WindStar Wildlife Institute Blog

Fall Is Best Time To Fell Dead Trees

THE DEAD TREE article reminded me we should caution folks to avoid felling dead or hollow trees until Fall. During my 30 years as a (PA) conservation officer, I’ve responded to numerous incidents of destroyed wildlife nest and killed or orphaned young of nearly every type of wildlife, mammals and birds, that nest in tree cavities. (Barred Owl photo by Jim Bailey, Holladay, UT)

In one incident a state highway crew felled a large hollow sugar maple along the edge of a local highway. When the tree hit the ground, a Barred Owl flew out of the destroyed tree trunk and from a perch within sight, called and called to her two very tiny, down-covered young that were ejected with the scattered nest. One was killed immediately and the other failed to survive an extensive attempt by a local veterinarian to save it. The work crew and their foreman were all emotional and filled with distraught when I arrived. Contributing to their teary eyes was the continual, plaintive calling of the hen owl.

“We could have cut this tree any time during the winter or last fall, why we waited until Spring,” I’ll never know, lamented the sad foreman. “We just didn’t think about something like this happening.”  That’s the bottom line; Think before we cut and avoid the removal of dead or hollow trees until well after the spring nesting season. Better yet; if the tree poses no public hazard, let it stand for the benefit of wildlife.

Quite interestingly, the nest also contained the partially consumed body of a Hooded Merganser.

Tim C. Flanigan
Nature Exposure
Bedford, PA

What Is Your Favorite Bird?

IT IS HARD for me to imagine that there is a person on earth that does not have a favorite bird.  Perhaps it's the bird that you've seen only once. Or maybe it's the bird that is the most frequent visitor to your feeder. The harbingers of Spring, the American Robin, the Black and White Warbler, the Parula Warbler become favorites simply because of their yearly early appearance.

If you have experienced the magical call of the Common Loon on a Maine lake, maybe it has made it's mark forever.  If you have held a bird and felt it's weightlessness and marveled at the impossibility of the way the colors of it's feathers blend, that might make you declare it a favorite.  Perhaps it's the Bald Eagle that stared at you with that very serious look or the pelican that dropped like a cinder block into the ocean to capture food in it's unique way.

To see tiny birds go about their business...the hummingbirds, the Winter Wren or the Blue-gray Gnatcatcher, makes them the favorite of many.  The habit of the Cedar Waxwing of passing berries from one to the other makes them special to everyone.  The great recovery of the Osprey and their amazing fishing ability endear them to all but the men and women of the Coast Guard that must clear their nests from the channel markers every year.

The night sounds of the Whip-poor-wills, the antics of the Blue Jays, the parade of Wood Storks after a Gulf storm, the one act play of the Killdeer or the Bobwhite Quail designed to lead you away from their young or the just plain joyfullness of the bluebirds.....each score points.

The soaring Red-tailed Hawk and the spectacular zippy flight of the Sharp-shinned Hawk, too swift for the eye to follow, the call of the Barred Owl and the Great Horned Owl....

So...What's your favorite bird?

Jack Lewnes
WindStar Master Wildlife Habitat Naturalist
Port Republic, MD

Oak Snag Is A Hit With Wildlife In Winter

THERE IS AN oak snag outside my office window.  Actually it almost doesn’t qualify as a snag.  It’s really quite slender and maybe 12 feet tall, just a young tree that snapped in two during a bad snowstorm and couldn’t recover.  It’s been standing there for four or five years now, testament more to our inertia than part of an active plan for habitat development.  It seemed a little scrawny to be much use to wildlife, and certainly it was too small for birds to nest in.  But we let it stand there in the midst of other, healthier trees because we never got around to doing anything else about it.

As a result of our casual gardening, this winter I have learned a valuable lesson about the efficiency of nature.  I have spent a lot of time in my office recently, and between visits by the muses, I have been staring out the window.  What I have discovered is that my whippet of a snag is a big hit with my wild neighbors.   

The birds are very happy with it, and find it unceasingly useful.  The Red-breasted Nuthatch that has been hanging around here this winter wanders down the trunk daily, checking for larvae or insect eggs where the bark is loose.  The Red-bellied Woodpecker frequently flies to it and seems to use it as a way station before making the last little flight to the suet feeder that hangs on a tree trunk 15 feet away.  Although the Brown Creepers seem to prefer the bigger trees, I have seen them stop on the thin trunk more than once.  And for some reason I don’t really understand, the Tufted Titmice seem to like to land on a couple of tiny twig stubs that are sticking out from the trunk.  There are many more substantial branches on surrounding trees, but they often choose the snag.

Last week during a storm that was predominately the dreaded “wintery mix,” I watched in amazement as a Downy Woodpecker worked out a feeding problem with the help of the snag.  We had put out a new suet cake, and it had somehow broken into long, thin sheets.   To the Downy this was a bonanza, coming as it did on a cold, wet day.  Instead of getting little bits of suet, she could pick up strips two or three inches long, but she couldn’t get the whole thing in her beak.  Instead, she flew to the snag, to a spot where the surface was very rough, and used the tree to “hang” strips of suet while she pounded them into manageable bites. 

It’s not just been good for the birds, though.  The squirrels have happily incorporated it into their pathway from the taller trees to the feeders.  Although it has no real branches left, they frequently jump to the trunk from a neighboring pine.  Yesterday I looked out to see a squirrel hanging upside down on the side of the snag.  Apparently he had just stopped to enjoy the sun for a minute or two before continuing on his way.  There’s also a two foot long strip, maybe 4 inches wide and about 5 feet off the ground, where the bark is missing.  I haven’t seen them, but I’m guessing that our local deer stopped by one night and pulled off some hanging pieces of bark. 

Nothing in nature is wasted.  Sometimes I forget that, and even more often I move too quickly through life to see what’s happening outside my window.  But I’ll try to remember to look at my yard through wild eyes.  They see things differently than I do.

Barbara R. Jones
Tabernacle, NJ

Don’t Be Bashful!

COME ON IN!  Join us in this discussion about wildlife and wildlife habitat.  We want to hear about your experiences with wildlife and what critters and birds you are observing  now on your property. You don’t even have to go outside—just look out the window and jot down what you are observing—which birds are at the feeder, those birds you wished would stay away, rare birds, behavior of critters, etc.

And, you can also join in by commenting on one or more of the published articles in the blog.  All you have to do is click on “Comments” at the end of each article and tell us what you think, plus your observations and experiences. Let’s turn this into a “Town Meeting On Nature!”

If you take good photos of Nature, send them along, too.  We have a number of places to exhibit good quality, especially unusual photographs.  First, photos are considered for “Photo of the Week” in the WindStar Wildlife Garden Weekly e-Magazine.  Next photos may go in the "Gallery" on the WindStar Wildlife Institute web site or in the “Nature’s Best” Photo Album in WindStar’s American Wildlife Blog.

Tom Patrick
President, WindStar Wildlife Institute
Myersville, MD

I Destroyed Habitat Yesterday!

ADMITTEDLY, the autumn olive and multiflora rose are not friends of the environment and needed to be removed, but I’m always torn between my noble intentions and the realization that these “bad” plants are nevertheless good for wildlife. Naturally that’s part of the problem, since the birds enjoy the shelter and the berries and spread the seeds with abandon. (Leaves are multiflora rose)

This particular area of our hillside was totally overgrown with invasive plants, and desperately needed work. Removing the invaders will help the small and nearly-smothered oaks, walnuts, and dogwoods thrive, and there are many rosettes indicating that goldenrods will blanket the ground in yellow this fall. Still, the quick growth and fruit of the plants that I removed is bound to be missed by wildlife while it waits for the native plants to mature.

Both the good news and the bad news is that on our property there are more than enough additional autumn olives and multiflora rose thickets to satisfy all of the birds and other wildlife. In more developed areas, this might not be the case, so it’s a good idea to always think before cutting. I like to consider whether or not I’ve supplied native substitutes for what I’m removing, and whether those replacements are going to develop soon enough to provide equivalent food and cover. It’s also good planning to remove trees and shrubs before birds start nesting in the spring. Using the cut branches to form a brush pile can add new cover, and large limbs or stumps can supply valuable dead wood for wildlife that depends on the insects that will gather there.

If you’re thinking about tackling some invasive plants yourself, there is some good information at http://www.fs.fed.us/na/durham/coopforest/stewardship/text/invasivess.shtml. For publications and links, check out  http://www.invasive.org/ and
http://www.nps.gov/plants/alien/.

I won’t lose any sleep tonight over the cutting that we did today, but if the birds start chattering at me when I go out tomorrow, I might feel just a tiny bit guilty for a little while.

Cathy Gilleland
WindStar Master Wildlife Habitat Naturalist
Finksburg, MD

The Ocean Is My Backyard

THE PACIFIC OCEAN is a big backyard, and while it isn’t exactly my backyard, it is a big chunk of my neighborhood. These days, I visit the ocean like I visited a favorite neighborhood pond during childhood.  I never tire of examining the clues that reveal the mysterious creatures and plants and rocks beyond my view. My neighborhood corner of the Pacific is near the heart of Los Angeles.  Right between LAX airport and Marina del Rey – both known worldwide for their big impact and critical roles in travel and shipping. 

Nature’s most vibrant habitat is the edge between two habitats and the beach is that critical line between ocean and uplands.  Urban beaches are an intriguing natural wilderness.  We take our boats from land to ocean. And bring fish and shellfish from the ocean for our landlubber tables.  We recreate. We work. We explore. And we renew tired eyes and sore muscles with an excursion to the beach.

At my feet is the wet sand littered with both natural and manmade debris that has washed up from who knows where.  Waves crash and foam swirls around the broken shells and pebbles of our typical Southern California beaches.  As I walk further, I see a lone figure seriously exercising his metal detector and dipper, and another duo taking portraits with their sophisticated camera.  Children throw sand into the air and watch it disperse.  Pelicans swoop low along the swells and seagulls stalk any hint of food.

Yesterday I walked a very long stretch of beach at Playa del Rey before I saw any seashells at all.  Many factors could contribute to that dirth, but over the five years I’ve lived here and walked these beaches, the number of shells has steadily declined.  Mollusks are bottom feeders and they are the canaries of the ocean.  Their health and population indicate water quality – and their scarcity indicates problems. Finally, I come to a section of surf that the low tide has strewn with scattered shells and fragments.  To my amazement, I find not one, but three sand dollars half buried in the soupy surf.

Sand dollars are miracles to me.  To understand how an animal lives in a flat circular shell, and lives standing on edge, and is so fragile that you can easily break the shell with a gentle squeeze – but these exoskeletons also are washed by waves with hundreds of pounds of pressure and deposited fully intact on their solid beach of minute rocks.  The wonder of that design and natural process amazes me.

Couples walk along the beach hand in hand.  Beds of clams grace the sides of the breakwaters.  The wind whistles and waves lap against the shore.  And each tiny shell is a bellwether of habitat quality.

Carolyn Allen
Playa del Rey, CA

Biogeography of the Western Sand Dollar
http://bss.sfsu.edu/geog/bholzman/courses/Fall02%20projects/sandollar/sanddollar.html

Hedgerows Are Valuable Wildlife Habitat

OUR HOUSE sits at the end of a driveway about a quarter mile from the main road. On the other side of that road there has always been farmland, bounded by an old wooden fence hidden in a volunteer hedgerow. Whenever I’d take a walk, rabbits would scurry back into its cover, birds of all kinds would chatter at me from the protection of the tangled branches, beneficial insects were plentiful, and often I’d see larger animals like woodchucks and foxes hurrying away as I approached.

In a few short hours last week, it was gone.

What took years to grow and welcome bird nests and rabbit holes was obliterated by a noisy machine in less than a day to make way for a new fence.

I don’t necessarily blame the farmer, who needed secure fencing for his cows (at least I’m hoping that the fence means more livestock, not houses), but it really brought home to me the way that development can wipe out an ecosystem almost instantly. There is no gradual transition that allows wildlife to adapt to a changing environment, and no “relief agency” to help with relocation or rebuilding.

The loss of this habitat inspired me to look further into the ecological significance of hedgerows. One British site
(http://schools.ceh.ac.uk/advanced/hedges/pf-hedgerows1.htm) defines a hedgerow as "a narrow belt of vegetation, dominated by a variety of shrubs and occasional trees, separating one area of land from another". Not a very dramatic definition, considering how much effect they have on our environment.

In addition to providing cover and food for wildlife, hedgerows can act as windbreaks, manage water runoff, stop soil erosion, and create wildlife corridors. Often they are the last remaining habitat for certain species in areas where there has been a large amount of residential or commercial development.

Should you be lucky enough to still have hedgerows where you live, take a few minutes to study and appreciate them and consider their ecological impact. If you are energetic and ambitious enough to consider creating a hedgerow yourself, you might want to check out
http://www.yolorcd.org/hedgerows/design/hedgerow.shtml. Please let us know about your progress! As for me, I’m hoping that another hedgerow will be allowed to grow and surround the new fence, bringing the wildlife back to my walking route.

Cathy Gilleland
WindStar Master Wildlife Habitat Naturalist
Finksburg, MD

Who Made That Birdfeeding Product?

DID YOU EVER wonder who are the people behind a particular product?  I sure have.  I thought it might be fun to find this out for the “Best of Show” new product at the 2006 Birdwatch America expo in Atlanta last month.

I first met Brome Bird Care Inc. president, Paul Cote, at the 2002 Birdwatch America expo when he exhibited his company’s first product. Brome is a small company founded and operated by the husband and wife team of Paul Cote and Diane Seaward. The business is located in the small country town of Knowlton on the shores of Brome Lake in Quebec’s Eastern Townships. Knowlton is about an hour southeast of Montreal and 20 minutes north of the Vermont border in the foothills of the Green Mountains.

Diane has always been a wildlife enthusiast, and after several years of working in marketing in Montreal, decided to live and work in a country setting.  She founded and managed the largest flea market in Quebec for over 20 years. She also founded and managed Craft Fairs and ran an antique store, so her business background was instrumental in the founding of BBC.

Paul was trained as a footwear designer and technologist who also managed a number of shoe factories. He always enjoyed creating new products and researching the technology to make them. To do a good job in footwear design you must have a very practical understanding of materials and the processes used to make footwear. This means having hands-on experience in the factory and in the machine shop where many of the technical problems are solved. Paul took his industrial problem-solving skills and applied them to finding a squirrel solution for backyard birders. Squirrels were driving his backyard birds away, eating most of the seed and damaging his feeders. His birding experience was being ruined and he reasoned that this was probably the case for many other backyard birders. Paul was sure there would be a market for an effective squirrel proof bird feeder that would enhance the enjoyment of feeding birds.

In 1998, the first squirrel proof prototype was made with a beer can, wire mesh, an aluminum tube and a spring. It was tested, and the concept seemed to be effective. Work continued and the first Squirrel Buster was marketed in January 2000.  Squirrel Buster I led to the development of Squirrel Buster II in 2002. This was a larger and more comprehensive model designed to meet the expressed wishes of Squirrel Buster I dealers and consumers. Squirrel Buster II introduced a number of new design concepts for bird feeders. It was the first feeder to have a detachable component system, a dishwasher safe design, a seed ventilation system, adjustable posi-grip perches and a Cardinal Ring system. It was also fully adjustable to permit the exclusion of small squirrels and large nuisance birds. In the fall of 2004 Squirrel Buster Plus was introduced with a number of enhancements to the basic design.

That’s it—the story behind the product.

Tom Patrick, President
WindStar Wildlife Institute
Myersville, MD

Winter Is Time To Put Up Birdhouses

WINTER is a great time to think about making or buying birdhouses and putting them up.  The cold weather that makes it easy for you to stay indoors and do woodworking also makes it safer for you to work outside.  Bees and hornets may be active around trees and your house during warmer months of the year so you may get stung putting up birdhouses at that time.

Many species of birds and mammals look for natural cavities in rotted-out sections of trees or make their own excavations in such trees in order to nest.  Even if your property is lacking trees where these animals can raise a family, you can still attract many of them to your property if you put up birdhouses. 

Eastern Bluebirds, Carolina Chickadees, Great Crested Flycatchers, Tufted Titmice, Gray Squirrels, and even Southern Flying Squirrels and Eastern Screech Owls will take up residence outside your house if provided with a suitable place to nest in appropriate habitat.  If you see these animals around (or hear screech owls) during the year, your chances of success are quite high.

Since each species of bird requires a particular size cavity in which to nest, it is very important that you make or buy a birdhouse that meets these requirements.  You must take into account the interior dimensions of the birdhouse, the entrance-hole size, and how high the hole is above the floor of the house.  When placing the boxes on trees, you also need to put them at the correct height above the ground.  The mammals’ preferences overlap with the birds’.

I do not have space here to give all of these parameters, but there are many books available that provide this information, as well as pertinent construction info. I highly recommend Woodworking for Wildlife by Carrol Henderson of the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources.  It only costs $9.95 plus shipping and can be ordered at 1-800-657-3757.  However, I suggest that you call for a complete listing of books first because Mr. Henderson has written many fine books about wildlife that you may also want to order.

Marlene A. Condon
Author of The Nature-Friendly Garden
Crozet, VA

An Interesting Article In the Latest e-Magazine…

WE HAVE had shrews living around our feeder for years. During the fall, when leaves cover the ground, if one pays close attention, the leaves will move a bit. A shrew has popped out of one of the little holes and quickly looks around and zips back.  I had identified them as Least Shrews, but it was a hasty choice and I'll have to check them again.  I had always thought that they were eating the seeds that had fallen from the feeder and had no idea that they also ate birds!  I've never found feathers under the feeder but have seen them nearby and had attributed them to the feasting of the local Sharp-shinned Hawk who often feeds from the "plate" that we serve up to him.  I can see how a bird could be easily attacked this way since their attention is focused on threats from above.

Jack Lewnes
WindStar Master Wildlife Habitat Naturalist
Port Republic, MD