Your Local Environment – In Defense of Nature

Is Nature Bothering You?

©Marlene A. Condon

August 4, 2018

ARTICLE-2018AUGUST 2018-stink bug eggs, nymphs-IMG_3424, adj trim — Newly hatched Brown Marmorated Stink Bugs are more colorful (and cuter!) than older nymphs and adults.

Should gardeners think of native plants as thugs when they grow well in their yards? A Kansas butterfly enthusiast wrote an article recounting her experience with Woolly Pipevine (Aristolochia tomentosa), a native Midwestern host plant for the Pipevine Swallowtail caterpillar. She wrote that the plant remained limited until its fifteenth year, “when suddenly it began suckering like that other fearsome thug, passion vine.”

This situation exemplifies how folks do not tend to see nature as it is, but rather as they want or expect it to be. Their subjective view typically leads to poor outcomes for the natural world, which matters because nature is our life-support system. Rather than badmouth organisms, people need to accept that they can’t dictate how organisms should behave.

Consider the Multicolored Asian Lady Beetle (Harmonia axyridis) and the Brown Marmorated Stink Bug (Halyomorpha halys), both of which bother people inside their homes come late summer and fall. These insect species overwinter as adults in their Asian homeland, which means they need to find shelter to get through freezing weather. Transplanted to America (intentionally and unintentionally, respectively), they enter buildings in fall via cracks and crevices around doors, windows, siding, chimneys, etc.

What is the proper way to view these insects that are not here of their own accord, but rather because of humans? It would help people’s psyches immensely if they stopped regarding these bugs as “pests,” as if their intent is to bother humans. Instead, you should learn about these animals and your house—the only way you can figure out how best to deal with the situation logically.

The insects that enter your house in fall are but a few months old, but they will likely discover more about your home than you have taken time to notice during your residency. This situation must change.

You need to seal interior openings around doors and windows, and inspect any location on walls, ceilings, or floors that has been breached for the purposes of electrical, plumbing, or HVAC needs. These places provide a pathway for animals to get in, as well as hot and cold air, which results in higher cooling and heating bills.

(Note: It’s amazing how much cold air you can feel in the winter entering the house from outer-wall outlets! You should put safety plugs into them.)

If your windows are old, you might consider getting new ones that are better sealed (and more energy efficient). The expense of well-made windows will be offset somewhat by lower energy bills. Using screens on windows, doors, and over vents, and checking the seal around window air conditioner units, is also important.

Yet, no matter how hard you try to seal openings, some of these insects will manage to get inside. You need to accept that this is just the way life is now. It’s really no different from dealing with dust inside your house. No matter how spick-and-span you make your home, you are going to have to clean it again and again.

So, you should deal with this situation in a prudent manner. Your first thought might be to use pesticides, but applying poisons does not qualify as prudent—particularly in this case.

When these insects first arrived in the U.S., no one advised homeowners to employ pesticides against them inside or outside the house. Apparently that advice has changed, undoubtedly in response to people insisting that something had to be done. But utilizing pesticides for these insects is akin to insisting upon receiving antibiotics for a virus infection. It is not only useless, it is harmful.

Pesticides have never been a solution to controlling organisms because the critters eventually become resistant to them. You end up with superbugs, and then the development of super-pesticides that are evermore deadly to living creatures, including humans.

Pesticide applicators place a perimeter of poison on the ground around the outside of your house, which becomes a killing field for a variety of unintended victims that should not be needlessly harmed. It is completely ineffective and a waste of money using it for Brown Marmorated Stink Bugs (the species coming en masse into the house) because they do not crawl around on the ground; they fly to the walls of your home.

You might have paid for such pesticide applications and thought they were successful because there seemed to be fewer stink bugs this past year. The truth, however, is that Brown Marmorated Stink Bugs had plummeted in number in 2017, thanks to Mother Nature.

These bugs start congregating on home surfaces at the end of August in our area, because that is when nighttime temperatures become cooler. At our house, they tend to start flying into our carport by afternoon. My husband catches them, kills them with a fly swatter, then leaves the carcasses for mammals to eat (all organic matter should be recycled). Gray Squirrels take the stink bugs during the day, and nighttime scavengers clean up bodies left behind.

Ladybugs do not start to enter homes in our area until October. Because they are smaller than stink bugs, they can more easily access your living areas where it’s too warm for them to hibernate. Therefore, you could see them all winter into spring, but you needn’t do anything. With no food and water, the ladybugs die, and you can pick them up as that happens.

Or, if temperatures are above freezing, catch them in a bug box (a small plastic container, which also works for stink bugs) and release the ladybugs outside (just as scientists did back in 1978-1981).

Returning to the Kansas butterfly gardener, she found a substitute for the native pipevine called White-veined Pipevine (Aristolochia fibriata), a plant she considers “really lush and cute!” Native to Argentina and Brazil, it makes seeds, which this Kansas Extension Master Gardener and Native Plant Society member is selling at spring plant sales in her area. Butterfly gardeners “are eager buyers, especially if they’ve not had a spot for its huge sun-loving thuggish cousin.”

I predict this new alien plant species will become yet another addition to the “invasive” plant-species list since it makes viable seeds. Concern about so-called invasive plants has been a huge contributor to herbicide usage in this country, even though herbicides are producing superweeds and killing many, many kinds of animals.

If you feel that nature is bothering you, please deal with the situation in a sensible way. Avoid creating new problems (for example, by bringing in more alien species) and/or use your own muscle power instead of pesticides that do not offer a permanent solution anyway.

Blue Ridge Naturalist: Is Nature Bothering You?

Have You Thanked a Sapsucker Today?

©Marlene A. Condon

March 2, 2018

A regularly occurring winter visitor to Virginia is the Yellow-bellied Sapsucker, a funny-sounding name to non-birders. But its eponymous name informs us that this northern bird sucks sap.

By making shallow wells on trunks and branches that fill with sap, the sapsucker obtains sugar—a source of carbohydrates that provides energy for the sapsucker and many other animals, such as squirrels, other species of birds, and insects (on warmish winter days) that come to also feed upon it.

Sadly, this species gets a bad rap. People accuse it of seriously injuring or killing trees and shrubs when it makes its sap wells. But this enduring suggestion is utter nonsense.

Because my interest in history is practically equal to my interest in nature, I have been on many estate tours on which I have noticed huge (i.e., old) trees covered in recent and decades-old sap wells. It should go without saying that those trees would not still be alive if sapsucker wells were detrimental to them. The reality is that sapsuckers do no more harm to your plants than do people who install taps into Sugar Maple trees so they can make maple syrup.

The indigenous peoples of the Lake States, southeastern Canada, New England, and the Appalachian Mountains knew and used maple syrup long before the arrival of European settlers. No authenticated information has been handed down explaining how they learned that maple sap could be a food source, but I have absolutely no doubt that nature led the way.

It is not at all unlikely that someone observed a Yellow-bellied Sapsucker making sap wells, just as I have done numerous times while eating my second breakfast (my first is when it’s still dark out) that consists of oatmeal sweetened with pure maple syrup. The person noticed how popular the sap was with a variety of animals, decided to taste it, and voila! A discovery for the ages.

The migration behavior of the Yellow-bellied Sapsucker fits perfectly with my suggestion that this bird played a major role in the origination of maple syrup. These birds start to head north from Virginia by March, and few remain by April. They know when to get “home” for the spring thaw and the rising maple sap!

The Yellow-bellied Sapsucker is an eastern bird with closely related western relatives, one of which is the Red-naped Sapsucker. At one time, scientists considered these two birds to be the same species, even though they have differing field marks and their ranges do not overlap much at all.

On the morning of November 9, 2017, I heard a bird making a “crying” sound (as I described it in my notes) that was very similar to that of a Yellow-bellied Sapsucker, except that it was not quite right. The sound had a sad quality to it, as if something were amiss.

Finding the bird in my Autumn Olive just southeast of my house, I was very surprised to see that it was a sapsucker with an obvious red spot on the back of its head (called the “nape”). It was a Red-naped Sapsucker! This was quite an exciting find because this species breeds in the Rocky Mountain region north to British Columbia and Alberta, Canada, and would not normally be here.

However, at the time of my initial sighting, I had no idea just how rare a visitor this bird was in the East. After announcing its presence in my yard on the Virginia bird-listing Internet site, a birder wrote to tell me that this species had only ever been recorded in this half of the country a few times, and that was around Canton, Ohio. Thus, a Red-naped Sapsucker would be a first for the state of Virginia!

The bird’s most telling feature was the red on the back of the head, but it also had much less black on the breast than a Yellow-bellied Sapsucker, which seems to be very typical of Red-naped Sapsuckers. I discovered this difference by looking at many, many photos online and in books, but surprisingly, I never found mention of it in the literature.

“My” bird was a male because its throat was fully red (the female’s throat is white and red), but it was obviously not an adult because it still showed areas of brownish mottled coloration where an adult male would have more of a white-and-black contrast to its appearance. It showed some adult coloration because the immature Red-naped Sapsucker starts attaining its adult plumage by November of its first year, unlike the immature Yellow-bellied that attains its adult plumage by the following spring.

The bird visited my yard at least 10 times between its first appearance in November and its last in early December, exhibiting interesting behavior that, along with its brownish plumage, corroborated that it was a young bird.

The first few times it was here, it made plaintive sounds—as you would expect from a young bird—as it followed adult Yellow-bellied Sapsuckers around the yard. A couple of times it even landed right next to an adult, a male one time and a female the next, which is not typical adult behavior. Additionally, adult birds would not tolerate this closeness from another adult bird, but would put up with it briefly—as they did—from a young one.

I’ll probably never see a Red-naped Sapsucker in my yard again, and it is highly unlikely anyone in Virginia will ever find one of these birds here. However, it is not hard to spot Yellow-bellied Sapsuckers from fall through early spring, and if you love pure maple syrup as I do, you just might want to quietly thank these birds for the role their species very likely played in bringing you this marvelous natural product!

Blue Ridge Naturalist: Have You Thanked A Sapsucker Today?

On the Cutting Edge

©Marlene A. Condon

ARTICLE FEB2018 -DEER-EATEN YUCCA--IMG_8871adjust

In October of 2017, a new study asserting the shocking loss of 75% of the total biomass of flying insects in some German nature preserves caught the attention of many news outlets. Various scientists were quoted as they pointed out the seriousness of this newfound result for our own food supply and that of wildlife.

Faithful followers of my writing know that the loss of insects is not news to me. In fact, because I regularly bring new information about our environment directly to my readers (thank you for your interest) long before the scientific community is aware of it, you can rest assured that you are on the cutting edge of what is happening “out there.”

For many years I have been writing about the perilous loss of insects in the United States based upon my personal observations—and people have insisted I did not know what I was talking about.

In 2014, for example, I wrote in a column that I was very concerned about insect collecting “because there exist far fewer insects in the world today than 50 years ago.” I also wrote that, “There’s been such a huge loss of insect populations that I am not at all surprised that so many species of insect-feeding animals are dying out. And I am extremely concerned about the future of mankind in this insect-depleted world.”

Within one day of that column appearing a scientist replied that my “subjective assessment” of insect populations was “flawed” because I had based it upon years of paying attention to the numbers of insects splattered upon car windshields and flying around lights at night. Scientists often conflate personal observations of the natural world with a lack of objectivity, as if personal observations made in a lab setting somehow automatically guarantees impartiality on the part of the researcher.

He went on to bluntly state that “trillions of insects thrive here”, inferring that the insects of North America were flourishing and I was way off the mark. But as I’ve always known and written, the best way to learn about nature is by unobtrusively observing it. When a plethora of insects around lights at night goes to almost none over the decades, only one conclusion is possible.

My way of doing science means that I obtain factual information without needing to injure, kill, or disturb wildlife in any way, whereas the 27-year-long German study killed millions of insects (adding insult to injury) in order to “document” that insects were disappearing. Unfortunately, scientists simply do not grasp the irony of harming the very wildlife they are trying to understand, and they refuse to believe that simple, unbiased observations can be trusted to yield accurate information.

Back in the 1990s, I noticed that a sentinel crow waited for me to put out birdseed on cold winter mornings. The moment I appeared, the crow would fly off silently, and then I would hear cawing in the distance. Within a few minutes, several crows would arrive to take my seeds.

I sent a report to an ornithological publication about the obvious intelligence of crows placing a sentinel to watch for me so that it could then alert other crows to the location of a food source, but the scientists at the helm did not seem to believe what I had written.

Shortly thereafter I attended a meeting at which I met an ornithologist. I told him about my crow experience, which he seemed to believe, but he told me that birds don’t recognize individual humans. He thought I should not try to suggest that the crow actually recognized me as an individual.

I did not believe I was wrong about the crow being able to identify me. As I later wrote in one of my newspaper columns, “Although I came out every morning, I did not always show up at the same time. Thus the only way for the crows to take advantage of my generosity was to post a sentry that could alert the others at whatever hour I made an appearance.”

It should be noted that the crow did not wait for me to distribute seeds. It left the moment it saw me, something it did not do if my husband went outside to leave for work before I had gone out to spread seeds.

So-o-o-o, I was not the least bit surprised when, almost two decades later, scientists “discovered” (rather like Columbus discovering America even though native peoples had lived here for many thousands of years) that crows could recognize individual human faces.

Although I try to share my discoveries, scientists can be a skeptical lot. Non-scientists can be just as cynical. When a neighbor suggested a few months ago that deer were overpopulated, I told him that was not currently the case. He and another neighbor treated my statement as utter nonsense. After all, people still see deer around, and if their plants get eaten, they are especially prone to believing there are too many of these animals.

What they don’t realize is that they cannot determine relative population levels without having paid very close attention over time. In my case, I had documented deer starving a few years back during two successive years of bitterly cold February months, and I had noticed that they were seen less the rest of that year. The next two years of hunter-generated numbers of deer taken during hunting season were way down, fully in agreement with what I had already ascertained.

There was more evidence, too. For many years, ticks were so numerous that it was almost impossible to go outside without getting them on you. And when you looked at deer with binoculars, they were covered with these deer-dependent arthropods.

But my husband and I, despite spending just as much time as ever in the yard where we’d always gotten ticks, found very few on us the past two summers, and the deer we saw carried few, if any, ticks—both situations independently confirming my assertion.

Perhaps the most convincing proof is that Boneset (Eupatorium perfoliatum) and American Elderberry (Sambucus canadensis)—plants especially favored by deer—have been untouched, or touched very little, by deer in recent years. In the past, if these species were unprotected (uncaged), they would have been killed by the overabundance of deer feeding upon them.

People wouldn’t doubt me if they realized that the natural world is an open book just waiting to be read by anyone seriously interested in it. You do not need an advanced degree.

When you observe nature without interfering with it, document carefully what you see, and then employ logic to understand it, you can rest assured that the knowledge you’ve gained is absolutely reliable.

Blue Ridge Naturalist: On the Cutting Edge

Birdbrained

marlene condon cardinal — September 8, 2017

A Northern Cardinal has it all—beauty and brains! (Photo: Marlene A. Condon)

It is almost time for birds from farther north to return to Virginia for the winter. If you are thinking about feeding birds, I want to share the most delightful experience I may have ever had participating in this activity.

Because I have had rheumatoid arthritis for decades, it has finally taken a toll on my hands, making just about anything I do with them terribly painful. As a result, I had to relinquish my role last year as the principal provider of birdseed to my winter visitors. My husband kindly took over for me, although he did alter the protocols.

Whereas I would put some seed on the ground late in the afternoon to make sure all ground-feeding birds were well fed before “going to bed” for the long winter night, he decided that meant too many squirrels were taking the seed. So-o-o, he decided to make the last feeding of the day much later, after the sun had gotten well below the Blue Ridge Mountains just a few miles to our west.

By that time of day, with the light beginning to fade, the only birds usually still active were White-throated Sparrows, Northern Cardinals, and Mourning Doves. Occasionally a lone Dark-eyed Junco would remain, but most of its fellow juncos would have already disappeared for the night.

Often one or more Eastern Cottontail Rabbits would join the birds, and quite surprisingly, a couple of Gray Squirrels would risk staying out much later than their usual bedtime to take advantage of the handouts.

My spouse stuck strictly to his schedule, and after many weeks, the most amazing thing happened. By mid-winter, those birds had learned not only the schedule he kept for feeding them, but also the sound (the unlocking and/or opening of the kitchen door into our carport) that announced he was about to provide them with their food!

My husband had been throwing seeds into the shrubs by the north side of our driveway that offered a measure of protection from predators, such as owls just becoming active at this time of day. He would also throw some seeds into the driveway.

I would watch from my office window from just before he opened the kitchen door to the time he returned to the carport. I was the lucky recipient of a perfectly endearing show.

The minute the door opened, every bird poking around in the plants in the front yard would fly to the shrubs. Many even came out of the brush piles I keep around the yard for them to sleep in or to escape predators or bad weather. It was just an amazing thing to see dozens of sparrows and a cardinal here and there quickly crossing the yard to enter the shrub area where they could await the “birdseed man.”

If the squirrels and bunnies were already in the driveway, they too would take their places inside the shrubbery, albeit on the ground. Remarkably, however, with each passing day, the rabbits got bolder and instead began to just wait for my husband in the driveway!

Just as Pavlov’s dogs learned to associate the sound of a bell with food and thus salivated more in anticipation of eating, our wild critters had learned to associate the sound of our kitchen door with the arrival of food and reacted accordingly.

Some birds, usually a male cardinal and several White-throats, would already be perched in the shrubs, facing the carport, when I first looked out. Mourning Doves would also be waiting patiently, either milling around in the driveway or lying down on their bellies there.

The fact that birds would be facing the carport only in the evening demonstrated that they could tell what time of day they could expect my husband to come out of the house. And, of course, the birds poking around in my gardens and perching in the brush piles probably knew approximately when supper was to be served and were simply killing time in the locations that suited them.

The birds grew ever bolder. At first, those in the bushes would perch close to the driveway and then get scared as my husband threw seeds into the shrubbery. Many of them would originally fly far off and quite possibly did not return.

But, after a while, the birds would simply move up higher into the trees as soon as they heard the kitchen door, where they could wait and watch as my husband approached. They had realized that they would not have seeds bouncing off them if they were higher off the ground, so eventually, many birds would simply wait high up in the first place for his evening appearance.

As he walked back to the carport, the avian creatures would all fly down into the shrubs, and after several moments, a jumble of birds would pour out of the shrubbery as they literally ran out into the driveway. There were always at least five dozen White-throats, five male and four female cardinals, and usually a minimum of six doves. It was the most incredible sight to behold. I couldn’t help but giggle to myself as I watched.

My husband would usually watch the boisterous gathering from the carport. He especially marveled at the White-throated Sparrow chatter that seemed loud enough to get the attention of the whole neighborhood.

The term “birdbrain” refers to a person who is stupid or scatterbrained, yet these birds had shown themselves to be every bit as capable of learning as any mammal—the animals with the largest brains and thus for years thought to be more intelligent than birds, reptiles, amphibians, or fish. Perhaps we need to redefine the word “birdbrained.”

Blue Ridge Naturalist: Birdbrained

Everyone Should Practice Environmental Libertarianism

ARTICLE MB PIC IMG_5839 — ©Marlene A. Condon

November 2, 2017

This stream ran red into the Moormans River of western Albemarle following logging upon the adjacent mountain. The dirt-laden water pouring into the river was unfortunate not only for aquatic wildlife, but also for the future growth of trees on the mountain. Photo: Marlene Condon.

Flowering plants (angiosperms that make up more than 80 percent of green plants in the world) depend upon wildlife for their continued existence. Conversely, wildlife depends upon plants for its existence. It is a form of quid pro quo, in which both entities benefit from each other’s activities.

Humans, just like plants, also depend upon wildlife for their continued existence. When people provide habitat for pollinators and numerous other kinds of critters, the animals provide people with the perpetuation of plants that provide oxygen and food, as well as great beauty in the form of flowers, birds, butterflies, dragonflies, and oh, so very many creatures!

Yet it can be very difficult to get folks to do what is proper for the environment, which in the end, is also going to benefit neighbors near and far as well as wildlife nearby and down the road. The situation with the Chesapeake Bay is a prime example.

Although people are aware of the causes of the bay’s problems, many refuse to change their ways to help the Chesapeake Bay to recover. Their inaction has brought great harm to the people whose livelihoods were dependent upon a healthy bay chock full of sea life. Environmental libertarianism would never have allowed this to happen.

A right-to-the-point summation of the political philosophy of libertarianism is that it advocates allowing folks to do pretty much whatever they wish, especially on their own property, so long as they do not bring harm to others. The idea is that state intervention in the lives of citizens should be minimal. Therefore, so long as people are not causing difficulties for other people, there should be a minimum number of government regulations for citizens to abide by.

Indeed, if everyone practiced libertarian ideals with respect to the environment, we certainly would not need so much government interference in our lives. For example, the Environmental Protection Agency came into being only because people refused to take proper care of the environment that all of us depend upon for our own health and wellbeing.

When too many people will not act of their own accord to do what is right for the natural world—and thus their fellow citizens—there is absolutely no choice but to rein in their behavior with threats of fines, or jail, or whatever it takes. More recently, government had to step in to demand that companies manufacture more-energy-efficient light bulbs because people would rather leave lights unnecessarily burning than to flick a switch to turn them off.

And while some farmers have put up fencing to keep their cows and cow waste out of our waterways, others continue to allow their animals to enter streams at will, the Chesapeake Bay and the people dependent upon it for jobs be damned (please excuse the language). I have heard straight from farmers’ mouths that they do not believe waste from their cows is a major contributing factor of bay pollution that harms sea life, but chemistry proves these farmers to be in denial of the truth.

Of course, home and business owners, as well as government, are equally guilty, if not more so, of polluting the bay. On many of their properties, laborers mow and weed-whack every last plant to such an extent that the soil often becomes exposed and then dries out. If you come by as they are working, you can see soil dust-clouds created by their machines. The dirt settles out on roads, eventually washing into drains and streams that feed the Bay.

In our forests, loggers may not feel obliged to take adequate precautionary measures to limit erosion if the logging takes place high up on a mountain hidden from view. However, a steady rain alerts those of us paying attention to the error of their ways.

I have seen more than one local stream run red with local clay during logging operations well out of eyesight, but not out of earshot. All that dirt ends up settling out eventually to smother aquatic habitat and wildlife.

Some folks leave trashcans out 24/7, creating a hazard for our wildlife. When people neglect to secure their trashcans so that animals cannot get into them, critters may eat plastic wrap because it smells like food, and die a horrible death due to intestinal obstruction. Bottles that were not cleaned up can lure and trap small animals.

The world would be a much nicer place in which to live if folks would just consider whether the things they do on their own land impact not only wildlife, but other people as well. On many a lovely day I have had to close my windows to keep the house from filling with smoke from neighbors burning yard debris (and sometimes plastic-laden trash, the fumes of which can cause cancer).

On those occasions, it is very upsetting that I am not able to bring fresh air inside, but it is also troubling to know that these folks are not letting their yard debris decay naturally. They would not be polluting the air, and they would be recycling organic matter while creating habitat for many different kinds of animals, such as lizards, salamanders, insects, and spiders.

We have so many environmental regulations because far too many people do not take proper care of the environment. Yet it is our moral duty to nurture it, and if everyone behaved morally in the first place, we would not need laws to make us behave appropriately.

I am not particularly political by nature, but I think it would be extremely worthwhile for people to start practicing environmental libertarianism, no matter what their political stripes may be. After all, a better world always begins at home.

Blue Ridge Naturalist: Everyone Should Practice Environmental Libertarianism

Little frogs, sure signs of spring, need attention

By Marlene A. Condon

From the Bay Journal, March 4, 2014.

IMG_1690.jpgtrim_1 — A Wood Frog blending in with dead leaves. Photo by Marlene A. Condon.

One late-February day as I was jogging early in the morning, I heard what sounded like distant Canada geese off to my left. I searched the sky but saw nothing.

Then I realized that the “honking” was actually coming from beside the road. I put my exercise regimen on hold and walked to the edge of the road to look down the embankment where the sounds were coming from. I had finally found my first wood frogs (Lithobates sylvaticus).

I had seen photos of these amphibians in field guides and knew that they should exist where I live.

As you might guess from the name, wood frogs inhabit woods, and woods make up most of my area.

I had wanted very much to see these frogs because they looked so attractive in field guides. A wood frog has a dark facial mask with a light stripe along its upper jaw, both of which contrast with its brown body. But wood frogs are not easy to find.

The easiest time to catch a glimpse of these animals is late winter to early spring, when they migrate from their overwintering sites to shallow pools or ponds where they will breed. They often begin to move during the last few days of February, especially if it is rainy and somewhat warm. The rest of the year they are silent and difficult to see against the background of dried leaves on the forest floor that they call home.

If you really want to confirm that spring is on the way, look for the earliest-appearing cold-tolerant amphibians (frogs, toads, salamanders) of late winter. These hardy little creatures offer the first clue that warm weather is coming, long before American robins that so often —and erroneously, as some robins may be in the area all winter — get credit for this prediction.

One does not need to rise as early in the morning as I do to notice the emergence of amphibians from winter hibernation. Any relatively warm wet evening from now until well into spring should reward those who look with the sight of these diminutive animals.

They emerge in great numbers during the hours of darkness and all of them head to ponds or short-lived (“ephemeral”) pools of water to breed.

Unfortunately, many amphibian species are losing ground in our modern world, both figuratively and literally.

Hundreds of amphibians need to cross roads to get to their breeding grounds. Sad to say, many, many of them get run over by cars and trucks as folks drive quickly along the roads, usually completely unaware that they are squishing animals underneath their tires.

(Anyone who gets up early and walks the roads before crows and other scavengers have a chance to clean up the carcasses will be astonished, and perhaps saddened, by the numbers of mashed amphibians.)

Those that do survive the road crossings often find it difficult to successfully reproduce because wetlands are disappearing.

Humans frequently find wet areas to be a nuisance, even if pieces of property are only wet in the spring and dry the rest of the year. They drain and fill in such areas, not realizing that they are wiping out the breeding grounds for many wildlife species.

And, perhaps, that is the problem.

Birds and mammals are much more noticeable because they are bigger and they visit open spaces where humans see them. Amphibians, on the other hand, are usually out of sight, hiding under decaying logs and branches or resting underneath stones or leaves. For humans, out of sight usually means out of mind.

Therefore, I hope you will take a late-winter or early-spring walk and become familiar with these inhabitants of the natural world that are somewhat hidden from our view most of the time.

I also hope you will drive more slowly on rainy nights and be alert for the presence of frogs, toads, and salamanders making their way to a very important appointment—a date with a female of the same species so they can reproduce.

The male frogs and toads (salamanders tend to be silent) that one can hear calling at this time of year are advertising from suitable breeding grounds for mates. The females arrive, eggs are laid, and within days, the adults have left. Soon the eggs hatch and frog and toad tadpoles and salamander larvae emerge.

Although it may seem surprising that any animal would want to attempt to reproduce while ice may still be on the ground and in areas that are sometimes only temporarily suitable, this early mating frenzy allows the amphibians a measure of protection from predation—most aquatic predators will still be hibernating.

Pay attention, and you may get to witness an amphibian migration!

Marlene A. Condon, author of The Nature-friendly Garden, believes saving the natural world begins in one’s own back yard. Distributed by Bay Journal News Service.

Robins & blossoms & snakes, oh my! A natural garden has room for all

By Marlene A. Condon. Text from article that appeared in the Bay Journal, July 19, 2016

http://www.bayjournal.com/article/robins_blossoms_snakes_oh_my_a_natural_garden_has_room_for_all

yellow-collard scape mothIMG_4880trim_1 — A Yellow-collard Scape Moth (left) and a Pennsylvania Leatherwing Soldier Beetle (right) feeding at a goldenrod. Photo by Marlene A. Condon

Providing habitat for numerous species of wildlife is a critically important to keep the environment functioning properly. And, it’s absolutely crucial to our well-being. Without the variety of services provided by wildlife, the environment simply cannot work as it should.

For example, without recyclers — such as slugs, snails, earwigs, flies, opossums — organic matter, which includes leaves, dried plant stems, animal droppings or dead animals, wouldn’t be broken down and returned to the soil for the benefit of plants.

If plants can’t access the nutrients locked up in organic matter, they run out of food and won’t be able to grow. Then animals, including humans, that depend on plant life won’t have food or survive.

It should be every person’s responsibility to help maintain the health of our environment by creating a nature wonderland that can provide homes for a great variety of species.

Unfortunately, many people prefer to garden only for particular species, such as birds or butterflies. But you can’t pick and choose without harming the very animals you want to help.

Let’s say that you put up shelves and/or boxes in the yard to make housing available for the kinds of birds that will make use of these structures to reproduce. But then a Black Rat Snake climbs into the structure and eats the eggs or chicks.

If you’re like many folks, you’d get angry and kill the snake (although this is illegal in some states). You’d think that the serpent was “bad.”

But the snake isn’t bad. If it didn’t help to limit bird populations, the birds would crowd and eat themselves out of house and home, bringing disease and starvation upon themselves.

For example, a pair of Carolina wrens can nest three times from spring to fall, averaging four chicks per brood. If the two adults, along with all 12 of their chicks, were to survive the season, your yard population would go from two Carolina Wrens to 14, which is an increase in population by a factor of seven. If year after year, all of the adult wrens mated and they and all of their chicks were to survive, each year your yard population of wrens would increase by a factor of seven.

In just 10 years, you would have produced — on your property alone — 565 million Carolina wrens. And don’t forget all of the other bird species that are nesting on your property and elsewhere!

There’s simply not enough space and food available for all organisms to survive to adulthood, which is why predators are so vital to the proper functioning of the environment. We must recognize that even those animals that we have a special fondness for do need to be kept limited in number. This truism applies to every kind of animal — including humans —because the Earth is limited in space and resources.

But this doesn’t mean you turn your birds into sitting ducks. If a snake gets into a structure much too often (I’ve found that, on average, you should expect this to occur only about once every three years) it tells you there’s something wrong with that location and you need to move the structure.

You needn’t feel stupid for having placed the structure in that location. After all, the birds didn’t recognize there would be a problem, either.

The guidelines for creating a nature-friendly garden are simple.

Minimize the lawn because it doesn’t provide much food, shelter or nesting sites for animals. Instead, grow a variety of plants of differing heights: herbaceous flowers and grasses, vines, shrubs and trees to create vertical structure.

To decide what kinds of plants to grow, walk around your neighborhood and local parks. Bring a small notepad and pen and watch for animal activity among plants.

Write down the kinds of plants being visited by any kind of wildlife, especially insects. Insects provide an important clue to how valuable a plant is. If they are visiting blooms, the flowers must be providing nectar and/or pollen, a necessary food source for numerous kinds of creatures, from bees to hummingbirds. The insects themselves are a valuable food source for spiders, lizards and birds.

Bring a camera to photograph plants you’re not familiar with so you can try to identify them later.

Note whether each plant is located in sun or shade and whether it’s growing in dry or damp soil. The plants you choose to grow must be those for which you can provide the proper environment.

Gardening in the Midst of White-tailed Deer

© Marlene A. Condon

January, 2014

Deer aren’t supposed to kill plants. The problem nowadays is that we have one deer after another coming by and taking some bites and pretty soon, there are no bites left to take! Photo: Marlene A. Condon. — Deer aren’t supposed to kill plants. The problem nowadays is that we have one deer after another coming by and taking some bites and pretty soon, there are no bites left to take! Photo: Marlene A. Condon

One summer day I delightedly watched a Red-spotted Purple butterfly (Limenitis arthemis) laying her eggs upon a shrubby Black Cherry (Prunus serotina) by my driveway.

(When trees come up where I don’t want full-sized trees, I prune them so they grow into shrub form instead of getting rid of them. Keeping them shrub-sized allows me to maintain native-plant habitat for wildlife in areas where I can’t accommodate large trees.)

Unfortunately, the very next morning my heart broke when I went to check on the butterfly eggs. I had planned to get into the habit of examining the plant daily so I wouldn’t miss the hatching of the eggs. But overnight, one or more deer had completely defoliated the small plant, taking every young succulent leaf upon which I had fervently hoped I would get to see Red-spotted Purple caterpillars.

I’ve never heard anyone mention that deer impact the reproductive capabilities of insects and spiders when they consume (albeit inadvertently) their eggs. Of course, this occurrence was not “bad” in and of itself, as the populations of all kinds of organisms need to be kept in check by various means.

But the reality is that deer predation of innumerable kinds of insect and spider eggs located upon plants is undoubtedly happening far too often nowadays in Virginia. The deer population is out of balance with the rest of the ecosystem.

By the beginning of the 20th century, White-tailed Deer (Odocoileus virginianus) were almost extinct in Virginia, thanks to 300 years of overhunting by European settlers, their descendants, and new immigrants. But before the white man arrived, these mammals had been an integral part of the environment, providing food and clothing for American Indians for more than 12,000 years.

(NOTE: Over the past few decades, some folks have tried to claim that Native Americans were just as disrespectful of the environment as Europeans. This contention is disproven by a simple fact: people living in hunter-gatherer societies cannot survive long if they don’t respect and value the wildlife and plant communities they are dependent upon for their own existence.)

Because of protective game laws and restocking efforts by the Virginia Department of Game & Inland Fisheries (DGIF), deer populations have rebounded over the past century. Unfortunately, however, for most citizens of the state, deer have been allowed to overpopulate much of Virginia, as is obvious by how often you see these large animals. They should not be so numerous as to be visible to humans almost daily.

Yet according to the introduction to the DGIF 2006-2015 Deer Management Plan, “Virginia currently does not have many widespread ‘overpopulated’ deer herds. Although Virginia’s deer herds are often portrayed as being overpopulated, most can best be characterized as being at low or moderate population densities, below the BCC.”

BCC means the Biological Carrying Capacity, which refers to the ability of the landscape to support a species at a level that does not result in harm to either the animals themselves or to the environment. Thus as far as the DGIF is concerned, as long as deer appear healthy and are not obviously starving, the agency feels that these animals have not reached their BCC in most areas of Virginia.

But the only reason that deer are healthy and seem—to the DGIF—not to be overpopulated is that these hoofed mammals truly have an almost endless supply of food in the form of the average home landscape. However, lawns and gardens should not be taken into account when deciding how many deer comprise a “natural” population density because these areas artificially inflate the BCC.

What should count for management purposes is only how much natural landscape exists for deer, which would substantially lower the density of deer per acre of land in Virginia. Obviously deer would still find their way to suburban gardens, but there would be far fewer problems for gardeners (and drivers, farmers, orchardists, etc.) if there were far fewer deer around in the first place.

As long as the DGIF Board of Directors is composed solely of hunters or relatives of hunters, and as long as a majority of hunters feel that more deer are better than fewer, you are unlikely to see a decrease in the numbers of deer per acre anytime soon.

So how does the gardener coexist with an unending stream of deer coming by for a bite? There are steps you can take.

Because deer can jump as high as eight feet from a standstill and perhaps a bit higher from a running start, you would need a nine-foot-tall fence around your entire yard or food garden to totally exclude them.

Another option, depending upon the size of your wallet, is to build a six-foot-tall brick wall, which is more aesthetically pleasing. Deer will not jump over an obstacle if they can’t see what’s on the other side.

You can also use electric fencing which will give deer a shock, but it is high-maintenance and, in my opinion, a bit mean-spirited. After all, deer are simply trying to survive; they aren’t trying to be troublesome.

If your garden is quite small, perhaps consisting of just a few tomato and pepper plants, for example, you may find that a wire cage around each plant will be sufficient. Deer will be able to feed upon the parts of the plant that grow beyond the cage, but you might get enough tomatoes and peppers from inside the cage to be satisfied.

For vining food plants (such as cucumbers), you can grow them upon a trellis and can quite often keep deer at bay by using row covers. Simply cover the entire trellis with the cloth until the plants start to bloom. At that point, you will need to uncover the trellis each morning so that pollinators can reach the blossoms.

You must remember to cover up the trellis again before nightfall. Of course, any deer active during daylight hours will be able to feed upon the exposed vines, so this method works best if your yard tends to be populated by people or a confined dog during the day.

When growing plants for beauty, rather than a source of food, I recommend using cages for woody plants until they have “hardened” and (with luck) have become less palatable for deer. However, you must be willing to make sure that each plant never leans upon its cage. Such support will cause the trunk and stems to be weak and the plant will be unable to support itself after you’ve “freed” it.

You should consider buying plants from catalogs or local nurseries that label the plants that deer are not particularly interested in. Keep in mind, however, that buying only plants that deer are not supposed to want to eat is not a guarantee of success. The tastes of deer sometimes change over time due to a change in what kinds of food are available for them.

Lastly, the best way to be a happy and contented gardener is to simply accept that you may not be able to grow particular plants in the presence of deer. For example, I love the fragrance of old-timey roses, but when I tried to grow them, the deer literally ate them to death.

Rather than fencing the plants, which would have detracted from their beauty and my enjoyment of them, I changed what I could—how I felt about the situation. I accepted that roses were not something that I could grow, at least not as long as there are so many deer to contend with.

More details on gardening in the presence of deer and other kinds of wildlife can be found in Marlene’s book, The Nature-friendly Garden: Creating a Backyard Haven for Plants, Wildlife, and People (Stackpole Books). Autographed and inscribed copies can be purchased from the author.

Blue Ridge Naturalist: Gardening in the Midst of White-tailed Deer

Baffling Mammals

January, 2012

The “Raccoon Guard” baffle is excellent for keeping mammals from getting into bird feeders. (Photo: Marlene A. Condon)

Many folks are putting out seeds for birds at this time of year. However, birds may not be the only wildlife wanting to partake of your offerings.

Gray squirrels, southern flying squirrels, white-footed and deer mice, eastern chipmunks, common raccoons, gray and red foxes, Virginia opossums, and even white-tailed deer enjoy eating birdseed too, especially sunflower seeds. Although there’s no problem with these mammals scavenging seeds that the birds have dropped (someone has to eat them!), you would go broke if you allowed all of these larger critters to get food directly from your feeders.

The most sensible way to keep mammals from raiding your seed supply is to place your feeders on poles. Poles must be placed away from plants and buildings so that agile animals, such as squirrels, will not be able to jump directly onto the feeder.

Gray squirrels, the most common birdfeeder visitors, can jump almost eight feet horizontally. Therefore you should not place your pole within eight feet of trees, bushes, or any structures from which a squirrel can launch itself.

When you employ a pole to hold your feeder, you need to place a baffle on it to keep mammals from just climbing right up the pole to the feeder. The baffle should be placed at least five feet above the ground on the pole; otherwise a squirrel may be able to jump over it.

Occasionally you may get a squirrel that can jump higher and farther than most, or a raccoon that is bigger than most and can access the feeder. If this happens, you may have to make adjustments in the width of the baffle you’re using or in how far away you place the pole from other objects.

Baffles are usually round or hemispherical and made of plastic. I’ve found that the minimum size that works is one with an eighteen-inch diameter. A gray squirrel is usually able to get around one smaller than that.

Baffles that are constructed of thicker plastic are more durable and less easily broken than those made of thin plastic, so it’s worth the extra cost to buy the better baffle. Or you may want to construct your own cylindrical stove-pipe baffle out of thin sheet metal that can work well.

My plastic baffles worked well for a decade. But then a raccoon started visiting that was able to get around them. Luckily, I found a “Raccoon Guard” for sale in a catalog.

It was expensive, but it worked so well that I eventually ended up buying a few more. It not only keeps raccoons from the feeders but also squirrels and even bears! (My poles are extra tall to keep American Black Bears—which can reach 6 feet tall on their hind legs—from just reaching up to grab the feeders.) Thus this type of baffle is the most effective one that I have found.

The Raccoon Guard is a tube 28 inches long and 7½ inches wide. It’s made of galvanized steel with a weather resistant finish so it lasts much longer than plastic baffles. I’ve had mine for over 15 years now and they are still in great shape.

I’ve only seen these baffles in two bird catalogs: Duncraft (1-888-879-5095 or www.duncraft.com/Raccoon-Guard) and Audubon Workshop (www.audubonworkshop.com/).

Some people try to deter squirrels by using seeds that are less attractive to them, such as safflower. However, that stategy will also limit the number of bird species that visit. Animals have food preferences just as humans do!

Other folks attempt to repel squirrels by adding red pepper to the seeds in the feeder. Birds do not seem to be sensitive to capsaicin, the ingredient in hot peppers that causes us mammals to suffer intense burning in our mouths when our tissues come into contact with it. Red pepper is actually packaged for this use, but I would ask that you not buy it.

Some folks think that causing squirrels or other animals to suffer is humorous and justified. It isn’t. It’s never kind to deliberately inflict pain upon our wildlife, especially as it’s not necessary.

Additionally, if the pepper gets into the eyes of birds or squirrels, it would cause quite an irritation. As they struggle to relieve the burning in their eyes, they could be killed by predators.

Lastly, do not EVER use sticky substances on the poles. If mammals get it on their paws, they will have trouble functioning which means they will have trouble surviving. Grease or other such gooey substances also kills numerous kinds of wildlife, such as insects that can’t possibly free themselves from it.

Insects play extremely important roles in the environment as pollinators, recyclers, aerators of the soil, and as food for numerous other species. So please be conscious of the unintended consequences of your actions.

Blue Ridge Naturalist: Baffling Mammals

Tracks and Sign of Insects and Other Invertebrates

September, 2012

Naturalist-pic — Potter wasp nests often resemble familiar structures such as vases or, in this case, a little oven. (Photo: Marlene A. Condon)

Several years ago, as I was removing plant debris from one of my small, artificial ponds, I discovered gelatinous blobs adhering to the undersides of some of the leaves that had fallen into the water. Up to that point in time, I had never seen these blobs when maintaining my ponds. Thus I was mystified and hugely curious as to what they were.

Although I couldn’t make out anything inside the clear jelly-like substance to suggest there was something within it, I surmised that the blobs were egg masses of some animal, probably freshwater snails. The appearance of the blobs coincided with the arrival of the snails in my ponds.

I returned the leaves with the blobs to the pond because you should never destroy something in the natural world when you don’t know what it is. After all, every organism has a function, so you don’t want to get rid of anything unless you have a good reason to do so. Otherwise, you could interfere with the proper functioning of the environment, which, in this case, meant the proper functioning of my pond.

The mystery of the unidentified blobs eluded me until just a few months ago when I was absolutely thrilled to come across Tracks & Sign of Insects and Other Invertebrates by Charley Eiseman and Noah Charney.

As I thumbed through the pages and pages of photographs, I noticed a picture of my blobs! And yes, they were indeed the egg masses of my freshwater snails. I had to own this book!

If you love learning about the natural world and you’ve often wondered about a mysterious “sign” left behind by some critter, then you may want to own this book, too. You might want a copy of this book just to see and read about the many kinds of tracks, eggs or egg cases, cocoons, scat or droppings, or sheltering structures that are out there for all who pay close attention to their surroundings to see.

Insects may be the most numerous and ubiquitous of the creatures that you might find in your immediate environment, but this volumn also covers worms, snails, spiders, crayfish, and numerous other invertebrates (animals without a backbone).

Additionally, if you love visiting the beach, sea creatures are included, such as squid, crabs, periwinkles (I’ve always loved this name), and even octopuses!

One type of insect sign that I am always thrilled to find is the nest of a potter wasp. There are numerous species of these wasps, but they are miniscule so you rarely get to see the insects themselves (don’t worry; they don’t sting people).

But if you keep a sharp eye out, you may notice their tiny—and I think cute—mud nests that let you know they are around. My favorite potter wasp nest is one that really looks just like a teeny-tiny vase that has been thrown by a potter; hence the name for this kind of wasp. Other kinds of potter wasp nests look like tiny ovens where bread was baked in previous centuries and perhaps even now in some countries.

Although in a natural setting these nests would be attached to twigs, I have found them attached to plant cages around my tomatoes or to an outdoor lounge chair that hadn’t been used for a while (your author doesn’t have time for lying around relaxing!).

After a potter wasp female builds her nest, she provisions it with tiny caterpillars or grubs (the larvae of beetles) that she has stung and paralyzed with venom. She then lays a single egg upon the inside wall of the nest and seals it.

When the egg hatches, the wasp larva feeds upon the immobilized critters inside the nest until it’s ready to pupate. Following pupation, the newly developed adult wasp chews its way out of the nest to fulfill its own role of helping to limit the numbers of caterpillars and grubs to sustainable levels.

The natural world is chock full of absolutely amazing life forms, some of which you may never get to actually see, but which will leave behind clues to their existence. Happily, if you pick up a copy of Tracks and Sign of Insects and Other Invertebrates, you are likely to be able to figure out which organisms have passed through your vicinity or are living there now.

For years I’ve photographed tracks, scat, pupae, nests, and eggs that I couldn’t identify if I didn’t spot the critter leaving them behind because I couldn’t locate such things illustrated anywhere. Tracks and Sign is an immense repository of such hard-to-find information gathered together into one fine book.

If you find learning about the natural world as fascinating as I do, this book is a must for your library.

Blue Ridge Naturalist: Tracks and Sign of Insects and Other Invertebrates