Saving Birds Thru Habitat

Northport, Michigan bookseller (Dog Ears Books) and SBTH member Pamela Grath sent the following link in response to our February Plant of the Month.  Check it out to learn about another imperiled shrub/scrub habitat in the U.S.

Floridata:  The Florida Scrub

Saving Birds Thru Habitat has, from its beginning, worked to encourage people to help preserve wintering habitat for migrating songbirds by purchasing organically grown “shade” coffee.  Several years ago, it was encouraging to see that companies such as Wal-Mart and Starbucks were offering such bird-friendly products.  Recently, however, Wal-Mart, McDonalds and Starbucks have been driving down the premium paid for organically certified products, including coffee.  Reduced premiums mean that small growers can no longer cover the costs of organic production and certification.   Under USDA standards, certified organic soils must be free of synthetic fertilizers and pesticides for a minimum of three years.  During that time, the farmers incur debts; a circumstance that (coupled with lower prices) has forced many to switch back to conventional production.

While this is bad news for birds such as Cerulean and Chestnut-sided Warblers (both depend heavily on shade coffee plantations during the winter), birders can  still help the above, and many other avian species, by purchasing premium, shade grown, Fair Trade coffee products through companies such as Higher Grounds, or from organizations such as Audubon or the American Bird Conservancy.

If you care about our migrating birds, please do not support companies that conduct business in a way that results in loss of winter habitat for them.

If you have never attended a birding festival before, The Biggest Week in American Birding is the perfect place to become initiated.

This eleven day event, taking place May 6-16, 2010, is hosted by Black Swamp Bird Observatory, and includes tours at adjacent sites such as Magee Marsh Wilderness area and Crane Creek State Park.  Well-known bird author Kenn Kaufman will present programs virtually every night of the event.

Besides offering stellar birding, the most significant aspect of this festival is that there is no up front participation fee, many events are free of charge, and fees are nominal where they are charged.

Click here to learn more about this terrific opportunity.

The November 10 issue of the New York Times included an article on various efforts to save and/or preserve plants which are endangered, or are at risk of becoming so, by collecting thousands of seeds.  The seeds are then stored under controlled condition in seed banks.  The article focused particularly on the Dixon National Tallgrass Prairie Seed Bank at the Chicago Botanic Garden, which is taking part in a Bureau of Land Management project called Seeds of Success.  The goal of the project is to collect seeds of the entire flora of the United States, which is a worthwhile endeavor.

However, the suggestion by some scientists to plant endangered pitcher’s thistle – a plant that once thrived along Great Lakes sand dunes – in areas where it has never occurred is troubling.  The question is not whether pitcher’s thistle will grow in the new areas, but whether or not the plant will find an appropriate ecological niche in its new home.  Surely, if disastrous introductions like kudzu, purple loosestrife and Asian honeysuckle have taught us anything, it is that moving any species into a new range is fraught with potential risks.

Most efforts to save endangered species are laudable.  However, any attempt to save that which may be lost by moving it to a place where it has never occurred might be futile at best.  At worst, it might open yet another unpleasant Pandora’s Box of unwelcome, unintended consequences.

Whether or not you have read Dr. Douglas Tallamy’s book, Bringing Nature Home, check out the this article for more information about the importance of incorporating native plants into your personal landscape.

Dr. Tallamy chairs the Department of Entomology and Wildlife Ecology at the University of Delaware.  He is not only a “bugologist,” but he is also an avid birder and able photographer.

If you have not read his book, pick up a copy at your earliest convenience — and then read it.  Bringing Nature Home is the most important environmental book since Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring.

The following was written by SBTH Volunteer Coordinator (and recipient of last year’s Volunteer of the Year Award), Ann McInnis.

Native prairie plants at Saving Birds Thru Habitat

Michigan native plants are defined as species that occurred prior to European settlement.  They have been determined by decades of scrupulous research of an untold number of survey records made well over 200 years ago (including dried botanical specimens), museum notes, Native American knowledge as well as the scientific observation of the cascading effect native plants have in an ecosystem which highlights their complex ecological relationship within a wildlife community. Many, many experts have spent their careers determining which plant species are  “native” such as Dr. Edward Voss who, over decades, has written a 3 volume definitive guide to Michigan natives. The Michigan Department of Natural Resources, with input from many expert botanists, in 2001 developed The Michigan Floristic Quality Assessment which is now used as a tool to determine whether a species is native to Michigan.
The entire document can be seen at:  http://www.michigandnr.com/publications/pdfs/HuntingWildlifeHabitat/FQA.pdf
or just the plant list can be viewed at:  http://www.michigandnr.com/publications/pdfs/HuntingWildlifeHabitat/FQA_C_database.pdf
Why Are Native Plants Important?
Native species are important because they are adapted to Michigan’s climate and soils, and they have an incredible root system that rebuilds soil and works as a filtering system  They are beautiful. Most importantly, they provide high quality habitat for Michigan’s native wildlife with which they share centuries of co-evolution.  Non native plants do not provide habitat for native wildlife.
“Michigan’s native flora is unique to Michigan and provides us with a sense of place.” (Esther Durnwald, President, Wildflower Association of Michigan.)

Brian & Plant Delivery

Last week, Brian Zimmerman, owner of Four Season Nursery, brought his entire crew (while on the clock) up to our Habitat Discovery Center to attend a PowerPoint presentation about the connection between native plants, insect biomass and a healthy bird population.

After the presentation, Brian had his crew install a host of native wildflowers and grasses adjacent to the little bluestem based prairie installation north of our building.  As these plants go to seed, they will spread into the prairie, thereby adding diversity.

Brian Zimmerman counsels Jim Charter on plants

Brian also counseled us on how we can improve the appearance of the prairie garden that goes up the hill just outside of the west side of our building.

We are deeply grateful to Brian for this gift, as well as for his ongoing support of our efforts.

Once again, if you live in the Grand Traverse area, or are visiting here, be sure to stop by and check out our Prairie Demonstration Garden, as well as the prairie installation on Charter Sanctuary.  (The latter can be seen from the road or from our nature center.)

A couple of weeks ago, Vern Stephens and his wife Sue Tangora brought their PowerPoint prairie program and a good selection of their native plants to our Habitat Discovery Center. The program (by Vern) was to educate people about the importance of prairie habitat. It included guidelines about how to manage a prairie once it is installed.

The plants were for sale. When we first began our efforts to educate those who are concerned about our declining bird populations about the significance of native plants to birds and other wildlife (such as amphibians, fish, reptiles and others), there were few places where one could purchase such plants. While this is beginning to change, there are still insufficient native plants available on the market. Vern and Sue’s program and plant sale fit perfectly with our mission, which is to protect, enhance and restore habitat for North American birds.

Vern and Sue were instrumental in guiding Jim and Kay Charter through their prairie installation project, and they found the funding to assist the Charter’s in completing the project. They are naturally interested in watching the progress of this beautiful, developing prairie.

The first thing Vern did when they arrived for their afternoon program and sale was to walk into the little bluestem. In a few seconds, he returned with a preying mantis in his hand.

When he showed us what he had, he said, “This is what I was looking for; predator insects. If the predator insects are doing well, that means there is a good insect prey base.”

That is great news for our migrating and nesting birds. Jim Charter has worked diligently for the past four summers taking care of this prairie habitat. Finding that it is working so well attests to the quality of his efforts.

Our Board President, Gina Erb, took the photo of Vern and their son, Zach, looking at a preying mantis on one of our long-branch bluebird nest boxes.

On a morning late last month, a host of Neotropical species stopped in to forage in and around the prairie demonstration garden just outside the SBTH Habitat Discovery Center.  This garden is filled with half a dozen species of native grasses and many more species of forbs (wildflowers), and it has a standing dead elm at one corner.  Several native maple trees are nearby and a berry-laden serviceberry is at the opposite corner of the snag.

The flock of goldfinches, taking seeds from black-eyed Susans, was no surprise.  Neither, actually, was the family of eastern kingbirds, hawking insects from their respective perches in the dead elm.  None of the birds was unexpected, including the great crested flycatcher, hunting from a branch in the elm, or the rose breasted grosbeak or the nectaring hummingbird, or the pair of Baltimore orioles.  All of these birds occur regularly on the Center’s property, and all were foraging on insects, nectar and seeds of our native plants.

But what was striking about this occurrence was that their foraging at the same time was a great example of the degree to which native plants provide for them – without the addition of feeders.  There are no feeders at the Discovery Center, but there always are foraging birds.

If you are in Leelanau County and you would like to see just how effective our habitats are, stop by and check us out.  We are located at 5020 North Putnam Road, about two miles west of “downtown” Omena.

Entomologist and MSU extension agent Duke Elsner recently led an insect walk that focused on those creatures that are drawn to sap, particularly those that become active after the sun sets.  In order to draw these fascinating insects in, he painted a number of trees with a mixture of sugar, beer, molasses, banana extract and rum.

On the first tree baited, ants were the first to arrive, and they likely continued to visit the site after all the human visitors were long gone.  There were also slugs, daddy long legs, camel crickets, and the star of the night, ground beetles and a single underwing moth (Noctuidae catocala).  Duke informed the group that this same bait, applied in the morning, would bring different insects.

Anyone wanting to attract nighttime insects can make up a batch of bait by beginning with five pounds of sugar, a can or bottle of beer, and the other above listed ingredients.  The final mix should be liquid enough to stick to the tree and remain fluid for several hours before crystallizing, but not so runny that it all drains off the trees.  Use a large paint brush to apply and then watch to see what shows up!