WindStar Wildlife Garden Weekly
Connecting People
To Nature Through
Education June 25, 2007
Official
Publication of WindStar Wildlife
Institute
|
|
Hair-Raising Remedy To Protect Plants
JOHN
DOHERTY writes that he was in a local pub recently talking
about the rabbits eating all his new flowers by the end of the
day after planting. A voice at the end of the pub said, 'Next
time you get a haircut, bring a bag and ask your barber if you
can take it (the hair) home with you.' When I approached my
barber he said, 'Are you going to put it in with your
flowers?' I said, 'Yes,' and he said he used to have a lady
come by and ask for hair. Guest what? It really works! John
incorporated the hair a few weeks ago when doing a new
planting of flowers, and the flowers are still alive! Do
you have any tips for dealing with wildlife--attracting or
keeping away? Send them to wildlife@windstar.org
and put "Wildlife Tips" in the subject line.
| |
|
| Quick Links
|
|
to
the
Knowledge Center
|
| Our Sponsors |
|
| Become A
Member |
Support WindStar's
Environmental
Education
Programs With
Your
Give the Gift
Of
Nature...
Visit WindStar's
Beautiful
Giclée Canvas
Wildlife Prints
by Tim
Flanigan | |
Meadow Birds in Sharp Decline
Eastern Meadowlark by
Arthur Morris
By Felicity
Barringer
SPREADING suburbs and
large-scale farming are contributing to a precipitous
decline in once common meadow birds like the Northern
Bobwhite, the Eastern Meadowlark, the Loggerhead Shrike
and the Field Sparrow, says a report released recently
by the Audubon Society.
Twenty common birds have lost more than
half their populations in 40 years. The population of
the Bobwhite, a rotund robin-size bird that lives in
meadows from the mid-Atlantic to the Plains, has dropped
more than 80 percent, to 5.5 million from more than 31
million.
The
Evening Grosbeak, with a range from northern New England
to the Pacific Northwest, has declined 78 percent, to
3.8 million from 17 million.
The
report covers a period when suburbs and exurbs were
being carved out of Eastern and Midwestern farmlands and
Southern wetlands. It also documents the loss of large
numbers of Canadian and Arctic birds like the
mallard-like Greater Scaup, the Northern Pintail and the
Greater Tern, all affected by a combination of climate
change and development along lakes and
rivers.
While the report, published in...
More
| |
Bluebirds Love
Mealworms
Eastern Bluebird with mealworm
by Arlene Ripley
By Diane Cooledge
Porter HERE'S A
SECRET. Bluebirds love mealworms. They're
crazy about them. I was fretting, in spring, about
whether the Eastern Bluebirds would adopt our new
birdhouse. The birds landed on the wooden box once or
twice and peered into the hole, but they didn't seem to
be building there.
I told myself it was OK if the
bluebirds found a better nesting cavity in the woods,
but I longed for them to move into the birdhouse, where
I could see from the kitchen and the front door. Then I
heard that mealworms, which are usually sold as food for
pet reptiles, would help persuade bluebirds to
stay.
Two days later, 1000 mealworms arrived
by UPS, in a small, screen-sided cardboard box. The
mealworms were loose in there, most of them bunched up
around the piece of raw potato included for food and
moisture, with instructions to provide them with...
More
|
Mad Bluebird Garden Flags
Large
Flag is 27" x 37"(h)... $19.95
Garden Flag is 12" x 17"(h)...$9.95
He appears like he is looking directly
at you, but he's not happy about it. Usually he is the
"Bluebird of Happiness" but here he appears ruffled and
disgusted with the onset of colder weather in this
reproduction of the photograph by Michael L. Smith.
These flags are true works of art and will bring the
world of nature alive whereever they are
displayed.
OUR GUARANTEE is unconditional
and 100% money back, if, for any reason, you are not
satisfied.
Find more nature products in
the Nature Shop
|
|
Wildlife Photo of
the Week
Coyote Pup by
Richard Jackson
| |
|
A Roof That'll
Grow on You
"Green" earth
roof on WindStar Wildlife Institute
headquarters
By Nancy
Striniste
ARLINGTON, VA-I
called it our little Arlington brick box when we moved
in four years ago.
After living in
North Carolina in a new passive-solar house-- with more
windows on the south side; fewer on the east, west and
north; wide roof overhangs; and masonry floors--it was
frustrating to live in a regular, not-so-thoughtfully
designed house.
Our heating and
cooling bills were higher, and uncaptured sunlight on
our south side felt like a terrible waste. Our Arlington
neighborhood, Westover, is walkable and friendly, but it
was obvious right away that to really feel connected to
the life on our street, we needed a porch. A porch on
our south-facing house would shade the house in summer,
and when we eventually add windows, the concrete floor
will capture the winter sun and help heat our
home.
I was a graduate student in
landscape design when my husband and I were planning our
porch addition. When I came across the concept of green
roofs in a class at... More
|
Tailored Garden Lures
Wildlife
 By Mary Taylor
Young
WHAT IF YOU
could put a few seeds in the ground, tend them carefully
and come up with a garden full of birds and
animals?
By gearing your landscaping with careful
plantings, you can draw wildlife to your home. Shrubs
like plum, currant, chokecherry and serviceberry offer
succulent fruit for birds and some mammals; shrub
thickets offer nest sites and year-round
shelter.
(A Yellow-rumped Warbler sings his
melodius song in fruit tree. Photo by Rick
Cameron)
If you live in the foothills or
mountains, you can attract hummingbirds with a variety
of flowering plants like evening primrose, honeysuckle
and penstemon. Junipers provide berries for Colorado's
wintering birds from fall through spring. Fruit
trees--cherry, apple, crabapple, plum--offer sweet
fruits for wildlife, and a vegetable garden, if you're
willing to share it, is a natural magnet for rabbits,
deer, frogs and other animals.
Pines provide good cover and nesting sites. The
shoots and seeds feed squirrels, chipmunks, grosbeaks
and other birds.
Colorado blue spruce, the
state tree, hosts many insect species that attract...
More
|
NOW
AVAILABLE
NEW!
WindStar
National
Master Naturalist
Course
PLUS...
WindStar Wildlife Habitat
Naturalist
Course
|
|
|
Be sure and sign up for the American Wildlife Blog for the latest
commentary and please feel free to add comments of your
own. Have An EXCELLENT Day in your WILDLIFE
HABITAT!
Tom Patrick
President
Name
This Bird & Win Chance For A Prize
Last week's bird was a Lesser Yellowlegs. Winner is
Rick Stel, Markesan, WI
|
|
10072 Vista
Ct.
Myersville, MD
21773
301-293-3351
| | | |
