"Bird Poop" of north Texas

Sunday, August 10, 2014

Under the impression that suet is only for winter bird-feeding? That's a totally untrue myth.

Tufted Titmouse on suet

Some folks still think suet is for wintertime only. They believe the old myth that in the summer it might melt or be unappealing. That’s true of basic suet (animal fat) from a butcher shop, popular in the early 1900s. But packaged suet today is formulated to have a melting point of around 110-degrees. So it’s perfect for Jays, Woodpeckers, Titmice, Chickadees and lots of other north Texas birds, now and all summer long. (They’re hungry all year!)

If the temperature stays over 110, you're likely to have bigger problems than what to feed the birds.

It takes a village.... The young, male Indigo Bunting alters its song to match what it hears from older Buntings in the same area. So small pockets of Indigo Buntings (often seen around here) will all sing very similar songs…with a very localized “flavor”. Youngsters can also tell, just by listening to the adults, if they’ve strayed too far from home.

OWEN YOST, in addition to being a blogger, is a licensed Landscape Architect emeritus who has lived and worked in north Texas for over 30 years. He is the recipient of a Lifetime Achievement Award of the Native Plant Society of Texas, and is a member of the American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA), International Federation of Landscape Architects, National Wildlife Federation and the Audubon Society. His office is at Yost87@charter.net in Denton.

Wednesday, August 6, 2014

Do you have enough space for a bird habitat?

Birds don’t really care if you own ten acres or ten square feet. To them, lot lines and ownership of land is meaningless. Birds might forage in a utility easement, hunt food in a nearby field, cavort in a distant park, get a sip of water from a puddle in a parking lot, and eat from a feeder on your balcony. A lot of their routine is up to you.

As people are living closer together, more and more products are being made for small spaces like balconies, patios and “postage stamp” courtyards. Sure, there are big things like Ray Roberts Park, Clear Creek, Lewisville Lake Environmental Center and the Elm Fork Greenbelt – all great big habitats that attract birds by the thousands. All birds care about, however, is a good habitat.

Individual chunks of habitat of any size are absolutely vital. Especially in established neighborhoods with mature vegetation and nearby water. The National Audubon Society even says the “smaller” places, mostly private lands such as backyards, are just as important and vital. These are habitats for local birds (whose territory may be a quarter-acre or so) or “waystations” for many kinds of migrating birds.

The main concerns for birds seeking proper habitat are: 1. clean, fresh food 2. clean, fresh water 3. nesting places and 4. places to hide from predators. Size is not a factor!

These can be provided on even a single yard. It could be as simple as using native plants, providing tall, native grasses and shrubs, and putting out some birdfeeders and birdbaths. Of course, avoiding the use of artificial weed-killers and pesticides is a must. (Native Texas plants are important because they leaf out, set fruit and go to seed in synchronization with local birds’ needs. Birds will seek out familiar, native plants before they resort to perching on or munching on imported, alien species. After all, their ancestors (probably going back thousands of years) have learned to exist on whatever grew natively in this area. Certain birds, however, are especially attracted to certain native plants and certain environments. Knowing bird species’ likes and dislikes helps you fine-tune a habitat and attract birds in a more effective way.

One thing that very few birds are drawn to, however, is a big lawn. Lawns offer almost no good food source and no place to hide from predators (like cats). A big lawn has no place in a truly “birdscaped” habitat.

There is no one kind of yard that will attract all kinds of birds. (Just like no one yard is suitable for all plant species.) So my advice is to concentrate on the kinds of native birds that already favor your area.

Putting out the welcome mat for wild birds is simple, especially in a one-lot habitat. Just provide the four basic elements that local birds look for, starting with plenty of fresh, nutritious food.

Sunday, August 3, 2014

Ugly birds?? That'll go away by itself.

In the process of researching “bird mites” I was amazed at the number of companies that wanted to sell you something to kill bird mites. Unless you keep indoor birds (like in cage) don’t waste your money. The first frost will kill bird mites on wild birds. But, since it won’t kill their eggs, it’s a recurring annoyance.

Blue Jay w/mites

Wild birds sometimes look shaggy and diseased toward the end of the summer. Usually, birds control mites by themselves – by preening with their beaks. But, since they can’t preen their heads, they may lose feathers there. They’ll grow back!

Bird mites are very rarely a problem on humans. On wild birds it’s not much of a problem, either. The chemical, or chemicals, used to kill them can become a problem however. Mites are just one of the drawbacks to living outside all the time.

That old fable about red food coloring

Hummingbirds and butterflies love nectar. However, food coloring (red or any other color) has never, in all this time, been proven to be effective. In fact it’s genetically harmful, having been proven to cause DNA damage. Nectar is naturally clear anyway. On hot days, food coloring probably will introduce some tiny bits of mold or bacteria, which will rapidly multiply in our Texas heat and affect your whole batch of nectar.

Why is it marketed? It sells better than the clear stuff and boosts profits, even though it hasn't been proven to work, and it might harm Hummingbirds.

Wednesday, July 30, 2014

These chemicals are "highly toxic to bees" according to the EPA. So...?

Bees are dying at an alarming rate, awash in a deluge of highly toxic pesticides unleashed by Dow, Bayer, Monsanto and Syngenta. The Environmental Protection Agency concedes that these chemicals are “highly toxic to bees,” yet it’s done virtually nothing to rein in the pesticide-free-for-all. Missing in their calculations is the fact that the $ 9-billion a year food industry is circling the drain.

If we don’t act now, it’s only a matter of time before this crisis turns into a full-blown catastrophe affecting our food supply, food prices and much more. We must get the EPA to stop acting on behalf of big chemical companies’ profits and to start protecting imperiled bees. The EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy needs to take these bee-killing pesticides off the market and impose an immediate moratorium on their use!

Of 100 major crops, more than 70 are pollinated by bees -- along with countless flowers and vegetables in millions of backyard gardens across America.

How can it be that these vital, once-thriving pollinators are dying in such massive numbers?

honeybee pollinating

The agri-tech giants have been pushing a class of deadly pesticides known as neonicotinoids -- or “neonics.” Millions of acres of crops have been doused with these potent chemicals. These pesticides are also sold on store shelves for our lawns, gardens and landscaping. Instead, the agency has said that it wants to wait five years to “review” the impacts of neonics on bee colonies! I don’t know about you, but neither I nor the bees should have to wait 5 years.

Sunday, July 27, 2014

How much paper can be made from a typical tree?

It’s tough to arrive at a good number, due to variables such as the density of different kinds of wood, the size of trees, and the type of pulping process, etc. A rule of thumb is that a cord of hardwood (128 cubic feet) weighing two tons will produce 1,000 to 2,000 pounds of paper. So to arrive at the number of trees needed for a ton, I imagine an “average” tree. It has an average 8-inch diameter trunk and a usable height of about 45 feet. Applying the simple πr2 formula to get the cross-sectional area and multiplying it by the height, we discover that this “average” tree contains roughly 10 cubic feet of wood. So it would take about 8 of these trees to produce between 1,000 and 2,000 pounds of paper,

Since a typical 500-sheet packet of the paper weighs 5 pounds, that’s 10,000 to 20,000 sheets per tree, which doesn’t sound all that bad. That’s why the most effective way to shock your colleagues is 1) to address the volume of paper unnecessarily used in the first place, and 2) note the vast amount that gets wasted instead of recycled.

The United States produced about 20,700,000 tons of this paper last year, which by my reckoning (see below) takes 55 to 110 million trees, ut we only recycle about 11,000,000 tons, or 53 percent, according to the American Forest and Paper Association. (Recycling is vital because about a third of new paper comes from recycled paper. Another third is from waste such as sawdust and scrap from lumber mills, according to the EPA.) Data from last year do indicate that we used a third less paper than when the “paperless” office went into high gear 20 years ago. But even this statistic might say more about the recent economic mess than anything else, because in 2007 when the economy was hot, we went through more printing paper than ever.

An ode to tree sap At least 50 bird species eat tree sap. Woodpeckers and Hummingbirds readily come to mind. Cardinals, Kinglets, Warblers, Waxwings, Chickadees, Titmice, and Nuthatches (all of which frequent north Texas) like tree sap too. They like it because it’s sweet, and often has ants in it – sort of a smoothie for birds.

Wednesday, July 16, 2014

Here's more about Cardinals than you probably care to know

Northern Cardinal

The name “cardinalis” (the bird’s scientific name) was chosen by Swedish botanist Linnaeus because it reminded him of the red robes of the Cardinals of the Catholic Church. Few people care, but technically it’s a “Northern Cardinal”.

In the 1800s, the Northern Cardinal occurred naturally in North America only as far north as southern New York and west only to wooded portions of the Great Plains. Back then, it could be seen only rarely in north Texas.

In the 21^st century, the Cardinal is almost everywhere in this country (except large chunks of the West) and is one of the birdwatchers’ favorites. Its popularity is probably due to its bright color. Cardinals aren’t native to the Western states but were introduced on several occasions, beginning in 1880. It didn’t take well, but by the 1920s there was finally a self-sustaining population in Los Angeles County. There were several introductions on the Hawaiian Islands, between 1929 and 1931. Today the Cardinal is a common backyard bird on many of the larger islands. Cardinals were also introduced, successfully, to Bermuda “a long time ago” (nobody kept records). The Cardinal (or “redbird”) has been introduced into several other places, with varying degrees of success.

The original population has expanded too. Thanks largely to the birds’ adaptability, and the increasing number of people who feed birds and provide habitat. Backyard bird-feeding became popular at the start of the 20^th century, enabling the birds to survive cold, harsh winters and hot, dry summers. Today, their range extends north into southern Canada, and their numbers are growing from the Rocky Mountains, east to the Atlantic seaboard. By the way, the Arizona Cardinals of professional sports is

Pyrrhuloxia

actually a similar-looking Pyrrhuloxia, native to the southwest (when the team was in St. Louis, the name made sense); the Cardinal isn’t native to Arizona.

Centuries ago, Cardinals only lived naturally along rivers and steams, and at the forest edges occurring naturally (such as were created by fires or floods). However, as man cleared small spaces for homesites, more and more “forest edge” was created. Humans even grew and stored lots of Cardinal-food such as wheat and corn. If humans had set out to create habitat for Cardinals, we couldn’t have done much better.

Due to Cardinals’ casual proximity to humans, we have plenty of opportunity to observe their behavior. For instance, the female Cardinal seems to do all the nest construction. She also sits on the eggs, while the male makes trip after trip - bringing food to the female and (when the eggs hatch) to the 2 to 5 fledglings. The nest is usually less than 10 feet from the ground (often lower). They’re concealed within dense vegetation however.

Male and females escort fledglings (just-out-of-the-nest youngsters) to the vicinity of birdfeeders. The parents will bring seeds to the fledglings, with the adult male doing most of the work. The adults soon tire of this, and the clumsy fledglings (now knowing where the feeder is) come by themselves. You’ll recognize them by their black bills, gaping mouths, short tails, and wing-quivering. This “teaching by example” happens often at backyard birdbaths too. Watching them try to take a bath is amusing (any birdbath deeper than 2 or 3 inches, by the way, is too threatening to almost all birds).

By late summer, the fledglings will have matured. Then all Cardinals, start to get ready for the winter ahead, and molt their feathers, often looking unkempt in the process. Sometimes, most of the head feathers will be gone at the same time leaving a bare-headed bird (looking sort of like a vulture). Don’t worry, it’s not diseased - and winter feathers will soon grow in.

During the winter, Cardinals often join informal flocks and visit

feeders (and the ground below them) in large numbers. This is when you can see them almost every day - especially just after dawn and near dusk They appreciate feeders with “cardinal rings” or other perches that don’t require them to bend their necks (not easy for a Cardinal, anatomically). They eat a large variety of seed and, sometimes, even suet; preferring a seed blend that’s heavy on fresh sunflower seeds. If their finely-tuned senses tell them a seed is stale or dried out, they’ll just drop it and go to another yard.

Sunday, July 13, 2014

What's the benefit of having building lights on all night? Dead birds?

Most people know that, at night, lit buildings cause migrating birds to crash into them. Thousands and thousands die (in every city in the country) from flying into usually-empty buildings. All because the inside lights are left on. Many are owned by or leased by the State, hence a partial solution:

In Minnesota, the governor signed a law directing that the 5,326 state-owned or state- leased buildings turn off interior lights after midnight, during spring and fall bird migrations. This happened with leadership by several local birding organizations. Not only does this save birds, but it reduces CO2 emissions, saves energy and saves taxpayers’ money.

North Texas is on the central flyway, along which millions of birds migrate twice each year. Why am I writing about this now? Well, we all know how long it takes for a bill to get agreed on and signed into law.

Yellow-breasted Chat

The largest warbler there is:

The Yellow-breasted Chat is seen fairly commonly in north Texas, although often called by an inconclusive name such as “What’s That?”

It’s a warbler – at 7-inches long the largest warbler there is. It's most identifiable by the white "goggles" around the eyes.

Nestlings (out of the egg, but still in the nest) eat only insects. Out of the nest, the juveniles add fruits and berries to their diet - never seeds. The curious habit of some juvenile Chats is to wander northward after the late spring breeding season, instead of to their traditional wintering grounds in far south Texas and Central America, down to Panama.