"Bird Poop" of north Texas

Wednesday, February 4, 2015

Put out the welcome mat now for Purple Martins

Purple Martins

Purple Martins start scouting out potential housing in north Texas in late February. They’ll keep looking (until they find a home) into late April. Lots of people are “landlords” because Martins are pleasant singers, and exceptionally good and graceful fliers. They look for multi-unit homes on a tall pole. The housing they prefer to nest in is usually the kind that comes in a box, is well-ventilated, and isn’t welcoming to other birds. White is by far the best color in Texas, since it reflects heat. The homes are typically made of aluminum, and look like little apartments with round doors. The dimensions of the holes, and the “apartment” itself, are crucial in deterring predators and excluding pests.

Not all yards are good for Martins, however. They need a treeless (grassy) circle around the house with a radius of about 25 to 50 feet, so they can hunt for insects an fly around.

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.

Sunday, February 1, 2015

Are Monarch butterflies disappearing permanently?

Monarch

Every year, millions of colorful Monarch butterflies migrate from all over North America (including north Texas) to one small part of central Mexico, where they are right now. (They’re one of the few insects that actually migrate). However, illegal logging in this “Monarch Butterfly Biosphere Reserve” has cleared more than 1,000 acres, imperiling their survival.

Monarchs (migrating)

Now’s a good time to clean feeders With avian activity winding down somewhat, most birdfeeders have gotten dirty. I know mine have! Cleaning is easy and good for birds. I soak mine for a few hours in a 10:1 mix of water and bleach (although I’m told diluted vinegar or laundry detergent is just as good). Several times during the “soak” I agitate the feeder to get stuff out of tight spaces. Then I brush it inside and out, and rinse it with fresh water. I’ll let the sun dry it, and the birds could be “feederless” for less than a day.

Wednesday, January 28, 2015

Silly superstitions about bats should have faded long ago

They’re cute, innocent mammals that weigh about half-an-ounce, but eat lots and lots of mosquitoes – they don’t get in your hair, suck your blood and they have less chance of having rabies than your pet dog. Superstitions like that are just plain silly and outdated. Most were created by Hollywood!

Bats are about to return from wintering in Central America. The bats in north Texas, mostly Mexican free-tail Bats, cleanse the nights of tons of pesky flying bugs, while avoiding humans as much as possible. A colony of bats is an environmentally-safe replacement for a lot of malathion and a lot of chemical spraying!

An average bat will eat up to 5000 flying pests each and every night. In terms we can all understand, that’s like a 60 lb. child eating 126 peanut butter & jelly sandwiches every day. Sadly, bat populations have fallen for several reasons. It’s a shame since nothing gets rid of flying insects as efficiently, cheaply, quietly and safely as bats.

A silly myth concerns rabies: actually, less than one-half of one percent of bats have rabies, admittedly a serious disease. They are not carriers without becoming sick themselves! If bitten, they’ll come down with rabies; just like any other mammal. If a bat gets rabies it’ll probably die in a few hours.

If you find a bat during the day (un-bat-like), pick it up only with heavy gloves, and bring it to a wildlife rehabilitator. He’ll be scared and may bite in self-defense. He may not be sick, however. He could have been attacked by a predator, blown down in a storm, or orphaned by chemical fogging. Or it could be a young bat learning to fly.

Bats don’t try to get in your hair. That’s silly! They avoid humans by every means possible. Getting tangled in anything could probably mean death.

Bats aren’t blind. They “see” far better than humans do, using a system similar to radar, but much, much better – to get around fine even in total darkness.

Providing housing for a bat colony is environmentally-smart. In fact, it’s the responsible thing to do. Now, while they’re returning to the north Texas area looking for a home, is the ideal time to put up a bat house. If you have any fear of putting up a bat house because you might attract vampire bats, fear not. No vampire bats exist (or have ever existed) on this continent (except Hollywood seems to have put them in several movies).

Sunday, January 25, 2015

Robins' winter diet in Texas

American Robin

During the winter months, Robins who happen to live up north migrate to the southern states (including Texas!) to find food. But the ones that are already here, stay here. So the local population swells. All these Robins don’t eat earthworms in winter of course, but modify their palates to consume large amounts of wild berries (like from hollies) and mealworms (which are actually beetle larvae).

Birds’ flights for the Gulf crossing are affected by the strength and direction of winds in the upper atmosphere not by what’s in your feeder or anything else. These winds may be stronger than surface winds, and often are not from the same direction. They usually try to fly with the upper-air winds so they can cover greater distances and not use up all their stored energy. Birds will be moving much faster than observed wind speeds so flocks are easily distinguishable on NexRad.

For the record, a really strong-flying bird, with really good winds and perfect weather, can make the non-stop Gulf crossing in just over 8 hours. It takes an average of 19 straight hours of flying, however, for an average bird, and more for a small bird.

Sunday, January 18, 2015

That Goldfinch seed is almost certainly not native Texas "thistle"

Is it really “thistle”?

Be aware of what Goldfinches like to eat. The small, black seed that Goldfinches are crazy about is not the same as the “thistle” that grows here in Texas. The popular seed for Goldfinches is Nyjer (nī-jĕr), which is only sold in bags because it comes from overseas. It’s a trademarked name. The U.S.D.A. requires that it be heated (250 degrees for 15 minutes) at customs. So its “freshness” has a life of only 6 or 7 months. Even with all this government-mandated processing, Goldfinches love it, and eat all of it instead of throwing it on the ground. But they won’t if given last season’s dried-out Nyjer seed.

Nyjer thistle is costly, so I mostly use ordinary Black-oil Sunflower seeds to attract Goldfinches, which is a far less costly seed, and they seem to eat it just as readily.

That’s 27 widespread species Wild birds that nest in all 48 contiguous states (including Texas), according to Bird Watcher’s Digest: Killdeer, Common Yellowthroat, Mourning Dove, Great-horned Owl, Great blue Heron, Coopers Hawk, Turkey Vulture, American Kestrel, Red-tailed Hawk, Wild Turkey, Rock Dove, House Sparrow, Common Nighthawk, American Crow, Belted Kingfisher, European Starling, Downy Woodpecker, Hairy Woodpecker, Northern Flicker, Rough-winged Swallow, Barn Swallow, American Robin, White-breasted Nuthatch, Chipping Sparrow, Cowbird, House Finch and Red-winged Blackbird. How many have you seen around north Texas?

Wednesday, January 14, 2015

The very simple key to attracting birds to your yard

Whenever I talk with other amateur birdwatchers, one question that almost always gets asked is “how do I get birds to come to my yard?”. The key is fresh seed!! You can have an expensive, gigantic birdfeeder located in your yard’s birdiest place. But if it’s filled with stale, un-nutritious birdseed, birds will look elsewhere in a hurry.

The seed you offer birds must be unquestionably fresh. For them, it’s a matter of life and death. Birds absolutely have to get top nutrition from all the food they eat. Theeey d9in’t caremif it cost you a fdew cents less. All they cvare abour is gettinjmg ther nutrition to make it through bad weather, or be able to attract a mate, or fly well enough to escape a predator, or fight off disease (take your pick - they could all end the same way).

To humans, birdseed all looks the same; but a wild bird can tell instantly if it’s been sitting in a warehouse or on a store shelf too long. When seed is harvested, it has 100% of the naturally nutritious oil content. The longer it sits idly on a shelf, drying out, the less natural oil content it has - and the less attractive it is to a bird.

A bird has the ability to tell if a seed he holds in his beak is worth eating or not. He can tell in a micro-second, and may just throw it on the ground and look for a more nutritious seed. They’re not being fussy, they’re just being practical. Some seed packages contain a lot of cheap filler. Or seed that our Texas birds don’t eat, like corn. Some packages contain a lot of non-seed junk; plant stalks, empty hulls, twigs, weed stems etc. You pay for this stuff, but wild birds won’t touch it.

Sunday, January 11, 2015

The main purpose of the male Red-winged Blackbird's red "epaulets"

Red-winged Blackbird (male)

This time of year Red-winged Blackbirds are throughout north Texas. The Females are a non-descript gray and black. The male has reddish patches (about the size of a quarter) on each wing. These are used to claim and defend a territory. When the red “epaulets” were colored black in an experiment by researchers, the male usually lost its territory.

They often hang out and hunt in large flocks, which may have some Crows, Grackles and Cowbirds in it.

A fable from another era about mothballs Loose mothballs often get eaten by wild birds (which have no sense of smell) with very unhealthy results. I recommend a cluster of 6 or 8 mothballs however, bundled up in something like an old sock, to repel certain wild animals and loose dogs (which is a subject in itself). It’s NO LONGER a responsible recommendation to scatter mothballs on the ground. This is no longer suggested by researchers, or any knowledgeable or environmentally-aware person.