is absolutely phenomenal
IMO. Cedar Waxwings and American Robins are seen enjoying these
fruits frequently. I would have no qualms about planting these trees for wildlife where they can't do damage when they go. They are beautiful trees. They are the last to lose their burgundy red foliage in the fall, they have beautiful white blossoms in the spring (stinky though), and they have beautiful shiny green foliage throughout the growing season, bearing LOTS of little pears for birds and wildlife in the fall/winter. I view landscaping as a dynamic art any way. When these trees are gone, I will replace them with something else. Paula Z From: Dottie Roseboom [mailto:rosedot"at"mtco.com] Sent: Monday, January 17, 2005 12:37 PM Subject: Re: When planting for wildlife Paula's observation on the Bradford Pear tree is exactly what
the nurseries here are saying. A friend of mine loves these
trees and several years ago, selected 20 sites on her farm
that are wind protected and away from outbuildings. She plants
a small pear tree at one of the sites each year. Perhaps she'll be lucky, and she'll have to select 5 more
sites before the Dottie Roseboom From: judymellin [mailto:judymellin"at"netzero.net] Sent: Monday, January 17, 2005 7:50 PM Subject: Re: When planting for wildlife Rather than making recommendations that may or may not work in a given location, I would suggest checking with your local County Extension Service where there are likely Master Gardeners to advise what is best planted in your area. They will know which plants will thrive and also which are banned in your area. Here in IL., it is illegal to sell/plant several species including Japanese honeysuckle, purple loosestrife (unless the plants are sterile) and European buckthorn. I would hope it would be easier to make a decision based on knowing what will do best where you are located AND what will attract the birds. Those of us lucky enough to have a botanic garden in the area have it very easy but a Master Gardener is an excellent source for everyone. Judy Mellin From: Keith & Sandy Kridler [mailto:txbluebirder"at"sbcglobal.net] Sent: Tuesday, January 18, 2005 8:51 AM Subject: Trimming Bradford pears Keith Kridler Mt. Pleasant, Texas a cool 22*F again this morning Pears are not native to North America according to my old
agriculture books. The species pear is called a Calorie pear, which has the really nasty smelling white blooms early in spring and the tiny fruit about the size of a marble in late fall /early winter that wildlife relish. "Bradford" pear is simply a form of Calorie pear that bloomed a little more profusely and was selected, named and propagated and sold in nurseries. Since that time there have been dozens of other selections of Calorie pears one is Aristocrat another Cleveland, each supposedly better than the last selection and normally about $10 more for the better names:-)) Five gallon sizes of "Bradford" run about $89.00 here. You can grow 4 feet tall Calorie pears from seed in one summer. Each is supposed to be longer lived and more resistant to fire blight (they are NOT) but nearly all have the standard 15>25 year life. All pears tend to put vertical limbs out profusely. When the trees are fairly young simply cut out most of the upright limbs and begin selecting the stronger horizontal limbs for your main tree. Every two years trim off the vertical suckers that come up from your main limbs and you can form a very nice open limbed "Bradford" that is more wind and ice resistant. KK From: eindians [mailto:eindians"at"zoominternet.net] Crystal, Evan From: Snoopy [mailto:snoopy"at"wmis.net] From: Dottie Roseboom [mailto:rosedot"at"mtco.com] Sent: Monday, January 24, 2005 2:40 PM Subject: Invasive Plants A few weeks ago, we were discussing plants to attract wildlife. It was mentioned that some very productive landscapes were invasive. Today, I received a USDA paperback "Invasive Plants of
Asian Origin Established in the United States and Their Natural
Enemies". Some 50 plants, their pictures, description, habitat, economic importance, and natural enemies are listed. Most of the biological control consists of fungi & bugs. There are approximately 50,000 non-native invasive plant & animal species in the USA, costing about $138 billion per year, according to Pimental (2000). Perhaps, as responsible Bluebird landlords, we should strive to do our part in controlling invasive species. Dottie Roseboom From: Keith & Sandy Kridler [mailto:txbluebirder"at"sbcglobal.net] Sent: Friday, February 11, 2005 8:09 AM Subject: Chinese Photinia Keith Kridler Mt. Pleasant, Texas Yesterday morning there was a flock of several hundred Cedar Waxwings stripping the berries from a couple of these large bushes at the end of my street. I also drove by our local sewer treatment plant for Mt. Pleasant and they have about a half mile hedge of the Chinese Photinia planted to hide the treatment tanks. This entire section of road was covered in American Robins flying from the bushes for berries and then to trees, fence lines and the road to eat their pilfered meal. This Photinia makes a nice location for redbirds and Mockingbirds to nest in. It makes a good location for birds to fly into when the hawks come around looking for a slow songbird. Anyway if birds eat these berries then they will fly off somewhere and drop the seeds. I did have two of these bushes volunteer and grow on our property in the last 20 years. KK From: Keith & Sandy Kridler [mailto:txbluebirder"at"sbcglobal.net] Sent: Saturday, February 19, 2005 10:11 AM Subject: Link to Jack Finches article "Feeding Bluebirds" Keith Kridler Mt. Pleasant, Texas Jack is probably the most knowledgeable and devoted bluebirder in the USA and at last count had built more than 190,000 bluebird nestboxes. He probably still sells the metal hole guards for bluebirds in packs of 10 cheaper than anyone else. He offers Paulownia wood nestboxes that are 40% lighter in weight than yellow pine nestboxes. (lighter weight means less dense wood fibers which means greater insulation properties of wood.) These are made from trees he planted and had custom cut not trees cut from forest land. Anyway this is still good information on feeding bluebirds and lists some of the things we all fed or provided for different species of birds back in the "Good Old Days" before bird feeders sold for $80 and a shipment of mealworms now cost more than the material for a nestbox. Notice in this article that Jack was feeding FIVE GALLONS
of dogwood berries at a single feeder in his yard and he scattered
these over his whole area. I picked up over 1,000 bare root trees especially selected for feeding "wildlife" at our local nursery for just under $300. At three wildlife/cavity nester/bluebird programs last week we sold more than 700 of these trees at cost. These groups in turn went and bought ANOTHER 1,500 trees and got them planted. OK, Jack states that Cornus Florida (dogwood) can average 5>25 pounds of fruit a year after about 10 years. So if you have people plant and maintain 100 trees then in 10 years you can expect somewhere around 1,000 pounds of fruit per year for the next 50 years. OK we are up to producing 50,000 pounds of fruit over the lifetime of these 100 trees that initially cost $30.00....or close to a five gallon bucket of berries produced for every penny of the initial investment. There are MANY species of trees that will produce more than 300 pounds of fruits/berries every year and live for a hundred years! The new varieties of thornless blackberries out of Arkansas will produce over 10,000 pounds of berries a year now from a single acre of land! A single row of black oil seed sunflowers planted around the edge of your back fence will feed hundreds of gold finches or chickadees. Make the world a better place by leaving behind plants that will feed the wildlife for years to come. KK From: Keith & Sandy Kridler [mailto:txbluebirder"at"sbcglobal.net] Keith Kridler Mt. Pleasant, Texas I had to research the Sawtooth Oak for a man needing acorns for Wild Turkey, deer and hogs.....This is the number one oak being planted and recommended to be planted for wildlife from many state universities. It is the best sized acorn for every creature from chipmunk and flying squirrel to woodpeckers & blue jays to 700 pound Russian Boars! In 22 year field trials against the nuttal oak, another really good fast growing oak tree, it was found that Sawtooth was the oak tree to plant for wildlife. At 12 years and 20 years they found that 95% and 96% of the Sawtooth oaks were producing acorns. They found that these trees would begin producing acorns at 6 to 7 years from the time an acorn was planted to grow the first tree. In this same trial comparing these two, the nuttal oak produced 0%acorns at 12 years and at 20 years 0% of the trees produced acorns. By this time the Sawtooth was producing more trees from the third generation of the first planting! Sawtooth oaks produce every year. White oaks and red oaks produce every second or third year. The sawtooth holds brown leaves into early spring providing cover for owls, squirrels, bluebirds and other wildlife needing "evergreen" type hiding spots in predominantly deciduous woods or forests. Twenty year old sawtooth oak trees averaged 8.4 inches diameter at breast height (DBH measured at 54" off the ground) when planted on good heavy loam soils. They were under 5" DBH when planted on heavy clay soils after 20 years. Nuttal Oak trees averaged about 3.7 inches DBH smaller after 20 years than the Sawtooth on both soils types. The "fast growing" nuttal oak was pretty puny after 20 years and NON productive! Heavy pruning of the Sawtooth oak is required to turn this tree into a sawlog as it tends to have multiple trunks or a crooked or forked trunk when the tree is young. The oak trees should be planted on a 10 foot by 10 foot grid when they are young. Thinned to 20 foot by 10 foot spacing when 20 years old. When the trees touch they should be thinned to a 20 foot by 20 foot spacing. When they again reach complete shade canopy they should be again thinned to 20 foot by 40 feet. After about 100 years they should be thinned to 40 feet by 40 foot spacing and allowed to "Mature". This is about 27 mature trees to the acre! This compares to "Mature Pecan" trees planted at 12 trees to the acre. They will NEVER get as large as Red Oaks or White Oaks or MANY of the other oak species common in the south and north. The will grow on acid soils from zone 5 to zone 9. Like most Oaks it will probably take more than 80 years for them to grow large enough to produce trunk cavities large enough for a flying squirrel. Just when I felt this was the perfect Oak tree to recommend for wildlife plantings in city yards, fields and forest for so many parts of the USA I found out that this was IMPORTED by our government from Eastern Mainland China 1862 and has been distributed by the USDA for more than 130 years! If you are a Native Plant Purist then you DO NOT want this tree in your region because wildlife will scatter the acorns for miles. IF you back off from your house and fly straight up for just 100 miles you will see that this tree is native to that mostly blue ball floating just below you and ALL species are competing with 6 billion humans for food shelter and a spec of land or water to live in! KK From: bookfanaticef-bluebird"at"yahoo.com [mailto:bookfanaticef-bluebird"at"yahoo.com] Sent: Saturday, February 26, 2005 9:54 PM Subject: Re: Sawtooth Oaks for Wildlife & Natives vs. Exotics Interesting that a non-native species like the Sawtooth Oak has been touted as being so wonderful for so long that few probably even know it is exotic--it would now be considered "naturalized." One of my greatest interests regards invasive/introduced/exotic/non-native/non-indigenous species (some people prefer one term over another), especially those that become "invasive" (not all exotics actually survive in their new environment well enough to actually become truly "invasive," though some manage to establish very small, local populations for short periods). Some of that stems, I think, from living in a state (FL) that has one of the worst cases of invasion in the US--HI and CA are at least as bad. There are many such instances of exotics becoming invasive, and other examples where introductions fail. House Sparrows & European Starlings & the common pigeon are great examples of true invasives--as well as Kudzu, house cats, house mice, Norway & Black rats, Brown Anoles, and West Nile Virus, among others, to name only a handful! If any of you are interested in learning more about invasive species, the March 2005 issue of National Geographic magazine (which is even better now that it can be found on most newstands and bookstores!) has a wonderful article that hits the major problems regarding invasives, as well as a list of what are considered the "top 100" worst invasives across the globe, divided by taxa. While the article has a lot of snippets regarding invasives in the US (like FL & HI), it also covers other parts of the world, too. Of course, because it is only a magazine article, it really can only show the "tip of the iceberg"--the problem is so severe, you'd need an entire book or three to cover the problem in depth. Hopefully, it will inform some people who were not previously aware, and maybe make them think twice before buying that exotic reptile or releasing the pet they no longer want (whihc is illegal, by the way). My personal hope is that importation of exotic species for! the pet trade might be tighter regulated in the near future--I find it amazing that the extremely large Cuban Treefrog (up to 5 in long, far larger than native treefrogs), which has become a major problem throughout FL, and is well-known for being an invasive species (and eats just about anything that will fit in its huge mouth, including native treefrogs!), is still allowed to be sold in pet stores. I saw some for sale in one of the major retail chain petstores selling them for $6.99 each not 2 weeks ago. And for the record, I don't think coyotes or brown-headed cowbirds in the US should be considered "true" invasives in the strictest sense of the word (though many people do). Yes, they have invaded many new areas in very large numbers, and have caused (and continue to cause) major problems. However, they have not really been *deliberately introduced* into the areas in which they are now found, but were not previously--their presence is essentially part of a natural range expansion, though it likely would not have occurred had not humans altered the landscape so much to those species liking. And something I thought of the other day while reading the
Nat Geo article--perhaps Homo sapiens sapiens (modern humans)
should be placed at the very top of "worst invasive species" list. Subject: birds eating sunflower seeds Keith Kridler Mt. Pleasant, Texas It is time to plant sunflowers in the southern states. The USDA lists more than 500 registered varieties or species of sunflowers, a couple are native to Mexico one is native to Texas. Maximillian is a small "wild sunflower" that a botanist found in southern Texas in the 1830's, of course the Spanish were bringing plants in 200 years earlier. You can till up ground in the south now and simply throw out about 30 pounds of black oil seed sunflowers per acre. Lightly till in the seeds and stand back. This has the potential of producing about 2,000 pounds of sunflower seeds when ripe. If you plant about half this many seeds you can mix in about 20 pounds of climbing "cowpeas" that will use the sunflower stalks for support. Add about 5 pounds of whole shelled corn and you create a really nice "Food Plot" that will attract MANY species of animals! Don't forget to plant a few blackberries and raspberries as they really make a wonderful purple stain in your nosy neighbors swimming pool and on their deck:-)) KK Subject: Re: birds eating sunflower seeds ....Climbing Cowpeas....??? ...never heard of 'em. Are they always known by that particular name...?? I like your idea of the Sunflower-Cowpea-Corn patch. I have room to plant such an area, but would need some Climbing Cowpeas. Can you tell me where I might purchase a small quantity..?? As you may recall, I'm located 30 miles South of Detroit, but in Ontario, North shore of Lake Erie, just across the western end of the lake from Toledo. Our ground is still frozen. Spring is late getting started this year. The Redwing Blackbirds are back, ...saw my first Grackle this morning. Not a single Bluebird tho. Last year, our little group monitored some 400 BB boxes. We managed to count a total of only 102 fledglings all season. Dismal... down 50% over the previous year. Downright discouraging. Bruce Macdonald, SW Ontario Subject: Climbing Cowpeas Keith Kridler Mt. Pleasant, Texas For someone to plant a small food plot in their back yard
a 4 foot by 8 foot section of the yard in full sun can be planted
with a couple handfuls of "Wild bird seed" Premium
mix that will often have about half of the seed varieties grow
in any part of the country. Millets grow better in the north. We plant "whole" oats in the fall and migrating
buntings LOVE the oats when they are in the "milk" stage
as do redbirds and most of the field sparrows. $5 of oats will
plant almost two acres. Deer, ground hogs, gophers and rabbits
just love fresh growing oats. Apply 100 pounds of nitrogen
to an From: Jimmy Dodson [mailto:rocks_and_flies"at"hotmail.com] Sent: Wednesday, March 30, 2005 11:22 AM Subject: RE: A question of Bluebird Reproductivity. Kridler may promote pawlonias for their fast growth, but this is an Ask some of the folks that are asked to take up the task of fighting this It's an ornamental that's is nice to look "at" and watch develop quickly, but If you want more info on exotic invasive plant species for the southeast, go or go to the following for US coverage: That's my 2-cents. --J Jimmy Dodson From: Bernie Daniel [mailto:bdaniel"at"cinci.rr.com] Sent: Thursday, March 31, 2005 6:36 AM Subject: Re:A question of Bluebird Reproductivity. Keith, ... The Paulownia tree article was also most interesting. But I'm wondering The wood of the tree sounds interesting I wonder how it would be for a Bernie From: Keith & Sandy Kridler [mailto:txbluebirder"at"sbcglobal.net] Sent: Thursday, March 31, 2005 9:11 AM Subject: uses for Paulownia totally Off topic Please respond to the following post off list as this will be mostly off Keith Kridler Mt. Pleasant, Texas Paulownia's bloom profusely very early in spring and produce a large amount Once pollinated a flower may produce a seed pod that resembles a Pecan nut These brown seed hulls have been used by the Chinese for thousands of years There are four species of the 12 species of Paulownia that have been in the Paulownia begin blooming in 1>3 years depending on whether it is grown from Paulownia has twice the strength of Balsa wood but twice the weight. They Nearly all of the old growth Paulownia in the USA was cut and shipped to Paulownia cannot grow in flood plains as they do not tolerate a shallow The average one year old "super hybrid" pine tree is 16" tall or less and I saw a half dead paulownia with 17 wood pecker cavities in the limbs and The USA is consuming 42% more wood and pulp than we can cut with much of it A four year old Paulownia planted to shade the west side of a house built in These trees tolerate high levels of acid rain and they are replacing the In the news the Philippines are planting 100 million paulownia this year to From: Keith & Sandy Kridler [mailto:txbluebirder"at"sbcglobal.net] Sent: Tuesday, August 16, 2005 8:28 AM Subject: dogwoods Keith Kridler Mt. Pleasant, Texas Commercially most of the "Florida" dogwoods all come from Tennessee nursery's and may not be adapted to your local area but are native to the Eastern half of USA. There are quite a few species of Dogwood's and you need to check your soil type as the Drumundii Dogwood found near Houston, Texas in the 1820's and carried back to Cuba and then England by an Irish botanist working for Mexico. This dogwood does better in clay soils and is native to most areas east of the Mississippi. Then there are the imported Kousa Dogwoods from Japan. Seeds collected from bluebird nests normally need to be refrigerated for several months to trigger spring growth. Dogwood seeds can be planted directly in the ground and left over winter to sprout. They need shade in the south and decent sandy loam and moist but never soggy ground to grow on. Jack Finch at Homes for Bluebirds has collected strains of dogwoods that produce fruit that is resistant to the fruit fly maggots that infest the dogwood berries in the wild. They were collected as seeds out of the wild across the Carolina's and grown on commercially to produce berries for feeding to bluebirds. By buying these berries from Jack or gathering dogwood berries in your area from towns and cities you can feed these to your birds in more rural locations. The birds will scatter the seeds and you will get a "wild" population of dogwood trees where the birds normally spend their winter months. Dogwoods are slow to grow from a seed but I have more than a dozen nice dogwood trees now producing berries that I grew from Jack Finches berries! From: lviolett [mailto:lviolett"at"earthlink.net] Sent: Wednesday, August 17, 2005 12:16 AM Subject: Re: dogwoods Dogwoods: Regardless of your location, be sure to find species of plants that are endemic to your areas. They are better adapted to survive your environmental conditions and the local birds/insects have evolved with that particular species. Here on the West Coast, many of our butterflies, for example, are becoming extinct because their larval food plants are being replaced with Eastern species (or species from another country!) And less butterflies means less caterpillars in the food chain. Try to find out what grew in your area before the bulldozers scraped away the habitat; then do your best to put it back. Each area has its *own* set of local food plants for its local wildlife. Linda Violett From: Lana Hunt [mailto:lanahunt"at"kcp.uky.edu] Sent: Wednesday, September 07, 2005 8:53 AM Subject: Poke berries ...I had read that they are a favorite of the bluebirds. I wonder if one planted some of the berries if that would multiply the supply? I also found something that looked like small apples on some trees. I had always heard as a child about people swinging on grape vines; but I didn't realize there were really grapes on them. I am having a ball, so far this summer I have photographed a baby deer nursing her Mom in the side pasture, I have a bunny living under a storage building, a ground hog, and various birds (adult and juvenile) that I haven't been able to identify. The blues are always my favorite. ... Lana From: Lynn [mailto:lemerich"at"epix.net] Sent: Wednesday, September 07, 2005 11:56 AM Subject: Re: Poke berries I have lots of poke berries - they just keep coming. I can't confirm it, but was told years ago the blues are one of the few birds that will eat them. Actually, I've never seen any birds eat them. One year I was overloaded and put piles of them in the freezer for winter feeding. Lynn From: Elizabeth.D.Seward2"at"usdoj.gov [mailto:Elizabeth.D.Seward2"at"usdoj.gov] Sent: Wednesday, September 07, 2005 12:23 PM Subject: RE: Poke berries I believe that the catbirds and carolina wrens in our neighborhood are eating the poke berries. Possibly also the deer? At any rate, they are quickly being consumed. I have two large stands of them in my yard this year. Diane Seward From: Torrey [mailto:torrey_canyon"at"yahoo.com] Sent: Wednesday, September 07, 2005 3:51 PM Subject: Re: Poke berries I have an eyewitness report of bluebirds eating poke berries. We are moving this month, & there's poke berries by the propane tank, which is visible from the kitchen. Yesterday evening, instead of helping with the carpet, i watched 2 Eastern Bluebirds eat poke berries for about 3 minutes. I haven't ever seen it happen, but judging by the color they leave on my work shirts, catbirds also eat poke berries. Thrushes tend to smell like spicebush (which is ripe now here, & the thrush migration is just starting). Once we're actually in the house instead of just painting & whatnot, i'll keep an eye on what comes to the various fruit trees & bushes. I'm hoping it's a nice enough place to have good stuff overwinter. Torrey Moss From: Tina Wertz [mailto:tinawertz"at"bellsouth.net] Sent: Wednesday, September 07, 2005 12:35 PM Subject: Re: Poke berries Lana, Tina Wertz From: Brucemac1"at"aol.com [mailto:Brucemac1"at"aol.com] Bruce Macdonald, SW Ontario near Detroit From: Sue Hubbard [mailto:shubbard2"at"rochester.rr.com] My bluebirds LOVE poke berries. They have started to eat poke berries now, and will continue until the pokeberries are all gone - sometimes late winter. The berries shrivel up and dry out over winter, but bluebirds still come to eat them. Sue Hubbard From: roy pischer [mailto:tlp4456"at"msn.com] My staunch Baptist grandfather used to mix a concoction of poke berries, grape juice and red wine for his arthritis... He swore it worked! We have lots of poke berries here too, and the bluebirds love them! They have been venturing further away from the yard mealworm feeder for tasty poke berries far in the fields. Trudy Pischer From: rosedot"at"mtco.com [mailto:rosedot"at"mtco.com] Sent: Wednesday, September 07, 2005 11:45 PM Subject: Re: Poke berries .. I've never caught a Bluebird eating poke berries, but then again, I've never seen them eating mulberries, even though nestboxes prove otherwise. Judging from the red splotches on our driveway and the numerous seedlings that pop up underneath birds' favorite perches, I assume that several bird species consume them. Since the berries are ripening, perhaps this will be another camcorder project to catch the culprits in action :-).... Dottie Roseboom From: Keith & Sandy Kridler [mailto:txbluebirder"at"sbcglobal.net] Sent: Thursday, September 08, 2005 8:51 AM Subject: poke salad HAS to be prepared correctly! Keith Kridler Mt. Pleasant, Texas I believe dandelions are better if drained once after cooking also. I assume the poke berry fruit would also be poisonous to humans if ingested in large amounts. Beware of ANY succulent plant that deer,cattle and horses allow to grow while they eat dust covered dried grasses or old scrub brush! Elder berries are a great fall fruit producing shrub to allow to grow along edges of fields. Sumac is blooming in the south now and is a great fall nectar source for honey bees and will produce clusters of dark red dried fruit that holds on the bushes till spring. When eaten or boiled it produces a "tea" containing vitamins and minerals but is mostly a thin skin covered inedible seed. All of these plants can be moved in fall/winter and most are easily grown from a section of the plant roots. Each "root crown" can be divided into MANY new plants. KK From: Lynn [mailto:lemerich"at"epix.net] Sent: Thursday, September 08, 2005 9:28 AM Subject: Re: poke salad HAS to be prepared correctly! We were always taught as kids that poke berries were poisonous, so we never tried them. We used to mash them and make "ink" from the juice, hence the name, at least locally, "inkberried. Bluebirds supposedly had no problem eating them and local folks here recommended growing them for the blues. I've never seen any bird or animal eat them and have seen no evidence of anything eating the plant either. I do let them grow as long as they don't get too personal. My small 3 acre plot is zoned agricultural so I don't get any flack when the weeds get too high. Lynn near Bernville, PA. From: Dottie, Hickory Hollow, Brown County, Indiana [mailto:yumyumkatts"at"voyager.net] Sent: Thursday, September 08, 2005 10:53 AM Subject: Re: Poke berries If you get the green leaves when they are young, you can eat them. People say they are very good but I've never tried them. I would not eat the berries at any time. I've some Poke berries here also but I've never seen the birds eat them. ... Dottie, Hickory Hollow From: William Freels [mailto:w.freels"at"worldnet.att.net] Pokeweed, phytolacca americana L. From: Elizabeth.D.Seward2"at"usdoj.gov [mailto:Elizabeth.D.Seward2"at"usdoj.gov] Sent: Thursday, September 08, 2005 1:29 PM Subject: RE: pokeweed Pokeweed may well be poisonous to humans, but not to songbirds, as far as I know. My catbirds devour them, and the birds are very healthy. Diane Seward, Potomac, MD From: beetle cat [mailto:beetlecat812"at"yahoo.com] Sent: Friday, September 09, 2005 1:16 PM Subject: pokeberries Pokeberries? Cindy From: Pamela Ford [mailto:jpford"at"comcast.net] Sent: Friday, September 09, 2005 3:16 PM Subject: RE: pokeberries In my area of Maryland we also grew up calling this plant inkberry. It is a prolific weed and grows in abundance around here. As the berries ripen, I pick some large branches from the plants nears the woods edge and hang them on my backyard bluebird perch. The bluebirds will then strip the berries from the branches, but usually only on days when insects are less abundant (cool or rainy days). Pam in Harford County, MD From: Keith & Sandy Kridler [mailto:txbluebirder"at"sbcglobal.net] Sent: Friday, September 09, 2005 8:39 AM Subject: berries for bluebirds/starlings Keith Kridler Mt.Pleasant, Texas I watched our flock of bluebirds feasting on Virginia Creeper Vine berries yesterday. These berries are less than 1/4" in diameter, a cobalt blue berry and the vines have climbed 50 to 60 feet up to the tops of our sweet gum and elm trees. The leaf is composed of FIVE smaller leaves and is often confused with poison ivy which only has THREE leaves in a cluster. This is a favorite food of starlings, robins, mockingbirds and the list goes on and on as even the Mourning Doves were eating the berries that fell on the driveway. ... From: Keith & Sandy Kridler [mailto:txbluebirder"at"sbcglobal.net] Sent: Wednesday, September 28, 2005 8:31 AM Subject: feeding bluebirds in fall Keith Kridler Mt. Pleasant, Texas For those who have a backyard mealworm feeder you should mix in a couple of dozen raisins in with the larva each day. Most of the store bought raisins are sun dried in California and it takes five pounds of grapes dried to make a single pound of raisins. This concentrates the vitamins and sugars into a bite sized chunk just about the right size for a bluebird to swallow whole. Last year California had a bumper crop of raisins but this year they have problems harvesting and drying their crop. MANY species of birds just LOVE raisins and by the pound they should be FAR cheaper than mealworms. You can mix in raisins with the common peanut butter cornmeal mixes that bluebirds will eat and you can simply add them to the feeders as a bonus item. Starlings, robins, mockingbirds and quail (ETC) just love grapes fresh off the vine.The Concord Grape variety is a fairly small grape and millions of starlings will be feasting on these grapes grown all along the south shores of the Great Lakes right now. Did you know that Washington state vineyards produce more Concord Grapes than all of the rest of the country combined? From: Bruce Burdett [mailto:blueburd"at"verizon.net] Sent: Wednesday, September 28, 2005 9:30 AM Subject: Re: Bluebirds-Delawares-Nostalgia Keith, et al, Now I think I'll go Search "Delaware Grapes Bruce Burdett, SW NH From: JOHN & BARBARA SIBIO [mailto:jsibio"at"comcast.net] Sent: Saturday, October 08, 2005 6:11 PM Subject: Bluebird Today we saw five local bluebirds eating the leftover Concord grapes in our garden. I have seen them eat Thompson seedless grapes from our vines, but this is the first year we've actually caught them eating the Concords. We always leave some grapes for the birds and animals, and they always get some of my Mission figs too. Lots of food around here! Barbara in Cloverdale CA From: Keith & Sandy Kridler [mailto:txbluebirder"at"sbcglobal.net] Sent: Friday, October 14, 2005 8:45 AM Subject: Blackbirds and bluebirds in flocks Keith Kridler Mt. Pleasant, Texas... In the south flocks of bluebirds will gather and feed occasionally in large flocks. East of the Mississippi we get reports of 100+ bluebirds feeding in a loose flock. In west central Texas I have seen mixed flocks of Eastern, Western and Mountain bluebirds feeding within feet of each other. In Taylor county Texas near Buffalo Gap Sandy and I saw all three species sitting on a power line shoulder to shoulder and not a camera ready to fire! This is near Abilene Texas and the bluebirds feed on mountain juniper berries and mistletoe berries that grow in the mesquite trees. Historically this was short grass prairie but with the control of fire these plant species moved up and out of Mexico with the prickly pear cactus and have covered the hills and land during the last 100 years. Photos from the last Bison hunts in this area in the 1880's show nothing but grass as far as the eye can see. The only fuel for campfires in central Texas during this time period were the woody Bison patties that the animals made from tough grass stems! Today Texas is famous for steaks grilled over mesquite wood. This is a thorny tree that produces hard small seeds like the Lentil beans you see in stores and produces an extremely hard wood with this tree trunk that sprouts from the roots if the top is killed by fire. The seeds are poisonous to cows if eaten in large quantities but pass through the gut of horses and will sprout where they are dropped. Without the juniper and mesquite trees the bluebirds would have had to avoid the great southern plains and migrate east and west of this vast area and then on down into Mexico. Of course I am only guessing because the Spanish kept few records of birds or plants during their control of this area from the mid 1500's. KK From: Keith & Sandy Kridler [mailto:txbluebirder"at"sbcglobal.net] Sent: Wednesday, October 26, 2005 8:14 AM Subject: Western Bluebird research in the news Keith Kridler Mt. Pleasant, Texas http://news.yahoo.com/s/space/20051025/sc_space/ From: Tina Phillips [mailto:cbp6"at"cornell.edu] Keith, I'd like to take this opportunity to introduce Bluebird-L to Dr. Janis Dickinson, the scientist interviewed in the article link you posted, and also the NEW DIRECTOR OF CITIZEN SCIENCE at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. We are extremely pleased to have Janis here as she brings a "wealth" of scientific ingenuity and creativity to our staff. In fact, for those of you who are also members of The Birdhouse Network, you will soon be receiving information in your "End of Season" packet about a new behavioral study of cavity-nesting birds for 2006, that was developed by Janis. In response to Keith's very informative post and the article link, Janis wanted me to pass along the following information about oak mistletoe. Oak mistletoe is "hemiparasitic" (half parasitic). Although it sends roots into the limb and alters limb structure by causing a burl to form, it also has green leaves and photosynthesizes on its own. There is no compelling evidence that mistletoe harms the oaks it lives on, although it is likely that the shear weight becomes a problem for heavily infested trees. The relationship is an interesting one and needs more study! Also, the article says "Dickinson said the results provide the first evidence in the avian world that inherited wealth promotes family stability," but I actually said that it's the first experimental evidence. There is a history of observational evidence that wealth and family stability go together, but manipulating wealth is not easy and requires the right system with a discrete, easily manipulated resource. By manipulating mistletoe wealth we were able to distinguish cause from effect - in other words, to distinguish between two possibilities: 1) that family stability causes accumulation of wealth and 2) that wealth increases family stability, which is what our data support. The article also failed to mention my co-author, Andrew McGowan, who contributed mightily to this study. From: Keith & Sandy Kridler [mailto:txbluebirder"at"sbcglobal.net] Sent: Friday, November 25, 2005 7:20 AM Subject: bittersweet and soil conditions Keith Kridler Mt. Pleasant, Texas Once seedlings get their first true leaves you can move them to bigger pots and plant them outdoors at the correct time of the year. Check the soil in your garden or flower beds for PH and the plant nutrients N-P-K. If bittersweet is dying out in an area it could be to disease or changing soil PH. Three pounds of wood ashes will replace the equivalent of 2 pounds of crushed limestone to change your soil from acid to alkaline. http://www.djroger.com/bittersweet.htm This webpage describes some of the different bittersweet varieties and mentions some of the invasives. KK From: Bruce Burdett [mailto:blueburd"at"verizon.net] Sent: Friday, November 25, 2005 8:51 AM Subject: Re: Bittersweet vine Dottie, et al, Moral: Keep a close eye on your Bittersweet vines, if you have any. From: Keith & Sandy Kridler [mailto:txbluebirder"at"sbcglobal.net] Sent: Monday, January 23, 2006 8:30 AM To: BLUEBIRD-L Keith Kridler Mt. Pleasant, Texas OK if they grow this well and bear lots of nuts alternate years like Pecan trees do then does anyone know if birds and squirrels are a problem eating the nuts and if so what species of birds feed on them in the raw state. They developed hardy root stock for these trees back in the late 1960's that are resistant to the high salt contents of the soils in the California valleys. Many of our cavity nesters enjoy eating chopped nut meats. I see that California wine growers are moving new vineyards into the wilds of Sonoma county replacing Red Delicious apple orchards with Pinot Noir grapes. They are also trying to get permits to remove plantation grown Redwoods and replace them with the more lucrative wine grapes. Old apple orchards are filled with cavities for small birds and bluebirds thrive in the well mowed orchards. KK From: lviolett [mailto:lviolett"at"earthlink.net] Sent: Tuesday, January 24, 2006 3:48 AM Subject: Re: "Nuts" Keith, except for commercial farming applications, our focus should be on preserving and replanting trees indigenous to our own specific locations. For example, my California yard can grow pecan, pistachio and just about any tree from anywhere. But I have chosen to plant native nut trees such as Southern California Black Walnut. Developers scraped off California Walnut trees and they are now one of the many endangered/threatened species in our area. Very hard to find and I finally located some at a native plant nursery. It seems upside down that it is almost impossible to procure native local trees while plants from other countries are shoved at us. Other nut-bearing trees which have been replanted in my suburban yard are Coast Live Oaks. Since it will take decades for oaks and walnut trees to mature, Palo Verde and Mesquites have been planted which will quickly provide seeds as a food substitute. By choosing to plant native plants, we are also providing correct links for entire ecosystems. Green oak leaves are a critical link food link for our butterflies and, among many other attributes, are hosts for mistletoe which are a winter food source for Bluebirds. Complex interplay between local plants, soil, insects, bacteria, wildlife is still beyond our knowledge; and planting trees from other countries into our home landscapes should be discouraged. As good as Pistachios are, they are not the correct ecological link. Linda Violett From: Keith & Sandy Kridler [mailto:txbluebirder"at"sbcglobal.net] Sent: Tuesday, January 24, 2006 8:36 AM Subject: "Nuts" and Ginko's Keith Kridler Mt. Pleasant, Texas In the British Isles they exterminated the Beaver from all streams and lakes in the 1400's. There is little benefit to reintroduce this species in a modern British Isles but they are debating this now. Some want to bring Beaver over from Europe and reintroduce it. It might benefit the cavity nesters but devastate landscape plants in a mostly urban country. Using plants in landscape in urban areas: You have to choose plants that will fit your lot, your soil type your location and I like to use/recommend a variety or species that benefit the most diverse wildlife during the most diverse time frame during the year. I have planted more than 500 black walnuts on our land back in 1984. They probably were not native to my property and they will be bulldozed for new housing developments when Sandy and I are gone. They will be mature in the year 2384. I gathered about 20 gallons of nuts this year from my trees and the squirrels planted about the same amount. A single 20 year old Pistachio tree might have produced the same amount of pounds of nuts in and area 1/500 the size of my planting! Each of us have to look at the species we want to save or attract to our yards. Look in the area to see what is common and what is really rare. Find out what other species feed or live in the plants or depend on them. I was reading annual reports of government experimental stations last night for Cornell University was a land grant college and they listed the Concord grape as the most valuable grape grown in America. They devoted the entire yearly report to grapes and which species to grow where. ... When you read of the stuff we were doing in the early 1880's and the sheer amounts of plant species that had been shared by scientists already and then think that the first ships to arrive with Columbus and the Norsemen and the Chinese all carried plants, weeds, and seeds it really is hard to know what is truly "native". Some non-native species and varieties produce more food that is readily accepted by our native birds. Some landscape plants produce nothing of interest for the birds. It all depends on what you want to see in your yard or property. I will be in Paris Texas tonight giving a program on cavity nesters and planting to attract wildlife. Turn right around and give a program on spring flowering bulbs....It is impossible to make everyone happy with what you plant. I'll do a survey on the % of people interested in planting for wildlife and those that plant for making their neighbors happy. KK From: John Schuster [mailto:wildwingco"at"earthlink.net] Dear Keith, Linda and friends, We have allot of large Black Walnut trees at our farm in Cloverdale, CA (if you go to our web site below and click the page "Field Vineyard Cottage" you can see some of them in the distance around our vineyard) and we leave them alone. I agree with Linda about planting more native plants and trees not so much because they are disappearing (which they are), but because they have adapted (as have the wild life to them) over millions of years of evolution to condition here in California. Be it flood or drought California native plants can handle both, but non-native trees (particularly fruit bearing) need plenty of water to produce. Water is a valuable resource here in California (as it is everywhere), which is used for producing food crops, raising livestock, industry, people and even washing the car of Sunday, but we are seeing more of a shift to native plants in landscaping and less planting of water consuming lawns and plants all in the name of water conservation which is a step in the right direction. As for vineyards. Planting still goes on, but new laws requiring permits have been pasted here in Sonoma County to slow down the planting, so I'm seeing less planting in new areas. However, where I've seen vineyards going into areas that had once been densely forested, I see more Bluebirds and more wildlife in general in these newly planted areas, because these open areas are places that Bluebirds enjoy foraging for food as do's other wildlife (i.e. Hybrid Wild Turkey and Black-tail Deer much to the discomfort of vineyard growers.) Yes, I agree with Keith that Bluebird did and still do nest in the cavities of old Gravenstein (http://www.farmtrails.org/applefair.html) and other apple trees, and I sometime run across a few nests, but we have a very large Raccoon population here so these nest are easily hit by these marauders. Hence nest boxes are better then trees, but insects in these old apple trees and in adjoining vineyards too are still consumed by our beloved Bluebirds. ... John Schuster From: happywebl"at"comcast.net [mailto:happywebl"at"comcast.net] Sent: Tuesday, January 24, 2006 1:37 PM Subject: "Nuts" and natives Keith, Linda and List, I agree, also about native plants being used for landscaping. We took a walk (here in Cloverdale) this weekend and saw a tree full of birds feasting on Manzanita berries. There is an area near our home that is just native brush, and there are quite a few Manzanitas in there, about 15 to 20 feet high. They are more like large shrubs than trees, but are very attractive evergreens with beautiful red berries, like little apples. There's another tree I'd like to identify in the preserve behind my home. It gets white flowers in the spring, and is also a small tree. Late in the summer it is full of fruit that appears to be a small plum, and the birds come in flocks to eat them. They clean it in a day or two. I would be happy with either one in my yard, as they are pretty and hardy, and good for the wildlife. Barbara in Cloverdale, CA From: happywebl"at"comcast.net [mailto:happywebl"at"comcast.net] Sent: Tuesday, January 24, 2006 1:37 PM Subject: "Nuts" and natives Keith, Linda and List, I agree, also about native plants being used for landscaping. We took a walk (here in Cloverdale) this weekend and saw a tree full of birds feasting on Manzanita berries. There is an area near our home that is just native brush, and there are quite a few Manzanitas in there, about 15 to 20 feet high. They are more like large shrubs than trees, but are very attractive evergreens with beautiful red berries, like little apples. There's another tree I'd like to identify in the preserve behind my home. It gets white flowers in the spring, and is also a small tree. Late in the summer it is full of fruit that appears to be a small plum, and the birds come in flocks to eat them. They clean it in a day or two. I would be happy with either one in my yard, as they are pretty and hardy, and good for the wildlife. Barbara in Cloverdale, CA From: lviolett [mailto:lviolett"at"earthlink.net] Sent: Friday, February 17, 2006 6:10 PM Subject: Re: Feeders/HOSP/Natives Interesting comments, Rob. My comment to Crystal was in response to her Now, feeders are a great avenue for folks to become more aware of local bird communities and start becoming concerned for their welfare (such as nestboxes). In fact, putting out birdseed at our mountain cabin was the first step to becoming a Bluebirder. As problems are encountered with artificial feeders, modifications are made on what is offered and how it is offered to avoid House Sparrow problems and diseases being spread. But the best choice, in my opinion, is to replace I have hummingbird feeders with artificial nectar at my home and even that is probably upsetting the balance. Anna Hummingbirds are the usual visitors to the feeders. Annas are increasing and it might be caused by artificial feeders. Perhaps they are able to defend feeders more efficiently than other hummers. Rufus hummers are in my yard, too. But they are usually chased from the feeders by Annas and can be seen sipping nectar from native sages and non-native abutilons. Rufus seem to be on the decline and that might be due to loss of habitat and less tendency to be helped by hummer feeders. Eventually, as my yard matures, even hummingbird feeders will probably be removed. And, yes, water is a very important issue. In our arid part of the world, natural streams are being diverted to concrete aquifers and drainage systems. Nothing is being left for wildlife. I keep several shallow basins of water on the ground so they can be tipped over and refilled often. For those who are away from their homes during the work week, a water mister is a great choice. A continual light mist of water can be positioned in a tree where some of the droplets collect on leaves and drip to a flat rock. This provides a constant source of fresh disease-free drinking water with no trouble or upkeep. And while we might be able to gain some knowledge by watching birds at feeders, even more can be gained by watching interaction of birds foraging amongst flowers, shrubs and trees rather than having them lined up eating from metal and plastic feeders. It is all a matter of educated choices. You won't find House Sparrows in the middle of an uninhabited forest because there is no one there to feed them. Linda Violett From: Tree Greenwood [mailto:doctree"at"crosslink.net] Sent: Saturday, February 18, 2006 11:40 PM Subject: Re: Feeders & House Sparrows On Fri 17 Feb 2006 at 12:01, lviolett That may be true in suburban areas. I live between two diary farms where House Sparrows and European Starlings thrive on grain fed in open troughs. I doubt that removing my feeders would have any measurable effect on the number of House Sparrows that try to nest in boxes on or near my property. > In my opinion, feeders generally do more harm than good for wildlife Maybe. I put up feeders for my pleasure. I like having lots of birds around, even if a few (a max' Building houses, barns, roads and factories upsets 'the natural balance' much more than putting out some seed and suet. Creating a monoculture, more commonly called 'a beautiful lawn,' definitely tips things out-of-balance. Compared to those, the impact of my feeders on the balance of nature is minuscule. I like watching the wee feathered creatures in my side yard around my feeders. I'm selfish that way. The feeders are for me; any benefit to the birds is secondary but still important. > Many folks will put up seed feeders and, at the same time, use poison Linda, I also love of native plants. Over the last 20 years, my wife and I fought invasive exotic plants. I confess that I've even resorted to using RoundUp on some large expanses of Bermuda grass. I also like natural gourds for birdhouses and grow some every year. I used to lose all my squash and gourd vines to squash vine borers. Now I dust the base of the vines with Sevin and I'm able to store winter squash and to produce gourds large enough for Purple Martins. I don't apologize for my use of Sevin. It works. I am careful to use it only at the base of the vines and never after blossoms appear. I minimize the amount of and types of chemicals that I use, but sometimes there's no alternative that's both effective and economical. I read and studied ways to recreate habitat for native birds. One book suggested leaving an area tilled and allowing birds to plant it. Know what? When we moved to our home, the front had a row of Japanese Yews, three Norway Maple trees and a scraggly Bermuda grass lawn because of the shade. But I still feed birds, even the House Sparrows that come here from the dairy farms. I will deal with them over the next couple of months along with the Starlings that mix with Grackles, Brown- headed Cowbirds and Redwing Blackbirds. Sometimes it takes traps and a pellet rifle to tip the balance in favor of native birds. Take care, R J 'Tree' Greenwood From: rob barron [mailto:rebel1956"at"comcast.net] Sent: Saturday, March 11, 2006 10:55 AM Subject: RE: Unusual weather .... Rob wrote: "when I lived in upstate NY, Bluebirds stayed all winter even though it often got down to 20 below zero. A plant science professor at a local university did an experiment by planting the Bluebird droppings left in roost boxes and a lot of what came up was Staghorn Sumac and American Bittersweet." Just a reminder that there is a NON-NATIVE form of bittersweet (Oriental or Asiatic, Celastrus orbiculatus Thunb) that is extremely invasive. See an article a horticulturist and I just wrote at http://www.ecfla.org/articles/badbittersweet.htm. Unfortunately, the Oriental species is suspected of hybridizing with the native American species (Celastrus scandens L). Oh the damage we do when we mess with the ecosystem..... Bet from CT I have a list of environmentally responsible choices of plants that will help bluebirds survive nasty weather at http://www.sialis.org/plants.htm From: Sara Ann [mailto:sawright"at"direcway.com] Sent: Sunday, March 12, 2006 11:34 AM Subject: Re: bad bittersweet Too true, Bet. Too true. Here in the Ozarks, we used to see vistas of dogwoods and redbuds in the spring. Now, with the dogwood blight and clear cutting, we have beautiful white vistas of........bradford pears whose seeds our sweet birds have generously spread. Sara Ann From: Nancy Hanna [mailto:nancy.hanna2"at"sbcglobal.net] ...I have a lot of native plants, the correct boxes (Don and I make them together). I live in a Native oak woodland near open-space (BB habitat in Ca) with 3 wonderful old oak trees on my property.They are all around me even nesting in boxes down the street from my house! So they are here, just not nesting in MY garden. ... I do get some more plants yesterday! . If not this year, the next! Thanks again! From: lviolett [mailto:lviolett"at"earthlink.net] Nancy, you did your homework on native plants which provide fruit-food for Western Bluebirds. In addition to the fruit sources, you can add native plants which support edible insects and caterpillars . . . Coffeeberry, California Aster, Ceanothus. In my hotter area, larvae can be found on species such as Baja Fairy Duster and Sticky Monkeyflower. Nasturtiums are reliable for attracting the non-native but edible cabbage butterfly larvae. From: Perez Veronica [mailto:v_perez11"at"yahoo.com] Sent: Tuesday, July 18, 2006 2:14 PM Subject: To plant or not to plant Hi, I am torn between planting and not planting bluebird attracting bushes . See I have a mockingbird who I like having around and feed in the front yard with mealworms . He does not bother my birds at all in the backyard ,he used to but I withheld mealies for a long time and shifted the feeder away , so now after he eats his mealies he flies away. However, I think if I plant winter-bearing berry bushes in the backyard he might get territorial of this and chase all the birds away. So ... a) Are there any berry bushes that might be less attractive to my mocker so I can get the bluebirds to frequent my yard more often ? b) Would 1 or 2 bushes be enough to make any bird territorial ? c) Are bluebirds more inclined to visit mealworm feeders in the winter ? My timing has always been off. Everytime a BB comes visit the bacyard either the mealies have been consumed by the chipmunk or the robin or have been fried under the sun (As you all can tell I am still in stage 1 of mealie feeder training ) .... Continued in Part 2 |
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