BIG AND DIVERSE!

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Dark-eyed Junco

Cedar Waxwing

The Lone Star state is home to more kinds of birds than any other state in the union. Over 600 species live here!  That includes the beautiful Cedar Waxwing, whose first-of-season local sighting was east of Denton. It also includes the Golden-crowned Kinglet, sighted by friends near Northlakes Park. And an American Woodcock, in a friend’s yard south of here. This is mainly because Texas takes in so many ecological zones. Many of these birds can be seen around Denton County, because this area includes several of these zones. We even have cold & snow – when the birds are exceptionally active, fighting through the weather and trying to get warm. At these times, birds are especially grateful for the high-energy seeds (and such) you provide.



Great-crested Flycatcher

 

A Real Pane.    Research has proven what I strongly suspected – it’s OK for you to put feeders directly on or near windows. In the study feeders directly on, or within 3 ft., of a window resulted in NO bird deaths from flying into a window. It seems that the real “danger zone” is when feeders are 3 to 5 ft. from a window, especially a reflective one.

 

 Owen Yost, in addition to blogging, is a Landscape Architect emeritus from here, who‘s worked in north Texas for over 30 years.  He is a member of the American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA), International Society of Landscape Architects, the National BirdFeeding Society, National Wildlife Federation and the Audubon Society. He was honored with a Lifetime Achievement award by the Native Plant Society of Texas. His design office is at northwestern68@yahoo.com

What our birds eat hints at what species they are

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·       Birds are always busy finding food and eating. Particularly in cooler

weather.   Birds burn energy very quickly – in fact, the smaller the bird, the faster

they burn it. Thus smaller birds need to eat much more often. Each type of bird

has a particular way of locating and taking their food.

 

Mother Nature solves the overwhelming demand, and possible competition, for

food within the avian kingdom by having different species eat at unique times of

the day and night, at different depths of water, at varying heights in the

trees, and even at different places within trees and shrubs.

      Some birds will feed on their own. Most hawks and eagles are solitary hunters.

Other birds of the same species or even different species will group together

to seek out a meal. Think of the large groups of robins, grackles, and

sparrows you may easily spy, dining on the insects and seeds in neighborhoods.

Some birds learn that it pays to get help from other kinds of animals. If you live near farmland,

look for Cattle Egrets near grazing cattle who will gobble up multitudes of insects

stirred up by the cows. Other birds will eat off insects from other animals, such as

deer, who are relieved to be rid of the bugs.

    Sometimes birds will band together for safety since there are more eyes looking

for predators.  Flocks of terns can be

seen diving and confusing the school of fish, thus allowing the flock to catch

more fish! Other species, such as stilts and avocets, may form huge formations

and beat the water with their beaks, causing the very confused fish and even

bugs to come to the surface, allowing all of the birds to more easily catch a meal

and fill their stomachs. Groups of White Pelicans will drive fish into more shallow

water by beating their wings in the water while swimming.

 

      Birders often identify bird species by their beaks, which dictate what and where they eat. 



  

Northern Cardinal's heavy/strong beak tells you it's a seed eater

The Red-breasted Nuthatch (with a narrow beak) eats insects while going DOWN a tree trunk

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·       Owen Yost, in addition to blogging, is a Landscape Architect emeritus from here, who‘s worked in north Texas for over 30 years.  He is a member of the American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA), International Society of Landscape Architects, the National BirdFeeding Society, National Wildlife Federation and the Audubon Society. He was honored with a Lifetime Achievement award by the Native Plant Society of Texas. His design office is at northwestern68@yahoo.com

Don't blame woodpeckers if your tree's in bad shape.



woodpecker hole in diseased tree



Red Bellied Woodpecker

Downy Woodpecker

Let’s get real! Woodpeckers may put a few tiny holes in your trees, but they certainly don’t kill them. The woodpeckers in north Texas (including flickers and sapsuckers) are actually looking for bugs and for the sweet sap flowing in a tree’s cambium layer. Bugs are more apt to be in dead or unhealthy trees, and sap in an unhealthy tree is sweeter and thicker than in a healthy tree. So woodpeckers prize unhealthy, diseased trees. Hence, please don’t blame the woodpeckers (who come on the scene after the fact) if your tree isn’t doing well.



Yellow Bellied Sapsucker

 

 Owen Yost, in addition to blogging, is a Landscape Architect emeritus from here, who‘s worked in north Texas for over 30 years.  He is a member of the American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA), International Society of Landscape Architects, the National BirdFeeding Society, National Wildlife Federation and the Audubon Society. He was honored with a Lifetime Achievement award by the Native Plant Society of Texas. His design office is at northwestern68@yahoo;.com

You can’t buy ”Cross Timbers” heritage anywhere, but you can preserve it

 

This natural north Texas area is called “Cross Timbers” by ecologists. Also, Cross

Timbers Park is a 70-acre park in the south of Denton. As yet it hasn’t been deluged by soccer fields and joggers, but it’s going that way.

It seems that many people think the term “Cross Timbers” is merely a made-up name.

Actually, Denton is mostly in the Eastern Cross Timbers –the popular name for this area in “pioneer-speak”. Unfortunately, there is hardly any real “Cross Timbers” left today, having been plowed under and paved over to accommodate subdivisions, shopping malls, highways and the like. Which makes Cross Timbers Park very special.

The origin of the name can be traced down several paths, depending on who’s talking. The most popular, however, has its roots in the natural geography and vegetation of this area. Most forests here run in north-south bands.  Rivers, on the other hand, run roughly east-west. The result was that pioneers (who  avoided dangerous river crossings) had to cross bands of forest as they traveled between the rivers, heading west. Thus the name: 

”Cross Timbers”.

In academic, ecological terms, this area was a “savannah” which is defined as a grassland prairie spotted with trees. (Mostly post oaks and blackjack oaks in this instance). In many areas the characteristic trees were so thick that they were forests. In the 18th and 19^th centuries in fact, the Cross Timbers was a well-known geographic feature marking the eastern edge of the American grasslands.

Nowadays, however, there are embarrassingly few remnants of the Cross Timbers left. Much of the original soil has been “urbanized” by extensive construction, farming and introduction of non-natural soil. Descriptions of this region’s forest abound in the historic literature and the Cross Timbers was often THE most prominent feature on historic maps of the period 1830 – 1880. 

Even though 19th-century naturalists generally put the range of the Cross Timbers region over a large stretch of Texas, Oklahoma and Kansas – the native ecosystem is now found in only a few large parks, preserves and isolated patches of countryside and floodplains.

Many kinds of plants thrived in the Cross Timbers, but almost all the natural canopy trees were species of oaks. Among them were millions of tough smilax vines (those pesky, thorny vines also called catclaw vine or greenbrier).  But vegetation would not exist at all in this type of soil if “traffic” were not limited in some way. The Cross Timbers soil is sandy, porous, unstable and nutrient-poor. Consequently, the natural vegetation is fragile and easily killed.

The Cross Timbers is tied to the sandstone geology, and is limited by the local climate; rainfall being the biggest factor. This area (which includes Denton) gets between 23 inches and 43 inches per year. Coupled with high summer temperatures and frequent droughts, this area is ideal for the native oaks. When artificial irrigation is introduced, many other plants will survive here, although vegetative life and wildlife is still very fragile.

Despite a growing awareness of the Cross Timbers’ heritage , what little remains is being demolished at an alarming rate.  The opportunities for tourism revenue are still huge however. Few regions present better opportunities to integrate heritage tourism with

conservation than the Cross Timbers. 

So, as you look around Cross Timbers Park, glimpse an Eastern Bluebird perched on a limb, hear a hidden Woodpecker or Chickadee, and teach your child about real-life nature, think of all that came before us, and all that Cross Timbers used to be and it’s immense educational opportunity, without a flood of things like picnic tables and swing sets.

 

 

Owen Yost, in addition to blogging, is a Landscape Architect emeritus from here, who‘s worked in north Texas for over 30 years.  He is a member of the American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA), International Society of Landscape Architects, the National BirdFeeding Society, National Wildlife Federation and the Audubon Society. He was honored with a Lifetime Achievement award by the Native Plant Society of Texas. His design office is at northwestern68@yahoo.com

 

Why birds' feet won't freeze to perches

 Some folks still believe that birds’ feet will freeze onto metal perches in cold weather. Hogwash! According to the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, birds’ feet (as with the rest of their bodies) contain no sweat glands; therefore there’s no bodily moisture to freeze.

 

Similarly, birds' feet are not made of living tissue (much like our fingernails or hair), allowing them to perch safely on electric wires.

I wish you a very happy holiday season. (there are 33 religions that celebrate a holiday between Dec. 1 and Jan 1; some more than one holiday).  No religion is more credible or important than the others. So when I wish you all a happy holiday season, please don't take it as an insult.

Owen Yost, in addition to blogging, is a Landscape Architect emeritus from here, who‘s worked in north Texas for over 30 years.  He is a member of the American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA), International Society of Landscape Architects, the National BirdFeeding Society, National Wildlife Federation and the Audubon Society. He was honored with a Lifetime Achievement award by the Native Plant Society of Texas. 



North Texas hosts more birds in cool weather than in warm months

Scissor-tailed Flycatcher

American Robin

Kinglet

 

 What with all the talk of Hummingbirds leaving and other birds migrating to warmer climates, you may have gotten the impression that this area is empty of birds until spring. Nothing could be farther from the truth, and a look out your window may be enlightening. There are clearly more birds in north Texas in the fall and winter, than in the spring and summer.

True, some birds (like Hummingbirds, Buntings and Swallows) have left for their annual winter haunts in South and Central America. Other birds (like Goldfinches, true Sparrows, Juncos and Kinglets) are arriving in north Texas as we speak, after being up north  all summer.  To them, this IS south. Our comparatively mild winters agree with them.

Many, many other birds stay right here. These include Cardinals, Chickadees, Mockingbirds, Titmice and Woodpeckers. Of these, some are what’s called “partial migrators” – Robins for example. The ones that live here stay here. But the Robins that were in, for instance, Ohio last summer, come down here for the winter. So populations of some species actually swell, although they’re less active in cool weather.

In actuality, many of the cool weather birds are already arriving here. Even at this date, a few Juncos, Kinglets and Goldfinches have been seen. Cedar Waxwings and Flycatchers normally arrive here a week or so after that. The true Sparrows, like the White-throated Sparrows and Harris' Sparrows, are already here in throngs.

Sadly, wild birds have a high mortality in cool weather – it varies among species, but can be as high as 70% of the first-year birds. This is mainly from exposure to the winds and weather, coupled with a lack of fresh, energy-producing food.

Birds, like us, want to get out of the weather (especially at night) and conserve energy by staying relatively warm. They seek out “roosts” for the night. Roosts can be almost any warm, protective space. Some species, Chickadees are one, huddle together in a mass, sharing body heat.

In winter, birds need bathing water to stay warm too. At first, this seemed odd to me too, but not after discovering why they fluff up their feathers. The fluffing creates tiny air pockets, which insulate birds’ bodies quite well. Dirty feathers, however, won’t fluff up. So birds need to bathe in the winter (the actual bath takes only about a few seconds).

Bathing, warm roosts and fresh food are what birds need in cool weather. North Texans have been doing a good job of providing these basics, so we continue to have more birds here in cool weather, than the spring and summer.

Dark-eyed Junco

 

Cedar Waxwing

 

Northern Cardinal  (right)

Owen Yost, in addition to blogging, is a Landscape Architect emeritus from here, who‘s worked in north Texas for over 30 years.  He is a member of the American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA), International Society of Landscape Architects, the National BirdFeeding Society, National Wildlife Federation and the Audubon Society. He was honored with a Lifetime Achievement award by the Native Plant Society of Texas. His design office is at northwestern68@yahoo.com  

Use dead leaves the way nature intended

Sooner or later, you’ll get tired of moving fallen leaves from one place in your yard to another. Maybe you end up stuffing them into plastic bags or you decide to call a mound of leaves a "compost pile." Here’s an idea: instead of using a rake, use your lawn mower to improve your soil and get fallen leaves out of sight.

The easiest and most environmentally sensible thing to do is leave the leaves where they fall, and shred them up with your mower. No special mower or blade is necessary; just do it like you’re cutting the lawn. By far the worst thing you can do is rake up all the fallen leaves, leaving bare ground exposed to the elements. This just encourages unwanted vegetation and erosion. A thin carpet of shredded, dead leaves protects the soil from compaction and erosion; and it’s free! It also loosens the soil so it holds water better.

Most of the trees in north Texas are oak trees. All spring and summer, oak leaves store up nutrients gathered from the soil. These nutrients are roughly equivalent to the nutrients in store-bought compost, which we'll gladly pay good money for! About now, however, leaves are dying and falling to the ground. Then they start decomposing naturally, becoming compost. They’re also releasing all of that stored nutrition. (It's a natural, yearly cycle that nature intended.) This coming winter, the dead leaves will protect fragile roots (which are usually near the surface) from the cold. 

Taking the dead leaves away interferes with this natural process and stresses plants, which now have no natural source of nutrition or natural protection. Left in place, however, fallen leaves slowly decompose into an excellent soil ingredient; leaves mixed with your soil will immediately start decomposing to nourish and loosen the soil and noticeably improve plant growth. 

Biology is certainly not my strong suit. However, I'm told that fallen leaves contain carbon and nitrogen compounds, which all plants crave. What's more, some organic compounds (such as amino acids) resulting from leaf decomposition can be absorbed directly by plants, for more vigorous growth.

The only drawback that I know of is that sometimes too many leaves can form a mat and smother plants, cutting them off from sunlight, air or water. Of course, if you shred your leaves into little pieces with your mower, this isn’t a problem. No mat will form, your lawn will green up earlier in the spring and it will resist browning in the heat.

You’ll be amazed by the way your leaves nearly disappear when you shred them. They’ll take up around ten percent of the space that unshredded leaves do. Many pieces will simply filter down between the grass blades and start decomposing and releasing nutrients right way, instead over the next decade. This lets you skip one of your yearly fertilizer applications.

Leaves can, and do, come to rest in the wrong places sometimes. So if they're on your driveway, sidewalk, porch or deck, by all means rake or blow them away. But when they fall on soil (including your lawn), look at them as a free gift from nature, chock-full of nutrition for your plants, not as a future chore. Those dead leaves should be used as nature intended, not thrown away, burned or sent to the landfill.

 

Owen Yost, in addition to blogging, is a Landscape Architect emeritus from here, who‘s

worked in north Texas for over 30 years.  He is a member of the American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA), International Society of Landscape Architects, the National BirdFeeding Society, National Wildlife Federation and the Audubon Society. He was honored with a Lifetime Achievement award by the Native Plant Society of Texas. His design office is at Yost87@charter.net