A Northwoods Almanac for 4/19/19

A Northwoods Almanac for 4/19 - 5/2/2019  

Spring Planting: Go Native

            It’s that time of the year to begin planting (or so we hope and dream), and it’s often a challenge to determine what to plant from the dizzying array of available options. To that end, I was recently privilegedto hear Doug Tallamy give the keynote talk at the Wisconsin Lakes Partnership Conference in Stevens Point. What I loved was that Tallamy, an entomologist from the University of Delaware and the author of Bringing Nature Home, masterfully summarized various scientific studies with an ecological vision for the future that empowers each of us to do our part.

            His key concept is simply that all places have ecological significance, even our yards, thus shrinking our individual efforts down into something manageable. He contends that we can, and must, restore the natural world where we live, work, and play, and that by doing so, we, along with our neighbors, can make a profound difference. 

Given that nearly 85% of the eastern U.S. is privately owned, Tallamy says that our private properties are the best opportunity for long-term conservation if, and only if, we design them to meet the needs of the natural world around us. While he values public lands, he firmly believes that the future of conservation is on private land, andhe’s adamant that public lands and refuges are not large enough to sustain the ecological needs of the natural world.

            Specifically, he notes that “little things run the world,” a quote from biologist E.O. Wilson regarding the importance of insects. Without insects, Tallamy says, most flowering plants would disappear, and the cascading impacts of their loss on all other species would ultimately and profoundly alter human life. He notes, for instance, how migrating birds must add 35-50% of their body weight at every stop along their way north, and the requisite food that provides the highest concentration of energy for them is insects. In North America, 386 species of birds migrate north from Central and South America every spring, a number estimated at around 5 billion individuals, requiring a vast army of insects to eat.

            For breeding birds, the number grows even larger. A study he co-authored with one of his students looked at the insects needed by just one pair of black-capped chickadees to raise a successful clutch of chicks. Depending on the pair, each pair along with their chicks consumed 6,000 to 9,000 caterpillars! 

            Not all insects, however, are created equal in value to birds. 96% of our birds rear their young on insects, not seeds, and most of those insects are caterpillars. Think about caterpillars - they’re soft and easy to eat (Tallamy compares them to sausage), high in protein, high in carotenoids, easy to stuff down the throat of a chick, and easy for the chicks to digest. Thus, for most songbirds raising chicks, caterpillars are not optional – they require them.

            The problem for birds is worldwide invertebrate abundance is down 45% since 1974, in large part contributing to our breeding birds numbering 1.5 billion fewer than 40 years ago. Why are the numbers down? The ever increasing use of pesticides and the planting of non-native species.

            An important note because some readers are probably already thinking this: Tallamy isn’t a “sky is falling” guy, a doomsday prophet. While he backs up his contentions with an array of disturbing population studies that show we’re losing enormous ecological ground worldwide, he offers a redemptive path that is practical and easily embraced. The path is this: to plant or maintain native trees, shrubs, and wildflowers on our private properties that offer the greatest ecological function. That function is to provide habitat for insects, because insects provide the most energy to wildlife and the greatest value to plants as pollinators. 

Thus, he says, we need to see our landscape plants not as decorations, but as key players in supporting diverse pollinator populations and complex food webs. Tallamy calls for us to replace half of the area we now dedicate to lawn with diverse plantings of woody and herbaceous species. He doesn’t ask folks to replace their entire lawns (though that would be a great idea) – he knows that lawns offer great places to play Frisbee, catch a ball with your kids, etc. Mary and I still maintain some lawn for just those purposes, too. Instead, Tallamy’s vision involves planting the majority of one’s property to support a garden and a wide array of native plants that make it into a great place for wildlife.

He notes, however, that plants differ widely in how well they support insects, so it’s essential to plant native plants which our native insects have adapted to over time. Many insects have evolved to specialize in eating only one family of plants – think of monarch butterflies which are specialists only on milkweeds.

 Again, however, Tallamy isn’t the yard police, nor am I, so he’s fine with folks having some non-native ornamentals. Mary and I, for instance, love our lilacs, which her grandparents planted many decades ago, and they’re staying put. A balance is what he’s looking for.

Only 5% of our native plants make 75% of the food driving the various food webs, so choosing the best native plants for your area is the key to success.Gingko, for instance, supports zero caterpillars, but oaks and cherries support hundreds of species. 

So, what specifically to plant? To find the top-ranked “keystone” plants in your county, go to National Wildlife Federation’s “Native Plant Finder” at https://www.nwf.org/NativePlantFinder/. Then plug in your zip code, and the best native trees, shrubs, and herbaceous plants in your area will appear.

            I need to note that Tallamy is acutely aware that many people dislike and/or fear insects, so he’s also on a mission to dispel those fears. For instance, relative to bees, which are our best pollinators by far, he says nearly all native bees don’t sting. Yellowjackets, the main provocateur in stinging, are actually wasps (though the non-native honey bee may also sting when aggravated). Yellowjackets aren’t even pollinators – the don’t carry pollen because they don’t have the flattened, hairy hind legs necessary to carry it. Nearly all insects are beneficial, says Tallamy, and the vast majority don’t sting or bite – we simply need to appreciate how much they help us.

            At the conclusion of his talk, Tallamy was asked to comment on the use of pesticides to kill mosquitoes. His answer was that these chemicals don’t discriminate – they kill all insects, including the caterpillars needed by the birds. He said the key in knocking back mosquitoes is killing them in their larval state in water, not as flying adults. And to that end, he recommended the use of what he called “mosquito dump buckets” that attract mosquitoes to lay their eggs. The water can then be treated with “mosquito dunks” that contain bti (Bacillus thuringiensis israelensis, which onlykills mosquito larvae), and then dumped out.

            Here are two last thoughts from Tallamy: One, nature is not someplace else. It’s where we live and work. 

Two, land ownership is more than privilege, it’s a responsibility to care for all the life the land can sustain.

Sightings

4/5: Judith Bloom on Lake Tomahawk sent photos of a pair of wood ducks digging for sunflower seeds under their bird feeders.

4/8: Judith also sent a great photo of an otter eating a fish.

photo by Judith Bloom

4/8: Jeanne Milewski reported seeing two loons fly over her car in the Mann Creek area. It’s certainly very early for loons, but as spring progresses, they do flyovers to scout out the ice conditions on their desired lake. And, as everyone knows who has a loon pair nesting on their lake, the pair has an uncanny ability to appear very shortly after the ice goes off.

4/8: Our first-of-the-year (FOY) song sparrow appeared under our feeders in Manitowish.

4/11: A crazy snowstorm hit, and birds were hungry. Ed Marshall near Lac du Flambeau had 20 common redpolls appear at his feeders.

4/11: Our FOY fox sparrows came in to our feeders in Manitowish.

photo by Bev Engstrom

4/12: Sue Remley reported six purple finches at her feeders in Hazelhurst. Purple finches have been AWOL this winter, so it’s good to hear they’re returning.

4/12: Bev Engstrom sent a great photo of a mourning dove and a fox sparrow sharing a snowy perch after our 4/11 snowstorm. She added this appropriate caption: “Said the fox sparrow to the mourning dove, ‘Can you believe this crap?’”

photo  by Bev Engstrom

4/12: A lone evening grosbeak shows up sporadically at our feeders. At the same time, robins are eating crabapples of “questionable quality” and appearing quite lethargic on the ground. I’m wondering if the crabapples have aged into hard cider! It’s not unusual for robins and cedar waxwings, in particular, to “fly under the influence of ethanol” when they eat fruits that have fermented. And like humans under the influence, the fruits can cause multiple deaths when the birds fly into cars or die from the toxicity of the fermentation. 

4/13: George Steil had a flock of redpolls stop by at his feeder in Presque Isle. Like purple finches, redpolls have largely been AWOL all winter. 

Helping Birds Survive April Storms 

April snowstorms are nothing new in the North Country, nor May for that matter (my apologies for reminding everyone). Nevertheless, many birds have returned, and we always wonder how we can best help these early migrants and our other wintering birds through the storms. Here are a few ideas:

*Clear the snow to expose some bare soil, and then scatter seed on the ground. Ground-feeding birds like juncos, robins, hermit thrushes, woodcock, flickers, and various species of sparrows will thank you.

*Feed a variety of foods, if your budget can tolerate the cost, including suet, niger seed, peanuts, mealworms, raisins and frozen fruits. The fatty foods attract sapsuckers, other woodpeckers, robins, yellow-rumped warblers, and even chickadees and nuthatches. Meanwhile, robins, bluebirds, blue jays and others will take advantage of the fruits.

*Keep your feeders and your seeds dry and clean. This is the time of year for salmonella to spread, so vigilance is key.

*Provide shelter in the storms. Place feeders/seed out of the wind, where the snow is least likely to pile up, and where tree and shrub cover are close by. Brush piles are really helpful for cover, too.

            Early migrants have been coming back for millennia despite our capricious springs, and most survive just fine. Still, a helping hand can make a big difference for many, so do what you can.

Celestial Events

            Full moon tonight, 4/19 – the moon rises south of east for the first time since September.

Good news on the temperature front: on 4/20, the average low temperature in the Minocqua area now reaches 32° for the first time since October 25. Minocqua averages 182 days – almost exactly half the year – with low temperatures above freezing (thank you to Woody Hagge for these stats).

The peak Lyrid meteor shower occurs in the early morning of 4/22. This modest shower averages 10 to 20 meteors per hour.

On 4/23, look for Jupiter 1.6° below the waning gibbous moon. On 4/25, look before dawn for Saturn just above the waning gibbous moon.

We hit 14 hours of daylight on 4/25.

Thought for the Week

If the sight of the blue skies fills you with joy, if a blade of grass springing up in the fields has power to move you, if the simple things of nature have a message that you understand, rejoice, for your soul is alive.– Eleonora Duse