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Cardinal lobelia
(Lobelia cardinalis)
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Thank you to Beth and Dave Mitchell who hosted our Holiday Social and have hosted all of our quarterly meetings.
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Wild Ones News
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Become a member! The only source of income for Wild Ones and, as a chapter, for HGCNY is through memberships. If you value the education and advocacy WO and HGCNY provide, please become a member. You can join or donate online at various levels of support.
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Words of wisdom:
While flying on
an airplane
By Sara Stein
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The same two species [goldenrod and milkweed] grow on my place. They grow here because I planted them. But I'm free to stand by while they die of neglect or even to kill them outright if I want.
Because they're mine: I own the land.
How strange a notion! The perception of ownership isn't shared by any of the creatures who live on the land, or from it, or cross over it. I own the plants, but not the relationships by which their roots are nourished, or their flowers pollinated, or their seeds dispersed. I own the dirt, but not the living systems that maintain it. Yet ownership gives me license to harm all these things that don't belong to me.
This thought was strange enough in intimate surroundings, touching the goldenrod's velvet leaves, stroking the milkweed's silk. It became more uncanny still as I watched the whole width of the continent, coast to coast, all owned, every acre of it, slide slowly beneath the belly of the airplane bound for California. Conservation departments, nature preserves, the very law of the land, can't protect your lot or mine. It's up to us to do it of our own free will because we understand that the land is not our own but only in our keeping.
From Planting Noah's Garden pp 16-17
NOTE: This valuable book, a sequel to her award-winning Noah's Garden, is (inexplicably) out of print.
HGCNY has purchased an almost-new copy, which we can lend to Wild Ones members. Email me if you want to be on the borrower's list.
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Greetings!
We're starting off 2010 with a program about a key issue: Invasive Species of the Northeast. And we're fortunate to have an expert on the topic, Dr. Jason Fridley, as our speaker.
Dr. Fridley will talk about invasive plants generally across the
Eastern US and about why introduced plants from certain regions of the
globe seem to be particularly invasive. He'll also describe research in
his own SU lab
that focuses on invasive shrubs in forests, asking specifically whether
East Asian species are "pre-adapted" for life in
our native forest ecosystems. CNY gardeners will recognize most of the
plants he'll discuss!
WHEN: Sunday January 31 at 2:00 pm
WHERE: Le Moyne College Library Special Activity Room (Directions)
Our meetings are free and open to the public. Come and bring a friend!
Janet Allen,
President, Habitat Gardening in Central New York
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Cleaning bird feeders 
If we had hundreds of guests to our home all eating off of the same plates, we'd certainly make sure we washed them so they wouldn't transmit diseases. It's easy to forget to do the same with our bird feeders, which have hundreds of "guests" eating from the same feeders.
(Photo: Some of the many pine siskins visiting CNY in 2009 at a nyger seed feeder)
TIP: Some bird feeders are easier to clean than others. When you're in the market for a new birdfeeder, check its design to be sure it will be easy to clean.
From Cornell's Lab of Ornithology:
Moldy or decomposing seeds and hulls that accumulate on feeder trays
can make birds sick. Bird droppings and other contaminants may also
spread infectious bird diseases. Clean your feeders about once every
two weeks, and more often during times of heavy use or wet weather.
Wash each feeder thoroughly in hot, soapy water. If there have been
reports of salmonella in your area, or if you've seen sick birds in
your yard, after washing your feeders soak or rinse them in a solution
of one part bleach to nine parts water. Dry the feeders thoroughly
before refilling.
Clean the ground below your feeders, too, to prevent a build-up
of hulls, uneaten seeds, and other waste. Moldy or spoiled food is
unhealthy both for birds and for your outside pets. And bird food
scattered on the ground can attract unwanted rodents. |
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Bird food doesn't just come in a bag
Providing bird feeders in our yards is popular with people and with birds, but our habitat gardens provide a lot of food for birds, too. In fact, many birds don't even eat seeds at feeders at all, so when you're planning your habitat garden, include some plants that provide food in winter, too.
 Birds such as this junco like seeds from grasses and other plants that were left standing in the fall.  This mockingbird is enjoying winterberries (Ilex verticillata), a native holly.  This downy woodpecker is either storing some tasty morsel or perhaps finding an insect that was over- wintering in this milkweed stalk.
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And while drinking your coffee ...
... as you enjoy watching the birds in your yard, you may not realize that you're affecting the lives of our summer birds that migrated to Central and South America for the winter.
Coffee traditionally grew in the shade, and traditional coffee plantations were essentially equivalent to virgin rain forest with respect to their value as habitat. All that changed in the '70s when "technified" sun coffee plantations began.
These farms use a "farms as factories" approach to growing coffee and use many pesticides. This has led to population declines in many of our own migratory bird species as their shade plantation habitat has disappeared. Sun coffee plantations (like our lawns) are biological deserts!
Learn more about this critically important issue for our migratory birds. Here are some good resources:
* Seattle Audubon's Shade Coffee Campaign - Shade Stories movie and their Coffee and Birds FAQ
* Smithsonian Institution Migratory Bird Center - coffee slide show and their factsheet Why Migratory Birds are Crazy for Coffee.
What birds are affected? Many of our favorite summer birds such as Baltimore oriole, scarlet tanager, gray catbird, ruby-crowned kinglet, cedar waxwing, wood thrushes, and warblers are feeling the impact of loss of habitat.
What can you do? Buy shade-grown, organic coffee! The only way you can be guaranteed that it's shade-grown is to buy certified coffee, which is available from the Migratory Bird Center. The certification process is expensive, however, so there many Fair Trade- and Organic-certified coffee brands that are shade-grown, but are not certified as such. (Read more about this issue...)
Many congregations purchase Organic Fellowship Blend from the Equal Exchange Interfaith Store. This coffee is Fair Trade, organic, and shade-grown.
Buy shade-grown and get these bonuses!
* Shade-grown coffee is high quality coffee since coffee is meant to grow in the shade.
* Fair Trade certification (common in shade-grown coffee) means that small farmers get a just price for their crops.
* Organic certification means our coffee isn't leading to health and environmental problems for people in Central and South America.
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Monarchs: One of the ten
 The World Wildlife Fund publishes an Annual Watch List of iconic animal populations being decimated by habitat loss, poaching, and climate change.
The monarch butterfly is on the list of 10 to watch in 2010.
Want to help? Donate to the Monarch Butterfly Fund: Conserving the Migration. This organization comprises the world's foremost researchers in monarch conservation. Here are the details of the conservation plan.
And, of course, plant milkweeds and nectar plants this spring!
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Monarchs in California Though we usually think about monarchs found in the area east of the Rockies, there is a California population as well.
This year, a report found on the Monarch Watch listserv indicated that:
"In 1997 the Butterfly Grove
Sanctuary was a winter home to 45,000 monarchs and by 2008 the number
had dwindled to 17,866.
The count this year was a startling 933 when we
visited on November 20 & 21.
Since then numbers have crashed significantly. Be aware that
the city of Pacific Grove did some controversial extreme pruning of
the trees in the grove in September. During our visit a brief but strong storm
swept through the grove. The next morning we spotted many monarchs thrown to
the ground, wet and chilled."
Another report indicated that:
"On December 5, 2009, 989
Monarchs were counted in the Sanctuary. On December 11, 2009, there were 635. By the end
of December, there were about 300, and in the first week of January, less than 10
were counted.
Fears that the Sanctuary
may have been degraded from an overwintering site to a temporary autumnal stopover may be playing out."
The message: Our landscaping choices matter - both in our own yards and in our public spaces.
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