By Pat Dray
The Garden Spot
Pat Dray
You may have noticed that only the female hummingbirds have been at your feeders the last few weeks. That’s because the males start their migration earlier so they can effectively “set up house” for the females and juveniles who stay behind to bulk up for their journey. You may also have noticed fewer monarch butterflies. This is because September and October are months during which many pollinators are migrating to their winter breeding grounds.
World Migratory Bird Day is on Oct. 11, as the birds return to their winter homes. The theme for this year is “Shared spaces: creating bird-friendly cities and communities,” and there are some key ways we can express this theme in our everyday life.
The first is to plant natives. The plants that are native to our area provide the food and shelter birds need. Birds and insects are very plant-specific and have not adapted to eating non-native plants. The non-native plants may also be quite aggressive and take over areas that were pollinator friendly, so try to remove them. You can also help protect insects by avoiding pesticide use, which contributes to the declining insect population.
The second way to help migrating birds is to reduce bird collisions by dimming the lights at night. The glow from our towns and homes may disrupt their cycle of rest, alter their migration and impact breeding. Most species migrate at night, and many studies have shown the attraction of white and red non-blinking lights.
You should also make windows visible, since birds don’t recognize plain glass and may collide with the windows. According to the US Fish and Wildlife Service, nearly one billion birds die of window collisions annually, with most occurring from buildings of less than four stories.
Plants and animals depend on the circadian cycle of light and dark to govern many essential functions, with artificial light at night having negative and sometime deadly consequences for amphibians, birds, mammals, insects and plants. For example, frogs and toads crock at night as part of their breeding ritual. Artificial light interrupts their rituals.
The third way to help is to purchase sustainable foods. Beef, palm oil and soy are the largest food-related causes of deforestation, which in turn affects the entire ecosystem. Reducing the amount of beef eaten will reduce the need for soy, since it is a foodstuff for cattle. Palm oil is in many ultra-processed foods, many of which are unhealthy. There are also shade-grown coffees and chocolates which help protect tropical agroforests.
There’s one more benefit to planting natives: at a recent USDA Forest Service meeting regarding the invasive spotted lantern fly, one of the research papers presented was “Toxicity of Milkweed to Spotted Lanternfly” by Kelli Hoover and Anne Johnson. They found that between 60-80 percent of lantern flies on milkweed died within 24 hours. Plant your milkweed. It’ll help the monarchs and kill the lantern flies.
Pat Dray is a past president of the Garden Club of Orange and a master gardener.