Category Archives: Conservation

Animal, plant, habitat protection

Go Grassy-eyed for Pollinators

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Around the I Spy! garden and beyond

Close your eyes and picture a pollinator garden. I bet you see lots of flowers, busy bees, butterflies, jousting hummingbirds (if you’re in the Americas), hovering flower flies, maybe a moth or two. Look at the scene again. Are there any grasses (other than lawn) in your picture? If not this garden is missing an important landscape and ecological component that benefits pollinators and a host of other critters that keep the system humming. Think of a garden without grasses as a cake crafted without baking soda. The finished product is edible, but might be a bit of a let-down.

Grasses: beyond the forever mowing variety

Grasses serve multiple purposes in the landscape. Their visual interest can be magical. Some are short, clumpy, and cute. Others stand in the middle ground, some tall and supple, waving their blades and awns delicately in the breeze. Colors, ranging from light to dark green, buff to golds, oranges or red capture light and shades that change throughout the day and seasons.

Non-invasive ornamental and native grasses save water and money spent on fertilizers and other maintenance chores of traditional sod lawns. Low-care varieties can replace lawns altogether and still take traffic and look tidy. Deep root systems of native grasses make them perfect plants for water-wise gardens or erosion control while offering numerous wildlife benefits.

Grasses – links in the eco-web

As foreground, background, or intermixed with flowers and shrubs, grasses in the pollinator garden provide important areas for numerous insects and insect pollinators to feed, reproduce, and find shelter from storms and predators or to chill out during winter as they wait for spring. Grasses and sedges offer perching spots for male butterflies to scout for females.

Common ringlet (Coenonympha tullia). Adults need nectar. Larvae feed on a variety of grasses. Third or fourth instar phases overwinter in thick mats of dead grass.

Some butterflies and moths rely on specific native grass plants as hosts to hide their eggs and provide food for their caterpillars. Prairie grass research shows 36 species of butterflies and moths depend on 17 native grass species as host plants.

Silvery Blue (Glaucopsyche lygdamus)

Adult pollinators may have plenty of flowers for nectar in your neighborhood, but if their specific grass or sedge species are missing, their life cycle ends with the adult. Your garden and, ultimately, the world will have fewer visitors next year. 

Songbird babies depend on caterpillars and other soft-bodied insects to develop and thrive. Eighty percent of a hummingbird’s diet is small insects and spiders. They use spider webs to strengthen their nests. 

Bluetit with caterpillar (Pixabay)

Almost 3 billion breeding birds disappeared from U.S. and Canadian landscapes over the last 50 years, primarily due to habitat loss, including native plants. Our garden caterpillars and small insects can and do play a pivotal role in bolstering the future of our bird and wildlife populations.

Quail eggs in ground nest (Pixabay)

Adult birds use grasses to construct or line nests. Bunch grasses, with their compact bases, provide insects safe winter hibernation, either on or below the soil. Their bunchy quality at the base leaves small bare dirt areas between plants that are critical to solitary and semi-social ground-nesting bees. The federally endangered Rusty patched bumble bee is but one.

Reptiles and amphibians also rely on insects, important in keeping some of our pest species under control.

Pacific Tree Frog (Pseudacris regilla)

Alligator lizards, for example, prey on grasshoppers, crickets, and cockroaches. Snakes eat insects, small birds, and mammals like mice.

Common garter snake (Thamnophis)

Snakes, lizards, frogs, and small mammals that use grasses for cover and hunting are on the menu for raptors like the Red-shouldered hawk.

Red-shouldered hawk (Buteo lineatus) on watch.

Add native grasses and plants to your garden

As you plan your fall garden work, find spaces to insert native grasses or sedges. Ornamentals have their place, but be careful not to buy and plant some of the most popular non-natives, which have proven to be unwelcome invasives. The best source of information and help (North America) is your local or state native plant society. State societies can direct you to chapters within your region or local areas. It may not be easy to find native grasses, but the website Native Plant has a list of nurseries across the states that may carry what you need. Encourage your local nurseries to stock more native grasses and plants, too. 

Happy end of Pollinator Month.  But every month remember — carry a butterfly on your shoulder . . . 

author with butterfly – Botanical Garden, St. Andrews, Scotland

and a bee in your heart.

Yellow-faced bumblebee (Bombus vosnesenskii on seaside daisy (Erigeron glaucus)

 

It’s The Little Things — More Than Ever

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The old saying, “Don’t sweat the little things” doesn’t work during pandemics. For decades the majority of the industrialized world has ignored or controlled the small stuff to build the big stuff we’re convinced we rely on. In many cases we do. Now, in the face of a global health crisis, our sanity — and our futures — may reside in spending a lot more time looking at, and being with, the little things. More time than worrying over the number of toilet paper squares we need to get through the day.

Mylitta crescent or checkerspot butterfly

Mylitta crescent or checkerspot butterfly. Active February to November via two broods in North America. Feeds on thistle and asters. Eggs laid on underside of leaves. Caterpillars eat the leaves.

Continue reading →

Habitats

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It’s World Habitat Day. Don’t you love these “recognition” days, helping us remember and think about important stuff? Well, maybe some aren’t so monumental, but Habitat/habitat, regardless of where and how you live, is the biggest issue we’ve got. It covers everything. Continue reading →

World Bee Day – Celebrate the Wild!

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Whirly bee image by Katy Pye

Happy World Bee Day!

Wow! Are there more than honey bees out there and are they ever busy. Wild bees all over the world are pollinating all kinds of plants that benefit not only us, but every ecosystem.

Sam Droege of the USGS Bee Identification and Monitoring Lab put together this terrific slide show celebrating native bees. The images are from the lab’s permanent research collection.

 “25 Facts About North American Wild Bees.” How many of these facts are news to you? I counted 7. Most interesting to me are #4, #13, and #21.

Like all pollinators, native bees are in trouble – even more so than honey bees. What can we do to help these often over-looked wonders? Plant the native plants of your area, not cultivars, if possible. Check online for native plant societies in your area. They will have lists.

Confession: my yard has lots of non-native plants the bees love, but there’s no way of knowing whether they contain the level of nutrients the bees need to be their best. We’re working to add more straight native plants so all our pollinators (and other critters) benefit. 

It’s a day to open our eyes and ears and give a big nod of gratitude to these insect “workhorses” of the planet.

Here are a few photos of the wild bees active in my yard during spring and summer. I’m still learning species, so not all are identified.

Bombus vosnesenskii-Yellow-faced bumble bee on ceanothus
photo: © Katy Pye

Bombus vosnesenskii – Yellow-faced bumble bee on Sparaxis tricolor
photo: © Katy Pye

Bombus melanopygus ssp edwardsii – black-tailed bumble bee
photo: © Katy Pye

5-spot flower with Sweat bee-exact species not identified
photo: © Katy Pye

unidentified native bees on poppy
photo: © Katy Pye

Ok, not a bee, it’s one type of syrphid fly. But they are just as good a pollinator (if not better). They are great predators, too. Their larvae eat 1000 aphids each as they grow! Since it doesn’t have its own day, let’s celebrate them today, too! 
photo: © Katy Pye

I Spy! Who's Using My Garden: A Pollinator Garden Workbook

 

 

Painted Lady Day in the I Spy! Garden

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Two days ago, I spotted a single Painted Lady (Vanessa cardui) butterfly sunning on a pile of wood chips. With all the rain we’ve had, seeing even one butterfly is an early treat.

Stepping out this afternoon, dozens of butterflies filled the sky, buds, and blooms on our rosemary (Rosmarinus officinalis) and New Zealand tea trees (Leptospermum). Traveling north from the Mojave desert up to the Pacific Northwest, some Ladies (and their gents) have veered off their normal interior CA migration route to skim along the coast. Ours may not mirror or rival the Southern California explosion, but I’m ecstatic!

Here on the Northern CA coast, the nights have been cool, so native spring-flowering plants are slower to get started. My manzanitas and huckleberry are coming along, but not getting a lot of action. So far, honey bees from the neighbor’s hive and the native “Yellow-faced” bumble bees ( Bombus vosnesenskii) are the only active bee species I’ve seen around the yard. Hover flies are busy, though. Everyone love the rosemary, grevillea, and teas. Anna’s hummingbirds have been here all year, and they’re now having to share resources with the Allen’s.

Bombus vosnesenskii on Allium variety
Allen’s hummingbird Photo: Katy Pye

Are you seeing Painted Ladies or other butterflies already this spring?
If you want to contribute your P.L. sightings to science, check out this project at Iowa State University: vanessa.ent.iastate.edu

I Spy! Butterfly watch station by puddling pond Photo: Katy Pye

Take an I Spy! video tour.

Puddling pond for butterflies: sand, water, and a sprinkling of salt. Sticks for perching. Aging banana added later. Males need added minerals to help with sperm development.

Host and Nectar Plant Preferences of Vanessa Butterflies
from: www.butterfliesandmoths.org

Butterfly common name – scientific name; Host plants; Adult food = host and nectar plants

• Red Admiral – Vanessa atalanta Nettle family (Urticaceae) including stinging nettle (Urtica dioica), tall wild nettle (U. gracilis), wood nettle (Laportea canadensis), false nettle (Boehmeria cylindrica), pellitory (Parietoria pennsylvanica), mamaki (Pipturus albidus), and possibly hops (Humulus); Prefer sap flows on trees, fermenting fruit, and bird droppings; visiting flowers only when these are not available. Then they will nectar at common milkweed, red clover, aster, and alfalfa, among others.
• Painted Lady – Vanessa cardui More than 100 host plants noted; favorites include thistles, hollyhock and mallow (Malvaceae), and various legumes (Fabaceae); The Painted Lady prefers nectar from composites 3-6 feet high, especially thistles; also aster, cosmos, blazing star, ironweed, and joe-pye weed. Flowers from other families that are visited include red clover, buttonbush, privet, and milkweeds.
• West Coast Lady – Vanessa annabella Mallow family (Malvaceae) including tree mallow (Lavatera), globe mallow (Sphaeralcea), bush mallow (Malvastrum), mallow (Malva), alkali mallow (Sida), checkerbloom (Sidalcea), and hollyhock (Althea); Flower nectar.
• American Lady – Vanessa virginiensis Plants in the sunflower family everlasting (Gnaphalium obtusifolium), pearly everlasting (Anaphalis margaritacea), plantain-leaved pussy toes (Antennaria plantaginifolia), wormwood (Artemisia), ironweed (Vernonia), and burdock (Arctium); Flower nectar almost exclusively, including dogbane, aster, goldenrod, marigold, selfheal, common milkweed, and vetch.

Want to start your own I Spy! garden watch? Download a free poster or link to lots of gardening and pollinator ID resources section from my new workbook, I Spy! Who’s Using My Garden? A Pollinator Garden Workbook.

I Spy! Fall In The Pollinator Garden

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9-16-18 I Spy glasses-HBe & HBr copy

Walks in my pollinator garden are always “I Spy” adventures. I’m tracking which pollinators are using the plants, flowers, and extra water and food resources I’ve provided. These include two hummingbird feeders. A few days ago another group of “I spy” eyes locked onto the feeders . . . honey bees. Maybe they’re from a wild colony or domesticated bees from a neighbor’s box. Either way, a scout made it back to the hive to do its boogie, woogie, waggle dance and map out the way to a sugar fest in my yard. Continue reading →

Pollinator Week 2018 ~ It Takes a Neighborhood

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painted lady on sunflower 'Choco Sun'-Katy Pye

Painted Lady on ‘Choco Sun’ sunflower

It’s the middle of National Pollinator Week. We’re headed for the heart of summer and peak pollinator activity. I hope things are buzzing, fluttering, and chirping at your house these days. They are around here. Spring and early summer are my favorite seasons with pollinators scouting out and feasting on our garden and local wildland flowers. Each bloom contributes to the lives and renewal of some of the most valuable and vulnerable species on the planet. 

So, I was dismayed when my daughter told me someone was stealing sunflowers from her wildflower/pollinator patch. We decided her best response was to turn upset into an educational opportunity. She put up a poster I’d designed for an event and added a Please Don’t Steal sign. We made packets of California poppy, sunflower, and hollyhock seeds she collected last year and put them in a “Take one” box in her front yard. The neighbors were delighted. 
Continue reading →

Happy Earth Day! Let’s Make Every Year a Year of the Pollinators.

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Last year on Earth Day I was raising a sign for rational thought and action in the March for Science. This year, I’m spending it on my knees in my garden planting for pollinators. All pollinators: bees, birds, butterflies, moths, flies, bats, beetles – indeed all flying insects face increasing risks each year from habitat loss, pesticides, climate change, and disease. 

Last week’s House of Representative committee amendments to the proposed Farm Bill would seriously weaken the Endangered Species Act, allowing the unrestricted use of pesticides, many proven to harm or kill the species we depend on.

There are many ways to counter pollinator losses. Certainly, politically, but also by making your home, garden, and behaviors pollinator friendly. 

Katy Pye pollinator panel 4-22-18 @200

Find information on pollinators

The Xerces Society 

Pollinator Partnership

Native Bees of North America: Bug Guide

Butterflies and Moths of North America

Monarch Joint Venture

Audubon: How to Create a Hummingbird-Friendly Yard

U.S. and Canadian native plants by state and province

Florida Sea Turtles in Irma’s Path

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Photo: pixabay

On the heals of devastating hurricane Harvey in Texas, Irma barrels toward Florida this weekend, putting thousands of people, domestic animals, and wildlife, including endangered sea turtles, in jeopardy. Sea turtle rehabilitation facilities that care for injured turtles have been working ’round the clock, preparing for the worst.

According to Dr. Charles Manire, veterinarian and director of research and rehab at Loggerhead Marinelife Center in Juno Beach, FL, past experience proves there’s no safe place in Florida for sea turtles in a hurricane—especially corkers like Irma. In this video he anticipates the Center turtles’ move well inland to the Georgia Aquarium.

Texas Aftermath

I visited the University of Texas’ non-public facility, Animal Rehabilitation Keep (ARK) in Port Aransas, Texas while researching my novel, Elizabeth’s Landing. Unfortunately, the facility sustained severe damage, but I was glad to hear the wildlife in its care and the staff were unhurt. 

ARK facility during my visit in 2010. Photo: Katy Pye

Other key nesting and conservation facilities like Padre and South Padre Islands south of Corpus Christie escaped a Harvey hit.

HOW HURRICANES AFFECT SEA TURTLES

Off shore

Destructive impacts of a hurricane begin before the storm reaches shore. The storm’s wind energy mixes warm surface and deeper cold waters, lowering salt levels. Wave size increases, damaging underwater formations and stirring up tremendous loads of sand from the bottom. The food web for numerous species can be altered, short and long-term.

Storm’s landfall

Relocating sea turtle eggs is done but it is delicate, even under ideal conditions. Once the storm hits land, storm surges have deadly impacts on existing nests or nesting turtles. Eggs can drown or become exposed, scattered, and destroyed. Adult or emerging hatchlings are also at high risk.

Loggerhead sea turtle coming onshore to lay eggs. Photo: NOAA

However, according to Joe Scarola, a biologist for Ecological Associates Inc., a company that monitors sea turtle nests, Irma’s timing comes when the majority of eggs this season have already hatched. Nesting season continues through the end of October in Florida, so there’s a chance more eggs will be laid. Still it’s hard not to imagine thousands of recently hatched, 2″ turtles aren’t having a harrowing experience in today’s raging seas.

The very good news is it’s been a banner year for Florida sea turtle nests. Loggerhead Marinelife Center reports over 19,000 loggerhead, green, and leatherback nests on four beaches it monitors. Other groups also report many more nests in their regions.

Rehabilitating and protecting sea turtles is very expensive. Please consider a donation of any size to the organizations working valiantly to save them. Find one in your area here.

NOTE: If you come across eggs or stranded sea turtles of any size, report them to a local wildlife authority or sea turtle rescue and rehabilitation organization.

Stay safe.

World Sea Turtle Day 2016 – Where the Babies Go

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sea-turtle-1229714_640adj

Sea turtle conservation continues to make progress, but most species are still in deep trouble around the world. Understanding the turtles’ entire life cycle is critical to moving these species away from extinction. Until recently, we had little to no data on where the babies went after hatching.

New technology and dedicated scientists have now cracked the case. In celebration of World Sea Turtle Day, I recommend this illuminating video produced by Changing Seas. Babies found!