Unrecorded wildlife magnets
As we use more native plants, we learn about their hidden qualities. Pineland privet is a good example. It is known for its bird attracting berries and ability to be clipped and shaped, yet when in flower, this shrub rivals butterfly bush.
All kinds of insects come to pollinate this native shrub, including many rare butterflies like the ruddy daggerwing and atala hairstreaks. The male plant has the most flowers, yet female plants have the berries. You will need both in order to have fruit.
While hiking in the Dade County Rocklands, I noticed that every butterfly landed on a trailside shrub. This turned out to be the Florida Keys Thoroughwort which is a woody aster with sweet smelling white flowers. It loves dry soil and full sun and survives for many years.
The borage family of plants produces some of the best butterfly attractors. These include: bloodberry, sea lavender, bahama strongbark, seaside heliotrope, scorpiontail ,pineland heliotope and hirsute tournefortia.
This last vine has hairy, five inch elliptical leaves and clusters of white flowers followed by white berries. It grows up into our oak tree and is mobbed by dozens of butterflies. These same butterflies lay their eggs on the multiflora passionvine which also climbs this tree.
Decaying leaves of borage relatives release chemicals that attract male queen and soldier butterflies which lap them off the surface. These are processed inside the butterfly into female attractants that he releases into the air.
There is both a tree and a shrub named bahama strongbark and both have sweet smelling white flowers for the butterflies and hummingbirds as well as orange berries for birds to eat. The weeping habit of the tree makes it a great specimen for the front yard.
The shrub form called smooth strongbark, grows to three feet while the tree may reach 15 feet or more.
When out on walks in natural areas or observing native plants in your own yard, you may discover a plant’s unknown quality that will help us all to attract more wildlife to our yards.
Please pass on the information
Trim For Wildlife
Some of our native shrubs are adapted to fire in the natural habitats that they occur in. They are burnt to the ground every three years and become rangy when not.
Beautyberry and necklacepod are prime examples. Our county’s natural areas are often managed with fire, yet I wouldn’t suggest this at home. Instead, you will need a good pair of loppers, a bow saw, and clippers.
Shrubs that benefit from severe pruning include: beautyberry, firebush, wild coffee, necklacepod, fiddlewood and native wild plumbago. If you don’t want to prune to the ground then leave a foot or two.
This can be done every three to five years. Prune Jamaica caper, crabwood, marlberry, myrsine and the stoppers only to shape them if necessary the first few years and then leave them to grow tall and full thereafter.
If you decide to make a hedge out of your shrubs, please don’t square them. This removes most of the flowers and fruit and looks unsightly.
I personally like a mixed hedge with different heights, leaf shapes, and color of foliage and best of all, a progression of fruit to keep the full time birds and migratory birds well fed.
Just go to one of our natural areas and notice which plants grow together. Along the coast you will find Spanish stopper, wild coffee, Jamaica caper, marlberry, saw palmetto, myrsine, wildlime, and beach cocoplum all growing in a beautiful mix. Throw in some firebush and you will have year-round fruit and flowers.
By the middle of August you may see the first migrating warblers, followed in September by hummingbirds, and painted buntings in October.
Plants that fruit in late summer and early fall include Jamaica caper, beach cocoplum, elderberry, saw palmetto, spicewood, Bahama strongbark, Simpson’s stopper, and Walter’s viburnum. Their berries will greet the new arrivals.
A healthy, naturally shaped shrub will produce more fruit and cover for wildlife and look much better than when squared.
Kill grass underneath and mulch over it, (no need to pull it up), and you won’t have to worry about the bark of your shrubs and trees being torn off by the gardener’s weed- eater.
Plant in front of your mixed hedge with low wildflowers including: sunshine mimosa, dune sunflower, pineland petunia, coontie, beach creeper or love grass. Even corky passionvine makes a nice ground cover and is a larval food for three butterflies.
If your native plants look their best, your neighbors will want them also. Imagine a neighborhood full of birds and butterflies and so little lawn that water use is no longer an issue.
Don’t forget the quiet that idle lawnmowers and blowers will bring.
Summer Residents
Wildlife residents of the summer months will put on quite a show.
The summer is in full swing. Migrating birds left in early May and won’t return until September. Yet we still have a wonderful variety of full time resident birds to make a morning walk interesting.
The young cardinals, blue jays, downy and red-bellied woodpeckers are out learning how to survive and can be more friendly than their parents.
Sometimes they just sit and watch what we are doing. Chimney swifts dart across the sky with their high pitched chirps. They look like little cigars with wings. Purple martins are infrequent now that nesting season is over and seem to have dispersed.
Although it is a nuisance at times, our back acre has been flooded on and off for two months. All it takes is three weeks for our native toad and frog tadpoles to grow legs and disperse.
As the remaining undeveloped tadpoles concentrate into smaller and smaller pools of water, green herons, tricolor herons, ibis and other birds come to feast.
The rare ribbon snake, which also eats frogs and tadpoles, only lives in this wetland habitat and is occasionally carried off by a hawk, thus completing the food chain.
The large non native bufo toad needs long term wetlands like ponds for their slow- to- mature tadpoles to grow in.
Fish won’t eat these poisonous tadpoles, yet they will eat our tastey native toad and frog tadpoles. This is why seasonally wet areas, which don’t have fish in them, are important.
If you live next to a preserve, try allowing a small portion of your yard to flood for three weeks. The sounds of various toads and frogs calling each other will rattle your ears if you are close by and is fascinating to listen to at night.
Swallow-tailed kites are attracted to wooded lots and feed on lizards which they pick off of the trees and dragonflies caught in mid air.
This crow-size raptor is black and white with a forked tail. Its beauty and magnificence will make you jump from your outdoor chair for a better look as it glides overhead.
A mix of native trees, shrubs and ground covers with a source of water is a good start when attracting wildlife.
Dead trees, or at least branches, will keep the woodpeckers happy as they search for grubs in the rotted wood. Leave as many dead branches as you can, the woodpeckers will clean them off for you.
This fall and winter build some nestboxes for our spring-nesting birds. The box for the screech owl will be used by wood ducks and squirrels too.
Watching wildlife increase in your yard is extremely rewarding and a good way to teach kids that they have some control over stopping the continuing lose of our wildlife species.
Just start with a few native trees and you will soon be hooked as your imagination comes alive with ideas for shrubs and wildflowers to attract more birds and butterflies.
SPOOKY SOUNDS OF THE NIGHT
SPOOKY SOUNDS OF THE NIGHT CAN BE FASCINATING IF YOU KNOW WHAT MAKES THEM.
Owls and goatsuckers make weird sounds during their breeding season and keep the local rodent, insect and lizard population in balence.
You may think that your ears are playing tricks on you when you hear the low “hoo, hoo… hoo-hoo-hoo… whooo, whooooooo” of the Great Horned owl.
At two feet tall with feathery horns on its head and a grip that can crush a man’s hand, this is truly an impressive owl.
Say goodby to your local rabbits, rats, mice and even a feral cat or two. Look in tall trees near a pond or canal or watch for other birds as they mob their unwelcome guest.
They nest in winter so that their fledglings will have plenty to eat in the spring when baby birds and mammals are available.
The hawk-like screech of the Barn Owl may give you a start while it’s white face and underparts yield a ghostly appearance to this 18 inch tall owl. Found in the country and cities, this owl will clean up the local rat and mouse population.
Put up a nestbox with the help of a friend, (it is heavy), and clean it out each January before nesting starts.
A Screech Owl nestbox will attract these little owls to your yard and also Wood Ducks if placed near a pond.
The owls make a cute whinny and an eerie, staccato sound like two sticks drum-rolled on a small hollow log. Mice, Cockroaches, treefrogs and lizards make up their diet.
The fuzzy gray face of a young owl staring down at you as it fills the entrance hole to it’s nestbox will leave you laughing your fool head off.
Goatsuckers, named because their large wiskered mouths once led people to beleive that they actually entered barns to suck the teats of sleeping goats are represented here by Nighthawks, Whip-Poor-Wills and the Chuck-Will’s-Widow.
Although they are here from September to March, the rare Whip-Poor-Will is silent until just before leaving to breed along the Southeastern U.S.
The more abundant Chuck-Will’s-Widow calls non stop in the evenings of spring and early summer. The call is a low “chuck” followed by a higher pitched will’s widow.
It silently winters here south of Lake Okeechobee and breeds throughout the state and the southeastern U.S. This 12 inch tall bird is strange to watch as it flys through the trees at dusk on wings two feet across.
The courtship dive of a Common Nighthawk starts at 150 feet in the air and ends with a loud broooom as the primary feathers on it’s two foot wide,narrow outstretched wings vibrate at high speed.
Wintering in the northern half of South America, they breed throughout the entire U.S. in the spring. Chucks and Nighthawks both nest on the ground.
Watch your step when walking on gravel, even if it is on your flat gravel roof. All three birds eat insects while in flight.
Take the kids out for a fun, spooky evening identifying the strange sounds that our night birds make. Hopefully they will loose their fear of the night and enjoy camping better this summer.
Spiders
Spiders! Spiders! Spiders!
Don’t ask me to pick up a spider. Yet, the more I learn, the less I want to crush them. Did you know that spiders don’t drink your saliva, bite you or crawl in your mouth and get swallowed as you sleep?
If one is found in your tub or sink, it fell in from above while looking for water and didn’t crawl up from the drain. In fact if you handle spiders, you are very unlikely to be bitten. The bite of most spiders won’t do any harm although some may hurt for a minute.
Please learn the appearance of the brown recluse and both adult and immature black widow spiders because their bite requires a trip to the doctor.
Old furniture, piles of damp clothes, shady spots like old shoes left on the porch or cracks over the doorway are where the brown recluse and or black widow spider may be found.
This is a great way to get your teenager to stop creating that composting pile of clothes on the floor of their closet. “Clean up your mess or the brown recluse will crawl out and bite you.” Then you can feel safe in the company of the other dozens of harmless species.
Spiders are glad to get away from you, so let them. The big three which include the wolf, huntsman and nursery-web spiders may wander into your house or park themselves just outside the door and catch roaches and other unwanted pests before they can enter.
Although these are large, brown, scary looking spiders, their bites are not dangerous and if you learn where they hang out, the two of you can get along without any late night surprises.
Leave the brown, pea-sized house and long legged cobweb spiders to rid your house of mosquitoes and flies. Just clean up the old webs once in awhile but try not to end up throwing these guests out into the yard or they will die. They are adapted only to the indoors.
Beautiful spiders that you may find in your yard include the three inch orange and black golden-silk and the brown large orb weaver. Both spin fascinating webs across branches.
The very common crablike spiny orb weaver is white with black spots and red points along the edge. Mabel orchard spiders are one inch long, thin, with shiny silver and black stripes and red spots.
The inch or more green lynx spider sitting on a flower has no web and simply pounces on its prey. Her egg case is nearby and may be surrounded with tiny baby spiders.
You do have a choice between hiring a chemical company to nuke your home of all intruders and biological control with friendly spiders.
Outside, spiders are a major source of food for birds. They often make up 90 percent of a birds protein source.
Now if a spider crawls up beside you, just relax and watch her crawl away. It’s really not hard to resist the urge to step on it. Really! It’s not hard….I tell myself.
Snags
Dead trees called “Snags” provide food and a home for almost one third of our wildlife. Since the hurricanes, many of our neighborhood slash pine trees have died, yet most pines in natural areas survived
Irrigation water raises the ph of the soil and prevents pines from absorbing micronutrients. Trees that were weakened by too much irrigation died when excessive rains, even a year later, rotted their roots.
Never water a slash pine and keep lawn grass away from the trunk. Also, changes in grade and soil compaction will kill pines.
If your slash pines have died, leave them to provide many birds and other wildlife feeding and nest sites. As the tree rots, beetle grubs and other insects are found under the bark by woodpeckers.
Over time, the woodpeckers create holes to nest in which are later used by other wildlife. These include screech owls, wood ducks, kestrels, flying squirrels and even raccoons and opossums.
I have seen downy woodpeckers peeking out of the ends of dead pine branches where they were likely nesting. Kestrels, which are our smallest falcon, eat insects, lizards and mice. They use the hole made by the large pileated woodpecker. Both birds are in desperate need of nest sites.
As you kill the invasive trees on your property, it will cost less to leave a snag than to pay for tree removal and stump grinding. If the dead tree is close to your house, measure the distance and cut the tree short enough to miss the house if it falls.
The trees on my property usually don’t fall but instead rot to a powder and leave only the hard pith. Australian pine makes a great snag when cut to around 20 feet.
Shelf mushrooms grow from the trunk and the woodpeckers make a hole just under this little roof. Never let dead wood touch your house or termites will enter.
If your lot is large and you can leave the trees where they are, you will be rewarded with many unusual bird species.
I personally like the unusual look of an old twisted snag and the excitement of seeing a hawk, owl, osprey or bald eagle perched on it as they wait for prey.
You may even want to plant oaks or replacement pines around the snag so that they will hold it up if it tilts in a few years.
We have dozens of dead pines on our property which were killed by the hurricanes. One by one the branches fall and the trunck rots away.
Pileated, red-bellied and downy woodpeckers have nested here and are a constant sight.
If you live near a natural area, you may be surprised by the appearance of a Bald eagle or other predatory birds occasionally resting on a branch.
Southern Slash Pine
Southern slash pine is the symbol of South Florida
Southern slash pines were once the dominant tree of this area. It is now rarely seen in our communities. Imagine each yard with at least one of these trees growing in it. Our homes would be nestled into a restored habitat going back thousands of years.
Pines drop their needles constantly, providing free mulch. This can be mowed along with the grass to add organic matter to the soil or raked into pleasant shapes around the trees.
Grass grows better near slash pine where the air is cooler and the sunlight is softer. Patches of pines can be connected with masses of saw palmetto, coontie, native grasses and native shrubs to create no mow areas that are rich in wildlife and birds.
Southern slash pines live for hundreds of years, are resistant to hurricanes, and provide food, nesting sites and cover for our birds.
Migrating birds can safely move through the branches where hawks can’t easily catch them. The seeds are eaten by several kinds of birds and squirrels and the bark and dead wood contain many insects that feed our woodpeckers.
Downy woodpeckers hollow out the ends of rotting branches to create their homes while the trunks are used by larger woodpeckers to carve out their nest cavities.
If you can’t leave a dead tree near a building for fear of falling branches, try cutting it to a 10 to 20 foot stump. The hard core will keep it erect while the soft outer portion rots away. The woodpeckers will love you for it.
When selecting a slash pine, make sure that it was grown from local seed. The North Florida slash does poorly here. Water it for a few weeks to establish only.
Slash pine will become weakened and die if watered regularly for long as they prefer dry soil. Irrigation weakened many trees which then died during the hurricanes. Try piling the needles around the trunk so you won’t need to come close with mowers or weedeaters.
Many birds join our local ones during migration for a burst of activity each morning. Warblers, hummingbirds, hawks, owls, cardinals, robins, cedar waxwings, osprey, woodpeckers, catbirds, blue jays and others decorate our pines like moving ornaments. The sounds of these birds fill the air at daybreak.
Try planting one slash pine where its needles can fall and stay. You may find yourself planting more as the years go by and you notice the increase in wildlife.
Seasonally wet areas
Seasonally wet areas of your yard are breeding grounds for our native frogs and toads.
The rain may have made parts of your yard wet for the last few weeks but this is good for our native insect eating amphibians.
Just two weeks of standing water will provide the tadpoles of several species of frogs and toads enough time to grow to adulthood. Tadpoles eat algae and the adults eat lots of mosquitoes and other insects.
The cacophony of calls at night is fun to listen to and teaches kids the value of preserving even the smallest of wetlands.
Fortunately the giant bufo toad and the Cuban tree frog don’t use short-lived wetlands for breeding. Both of these introduced species eat our native frogs. When was the last time that you saw a green tree frog?
The corner of your yard that floods can be planted with duck potato, spartina grass, blue flag iris and yellow canna lilies. These will provide hiding places for the tadpoles, and beautiful flowers for you.
After a heavy rain, several species of frogs and toads will come here. These include: the green and the squirrel tree frogs, florida cricket frog, little grass frog, southern chorus frog, and eastern narrow-mouthed frog which has a bleating call like a sheep.
The toads will fill the air with a mixture of funny sounds. These include: the eastern spadefoot toad with a low-pitched crow-like call; the smallest North American toad, the one and a quarter inch oak toad, which has a high-pitched whistle; and my favorite, the southern toad.
This fellow has a high-pitched trill, which at close range makes the insides of my ears rattle. He can be told apart from a young giant toad by the two knobby crests on his head, a light stripe down the middle of his back and the way that he hops a few times and then stops.
The giant toad hops quickly until it finds cover and has very large poison glands on both sides of its head. I dispose these large toads whenever I see them. The Audubon Society Field Guide to North American Reptiles and Amphibians is a great identification book.
It can be a real adventure to go out at night with a flashlight and identify frogs and toads that are breeding in your flooded areas. Kids will love it.
These amphibians are just the start of the food chain that leads to good snakes, hawks, owls and other interesting creatures.
Why fight wet areas of the yard with drainage pipes, fill or ditches? Wet areas can be the most interesting places in the yard and offer hours of exploration time for curious kids.
Say Goodbye
May Is When We Say Goodbye To Our Winter Residents.
Not just people, but the painted buntings, indigo buntings, warblers, hummingbirds and others that have been here since October.
The male buntings are in full breeding color and will travel up to North Florida and beyond to breed and spend the summer.
Since the fall I have watched young painted buntings gradually change from their first year green to the beautiful red, blue and green of the adult. The young indigo bunting males have changed from drab brown to shiny blue.
Unusual Migrants are moving through the area too. A female rose-breasted grosbeak, which looks like a large brown and white sparrow, was on our feeder April 17.
The males are red, black and white; can’t wait to see one. Try the Audubon Park brand,” Wild Finch Blend” to attract buntings and other seed eaters. You can find it at Albertsons.
Purple martins are still around, yet they have completed nesting here. Their nest boxes should be set out in early February in an open area, such as next to a lake.
It is exhilarating to watch these birds dive after insects; too bad they don’t eat mosquitoes.
For the first time, a sandhill crane flew over our property on its way from Winston Trails to The Links golf course in Boynton Beach. Both sites have large lakes where the cranes and other water birds can hunt for food.
This is a hint from nature that these beautifull birds might breed along the edge of our community lakes, rather than just pass through, if more native aquatic plants occured there.
Sandhill cranes are four feet tall, gray with a red cap, and have a loud, resonant, rattling call that can be heard for at least a mile away. When they fly overhead their neck is held outstraight.
Picture this: Groves of cypress, red maple, pond apple and wetland shrubs planted along lake edges with spikerush, which the cranes mound up to make their nests, bulrushes, pickerelweed, and duckpotato mixed in.
These plants provide the cover and start of the food chain that supports our wading birds. Just go to Green Cay Wetlands in Boynton Beach to see how much wildlife this environment can attract.
Don’t forget to supply a water source for our remaining birds such as the cardinals and bluejays. They will be nesting soon and can use the help.
Quail
In our 300 acre rural neighborhood, southeast of Hypoluxo and Jog roads, quail were common until 10 years ago when too much land clearing drove them off. The whistled “bob…bob-white” was a common sound in the spring and summer nesting season.
Coveys were seen in the fall and winter and broke up with the start of spring breeding. It was amazing that this year-round resident was seldom seen or heard during long stretches of the year.
The 10 inch tall Northern Bobwhite Quail was once common, but has lost 65 percent of its population in the last 20 years and is now classified as threatened. It ranges from southeast Ontario, Canada to Central America.
The removal of hedgerows by large scale agriculture has reduced quail habitat. They eat seeds, insects, fruits, leaves, flowers, acorns, roots and tubers. A water source is no problem since they drink morning dew off of vegetation.
If you live west of town, you can provide habitat for quail and attract or reintroduce them to your area. This may require cooperation with several neighbors to provide enough continuous land.
Fields with a variety of native grasses and broad leaved herbs, scattered shrubs, pines and oaks will provide the food and cover needed to support quail.
Stop mowing and remove exotic pest plants to help start your habitat. Plant scattered native trees and shrubs. Encourage native grasses like broomsedge and other native herbs.
Remember the beauty of the golden broomsedge swaying in the breeze last fall in our natural areas? This habitat is also good for painted buntings, loggerhead shrike, the sedge wren and others.
The softball sized nest of the bobwhite is built on the ground and lined with fluffy broomsedge grass and covered with surrounding vegetation to form a dome.
Poison the fire ant nests so they won’t eat the chicks and keep Garfield inside. Prevent overgrazing and mow once during late fall or winter if needed.
Your new landscape should be beautiful and blend in with surrounding natural areas. January is the time to put up your purple martin nest box too. Don’t forget to look up the latest design changes at purplemartin.org.
Native shrubs and trees fruiting in January include: wild coffee, marlberry, beautyberry, dahoon holly, firebush, red maple and Spanish and white stoppers.
With a little human involvement, many species of plants, birds and other creatures will make a comeback. Take a look at your own yard and ask yourself if you have space to include wildlife habitat.
Done right, your new planting will be pleasing to view and require less water and gas. It will come alive as birds and butterflies concentrate in their new found oasis.