Overlook Circle

It’s been a busy spring on Overlook Circle. Spring migration was pretty lackluster. We didn’t get much in the way of warblers or migrant sparrows. For several days early on we did have some yellow-rumped warblers, and small flocks of white-throated sparrows which are always nice. The most unusual thing I saw were sandhill cranes flying over (new yard bird!)

The new water feature has been a big hit with our local residents. Robins are constantly taking baths, as well as chickadees, chipping sparrows, and goldfinches. Recently we’ve seen them joined by cedar waxwings and bluebirds. We had a fairly rainy spring, so perhaps the migrants didn’t feel the need to stop. I experimented with the placement of my trail camera and have gotten some good captures as a result. Recently I ordered an engraved stone that says “Welcome to Overlook Falls’a nd should receive that in a few weeks, I think it will be a nice decorative addition. I’ve planted some things around the edge of the water, and added a nice decorative bench by Painted Sky Designs.

Other things going on in the yard. I learned my lesson from last year and put up fencing around areas I don’t want the rabbits eating. A lot of things I planted last year are coming up nicely (wild lupine, lead plant, American spikenard, red baneberry. I planted a bunch of poke milkweed but am having mixed results. Hopefully it will do well in at least some places where I’ve planted it. I’ve really been working on the very back “problem area” of the yard, pulling endless amounts of creeping Charlie, putting down some paths and transplanting some things from the front yard to the back. Earlier in the spring, before things got too big, I pulled a bunch of garlic mustard. I also planted some golden ragwort which is aggressive, but I’m throwing everything I can at that area to keep the invasives at bay.

It seems like there has been a bumper crop of dragonflies this year. More than I’ve ever seen before. We also have many bees and various other pollinators. One thing I haven’t noticed a lot of is butterflies. There have been a few swallowtails, and I did see two monarchs, but only briefly. I’m hoping things pick up as the summer flowers start blooming. Everything is very tall now. The Joe Pye weed, coneflower and monarda are all right on the verge of blooming, so we should start seeing some more color soon and with that, some more visitors!

The front yard has really changed over the last few years. Our red oak had to be cut down due to a sudden case of oak wilt. It’s much more open there now, and we had Ecoscapes Sustainable Landscaping install a new garden bed while they were working on the water feature. Recently I realized that it might be good habitat for bluebirds, so I put up a box last weekend. Less than 24 hours later, we had a bluebird pair building a nest in the front yard. There was a pair which had built a nest in one of the back yard boxes but they never laid eggs. Right now we have a just-completed nest in the front box, waiting on eggs, and it will be interesting to see if/how that location works for them.

In the back yard we currently have house wrens nesting in one of the bluebird boxes. They are very disapproving of my presence anywhere in the yard, and are constantly scolding me everywhere I go. Earlier in the spring chickadees successfully nested in the Gilbertson PVC box I put under the pine trees a few years ago. Last year the nest failed due to house wrens throwing out the eggs, so this year I made sure to get a wren guard up right away. There were 8 eggs, one didn’t hatch and I removed it. In the photo I see 6 chicks so I’m not sure if the 7th didn’t hatch or if the chick just isn’t visible. They fledged last monnth and the family still comes in for mealworms when I put them out.

Next update… our 2016 garden tour is scheduled for the last weekend in July!

I’m very excited that we’ll be adding a water feature to our garden this year, in time for spring migration! I’ve had a bird bath out for several years, but have always wanted something more substantial than that.

Not having any experience with water features, I wasn’t really sure what would work for us and where a good location in the yard would be.

Last year we cut out 650 sq ft of lawn with the thought of planting a new garden bed there. Later on, after admiring the waterfall garden at Wood Lake Nature Center, it ocurred to me that this might be a good spot for a pondless stream/waterfall. It’s on a slope and is a pretty good sized area. Rather than just having another big wall of plants, this will give it more visual interest as well as really complete our wildlife habitat. Moving water is a real bird magnet, and should attract species that wouldn’t come to feeders, especially during migration.

After the lawn was cut out, I quickly filled it in with compost and then mulched it. Along the fence I planted some shrubs (snowberry and dogwood). I put up a wood duck box, since my neighbor has one and gets wood ducks, but his box isn’t well protected from predators. Then I added a small walking path, and later put out some ground level bird baths to see if any birds would be interested.

Even without moving water, we still got some birds, including bluebirds, cedar waxwings, robins, etc. So I think it showed that it’s a good location, and with the addition of moving water, the birds will really come in!

In the front, we’re going to add a new garden bed where the red oak used to be (cut down due to oak wilt.) And we decided we’ll plant a new tree, a bur oak this time. It will be more toward the middle of the yard because the city requires a new tree to be planted 15′ back from the curb. Bur oaks grow slowly, but have a lot of wildlife value and are more resistent to oak wilt.

Other projects I have planned include painting our shed, and adding a new path so parts of the garden are more accessible. And of course I plan to spend a lot of time enjoying our new water feature! We will have another garden tour/social in July so stay tuned….

Ok, it’s October 1 and finally time to concede that summer is over. As usual I’ve been slacking in the blog post department, so I have a lot to catch up on here. It’s officially autumn, but it didn’t feel like it this past weekend with highs in the mid 80’s. I went out bird watching at Hyland Park Preserve, but there were so many trail runners that I didn’t see much in the way of birds. I did see/hear a few migrants like flickers, catbirds, bluebirds, white-throated sparrow, etc. Also saw a nice looking coyote! Now it is cool and rainy, leaves are coming down and it’s really starting to feel like fall.

Back at home, we had a pretty good summer. I attended a Wild Ones garden tour and got to see some other native plant gardens in the area, which was really cool. It’s interesting to see all the different things that people are doing in their yard. Some people are very experienced gardeners and you can really tell by how well planned things are. Others are like me, someone who doesn’t come from any gardening background, and just goes outside and starts digging. A few people from Wild Ones came over and visited our yard, and I got some really good compliments and feedback. They are always looking for new gardens to showcase so it sounds like we will be on the tour next summer!

It’s really motivated me to work on some things that I’ve been meaning to. For example in the front yard, on the SW corner by the street, I finally got some planting done there. Several years ago in that spot, I got rid of an old neglected (hideous) brick garden bed that was full of buckthorn. Last year we had Ecoscapes create a new garden bed as part of the front yard work they did, and add some rocks, but otherwise we left it empty. This area gets partial sun during the day. Now I’ve got some gray dogwood, wild geranium, fragrant hyssop, bottle brush grass, prairie pussytoes, aster, goldenrod, etc. I also put up a Monarch Watch sign because I want to highlight our efforts to anyone passing by. It’s worked because I’ve gotten several comments and compliments from neighbors who have seen it. I plan to include the neighborhood in our garden tour next year.

In the back I’ve cleared out all of the buckthorn around the pine tree area, and started a path through there as well as planted a few things that will grow under those trees like common ninebark, American bladdernut, and bear berry. There are some additional things I’d like to plant but that will be an ongoing process. I wanted to plant some gooseberry but the folks at Out Back Nursery told me that it can carry pine rust which would be bad for our white pines.

We didn’t have anything too unusual in the yard as far as birds, but we did have a lot of fun watching a family of four pileated woodpeckers coming to the feeders. It was an adult pair and a juvenile male and female. There were times when all of them would be out there in the bur oak tree, and the parents would go to the suet feeder and then take it back to their fledglings. I sat outside sometimes and watched them. It was interesting to hear the begging noises that the juveniles would make and watch their behavior.

With all the rain through the spring and early summer, we of course had a lot of mosquitos and consequently, many damselflies and dragonflies. Recently with the weather becoming cooler, there have been fewer of them but I caught this one snoozing on the false indigo in the garden the other day. I was able to put my phone right next ot it and get a photo. A knowledgable person told me that this is a wandering glider. They are our most plentiful species of dragonfly, are found on every continent except Antarctica, and have the longest migration of any insect (twice as long as the monarch butterfly.) One reason I enjoy having a native wildlife garden is that it gives me such great opportunities to learn things I wouldn’t have otherwise known about!

Also we had a lot of butterflies in the garden over the summer. Many tiger swallowtails and monarchs. I found 3 monarch caterpillars on our butterfly weed, and I found some at work that I brought home. I raised them and successfully released 5 in the garden! That was a first for me, a fun process and I learned a lot. I kept them in a cage outside so they would have natural light and temp/humidity. When they emerged I’d leave the door open and let them leave on their own. We have plenty of Joe Pye weed, cup plant and aster for them to nectar on. Also many monarchs moving through, I counted 16 in the garden at one time!

A few other cool things that have happened more recently as we transition to fall. I’ve seen a ton of baby toads in the yard over the last month or so. Also this past weekend we were cleaning out the gutters (full of leaves from the ash tree) and I found a tree frog in the gutter. I took it down and put it in the garden and then turned on the sprinkler since it’s been dry lately. While the sprinkler was running I watched a mourning dove, a goldfinch and a chipping sparrow take baths, which was really cute. Also the same day I was out grilling on the patio and a white-line sphynx moth made an appearance. It was only the second time I’ve seen one, and they are noticably larger than the clear wing hummingbird moth. It was about the same size as an actual hummingbird, and very difficult to follow it with the camera. But I did manage to get one photo of it, on flowers between the patio and deck.

Lastly, at work there have been crazy numbers of woolly bear caterpillars. I’ve seen them over the years in the past but never really thought too much about them. We have walking trails at work, and they are crossing the trails, curbs, and parking lots. I always try to move them so they aren’t stepped on or run over. Since there are so many and they have really caught my attention, I started reading up on them and learned that they will overwinter in caterpillar form, and are looking for a place to burrow under leaf litter.

We leave our garden up all winter and let the leaves remain in the garden where they fall, so I decided to start taking some of them home and release them. Next spring they will emerge as a yellow moth called the Isabella tiger moth. I’ve become quite attached to them, they are cute and I’ve probably taken a couple dozen of them home (my coworkers think I have a problem…)

After living here for 9 years, we have finally decided to put up a fence. It’s an odd shaped yard, narrow at the front but widens out toward the back, and there are 5 edges. Our neighbor to the south already has a privacy fence up, and we knew we wanted privacy on the north side, but we didn’t want the back part of the garden (on the east side) to be shaded by a fence. Also we don’t need a lot of privacy back there because the length of the lot, and the plants out there already give us quite a bit of privacy. We had Town & Country Fence come out for consultation and they suggested a California chain link would serve our purpose. It’s a chain link with a wood frame.

This next photo shows where the fence has to come over off of the property line in order to accommodate the utility easement. Imagine this spot completely obscured by buckthorn. The California chain link will start here and then continue along the back side of the property. It uses the same cedar posts as the wood privacy, but will be filled in with black vinyl coated chain link.

We also have a utility easment on the south side, so we had to make sure the fence was set back far enough. Another easement at the north east corner required us to have the fence go through an area of pine trees. There is a large area of white pine and spruce trees that was completely filled in with buckthorn, which I have gradually been tackling for several years. This fence project gave me the motivation to finally finish clearing all that out. It was quite a bit of work but I’m officially declaring our yard buckthorn free after 9 years of effort!

This area of pine and spruce used to be an impenetrable wall of invasive understory plants, including buckthorn, exotic honeysuckle shrubs, and white mulberry. While it provided somewhat of a living privacy fence, it certainly wasn’t my desired way of having privacy. I first tackled all of the buckthorn that had berries, and disposed of that. Then I gradually cut down and pulled much of it over the next few years. But after measuring the easment, I realized I would have to get rid of the remainder so the fence could go through there. Good motivation for finally taking care of that! I made extensive use of my weed wrench to pull out most of it, and then used the chainsaw to cut down larger shrubs and small rogue maple trees. We wil replace that with native understory plants, such as the highbush cranberry that I have already planted.

The compost bin is at the southeast side of the pine tree area. This used to be surrounded by invasive honeysuckle which I have been meaning to cut down for quite a while. I did leave up a small dead snag that shoudl make a good perch for birds. I’d like to plant some native shrubs like common ninebark and gray dogwood here.

Continuing east along the back edge of the lot, we will have a gate between where the compost bin sits and the back section of the garden. This will allow us access to the easement, which is still on our property and we have to maintain. I think the neighbors behind us will be happy that all the buckthorn is finally gone, and the fence should look pretty nice back there. The posts were just installed two days ago, and the cement needs to cure and then they will be back out to finish it out. We’ve been very happy so far with the work that Town & Country Fence has done. Really looking forward to seeing the end result and enjoying our new private back yard!

There have been over 250 reports of snowy owls in Minnesota this winter (unfortunately, none in my back yard.) Because of that, there has been an increase in incidents of baiting, although it’s something has been going on for a long time. Being an an avid birdwatcher and amateur photographer myself, and also volunteering for the Raptor Center (injured birds being rehabilitated for release into the wild) and Richardson Nature Center (birds in permanent captivity), I understand the motivation for baiting raptors, but my number one concern is the welfare of the bird and so I am very much opposed to the practice.

Many people apply the term “baiting” to include anything from setting up backyard bird feeders to harassing a raptor with live prey. I think it’s important to define what baiting is, how I see it as being different from other activities it is often compared to (a way baiters try to justify the practice), and why I believe it is harmful.

My definition of baiting is: actively luring an individual bird (usually a raptor) with live (or simulated live) prey, in order to provoke hunting behavior which brings the bird in close proximity to the observer, for purposes such as bird watching or photography, outside the scope of regulated activity such as falconry, scientific research and wildlife rehabilitation.

This differs from other types of bird feeding/attracting in the following ways:

1. Bird feeders (including seed, suet, nectar, fruit, live mealworms) do not target individual birds. The birds are free to come and go on their own. This type of feeding is widely supported and encouraged by organizations such as the Audubon Society, American Birding Association, Cornell Lab of Ornithology, etc.
2. Bird banding is highly regulated, done for research purposes, by qualified banders who must follow specific procedures and obtain state/federal permits to do so. Similarly, falconers are regulated and must obtain permits.
3. Hand feeding backyard birds – many people compare this to baiting. It is different because the types of birds who will come to the hand are already by nature quite tame (chickadees, nuthatches, etc.) and already coexist with humans in backyard environments. They are species that are not dependent on one type of food for their survival. One can debate whether hand feeding songbirds is itself problematic, but regardless, it is different from baiting a raptor.
4. Setting up perches near or on feeders for photography. This does not target an individual bird, nor provoke any behavior that interferes with a bird’s normal actions. And usually a photography “studio” setup like this attracts songbird species that are already accustomed to humans, or the observer uses a blind for more skittish species. There is no new human=food association that is formed as a result.

I believe baiting (as I defined above) is harmful because:

1. Raptors are very prey oriented. They are easily ritualized and become habituated to humans when they associate us with a food source. This can result in the bird swooping in on people or even cars in anticipation of being fed (it has been documented many times here in MN.) This is unsafe for birds and humans.
2. A bird that is baited is not just baited once. Typically it is baited repeatedly over a period of time by one or more photographers/birders. It often involves the bird being harassed/stressed by the behavior of those who are trying to get a closer view and can lead to illegal activities such as trespassing on private property.
3. If the bait is live, it is usually a domestic pet store mouse. This is not the natural diet of a wild bird and there is the possibility of disease that may result from unsanitary conditions that these mice are raised in. And there is the possibility that the prey may escape and that is neither fair to the mouse nor good for the environment.
4. If the bait is artificial, the the bird is wasting time and effort chasing a lure when that energy should be spent hunting. This significantly interferes with the bird’s ability to survive.
5. Baiting is often done near roadsides which puts these birds in danger of being hit by a car.
6. I am not aware of any birding or wildlife rehab organization that supports baiting. However several oppose it, including the Raptor Center, Owl Foundation, and Raptor Education Group. Also the ethical guidelines of groups like the American Birding Association and North American Nature Photography Association strongly discourage activities which interfere with a bird’s natural behavior.

For those who defend baiting, it’s interesting to ask if a) they have ever been involved with wildlife rehabilitation, and b) can they produce any statement or evidence of a birding/research/wildlife rehab organization which supports baiting as something that should be practiced by the general public. I’ve never gotten a direct answer to those questions from any baiting apologist. I think that says a lot.

Further reading:

Here is an excellent blog post by an Ottawa birder about baiting, which goes into much more detail.
Local ornithologist and author Laura Erickson on baiting: Baiting Owls