Friday Fun Fact is back!
There is a special little bird that I can hear outside my office window right now, so today, the little creature that never fails to make me smile just by appearing gets to be the center of WWWT attention.
You've probably seen the unfailingly charming eastern bluebird and even heard its distinctive song without knowing it. Its cheerful burble is hard to miss once you know it and these dapper little birds are often found perching on fence and power lines at dusk, watching for the perfect moment to swoop out and grab an insect meal.
They are dedicated parents, spending as many as 20 days carefully raising their chicks after hatching. Bluebirds also exhibit what is called philopatry, where one chick may remain with the parents after fledging and help to raise the next brood of chicks in an admirable show of sibling support.
In the late 70's, these little gems were declared a rare species; their populations were demolished by a combination of several harsh winters, pesticide use to curtail fire ants, and competition from invasive species. Bluebirds require a cavity to nest in; given that they are not a woodpecker, they cannot excavate their own and thus must rely on the available holes in their territory. Non-native invaders like house sparrows and starlings will fight and even kill a bluebird to steal away a lucrative nest site and as a result, our azure native's reproductive success plummeted.
Campaigns to encourage the installation of bluebird boxes across this animal's range have resulted in a population rebound throughout much of its former habitat. Bring a smile to your backyard today by hanging one in YOUR habitat. You can
build your own or order from many sources, including this deluxe edition from
Amazon.com (OH! I WANT it!). Here are some
great directions on how to install it for maximum benefit to the birds.
I suppose I'm a cliche but I love spring because THINGS BLOOM. And I'm a bloom addict. It's like discovering treasure every time I see a new flower emerge from its tightly curled bud. I've also been working hard to put as many blooming NATIVE things in my yard as I can afford (and as will survive...). Sadly, especially in the big box stores like Lowe's and Home Depot, native plants can be hard to come by and they seem to have no qualms about STILL selling highly invasive plants like privet and English ivy, both of which are heavily documented taking over native forests and strangling plants that provide important habitat and food for wildlife. Why it is still even legal to sell them I have no idea. Especially when there are so many beautiful native options! Want a hedge? In my region, wax myrtles are cheap, insanely fast growing, hardy, and attractive. Like most native plants, they require less water and attention than exotics, which means you get to spend more time admiring your garden and less time cursing at weeds and maintaining it. I don't know about you, but I'm SO into the admiring and so NOT into the maintenance. It takes a little initial hunting, but google your local native plant society and you can find nurseries which sell native plants. I think you'll be pleasantly surprised at the riches there! Without further ado, I wanted to share some photos I've taken of what blooms in my yard to give you a taste of these gems.
Top: Foxglove on a rainy day.
Middle and Bottom: Native wisteria (different from the Asian kind you commonly see growing wild)
Butterfly daffodills
Top: Forsythia
Bottom: Purple phlox
Crocuses -- the first to bloom signaling winter's end
Top: My favourite -- lily of the valley
Bottom: Wild coreopsis
Verbena and the giant bumblebee moths that love them
Top: Fuschias (ok, I actually don't think this is native, but it was contained in a hanging basket and it is not invasive*)
Middle and Bottom: Another that I LOVE -- lantana
Day lilies
And my little mistake -- I thought this one was a native magnolia when I bought it. Sadly, it has turned out to be a Japanese magnolia, much to my chagrin. Like the fuschias though, they are not invasive* and it made a cool picture.
*Exotic = "ain't from around here"
Invasive = "ain't from around here and kills/crowds out the important stuff that IS from around here"
The week begins again and my brain already has its gears grinding in neutral. I have been wanting to start a feature on here inspired by
Fugly Horse of the Day's "Friday Featured Rescue" spot, only instead of torturously charming rescue prospects, I offer you Friday Fun Facts. However, since I have a fun fact now and it's Monday, I don't care and I'm going to give it to you anyway!
One inch of rain falling on one acre of native, forested land produces zero runoff. That water is absorbed into the soil and vegetation where it is filtered and returned to groundwater and streams until it evaporated by a plant or sucked up by you to drink (after being treated with your stunning new UV filtration system, of course!).
One inch of rain falling on one acre of concrete produces a little over 27,000 gallons of runoff. Just stop for a second and think about how much water that is: 102,206 one liter water bottles all dumped out at the same time. 772 bathtubs full of water all getting the plug pulled at once. That's a crapload of water, folks!! In many cases, this is funneled into storm drains which then drain directly into streams (no, they do NOT, in most cases, connect to the sewer system). This water carries with it all the chemicals, sediments, and other pollutants it has picked up as it flows across the concrete, including copper from brake pad dust, polyaromatic hydrocarbons (PAH's, a carcinogen) from exhaust, oils and antifreeze from leaks, pesticides from yards, etc. All these goodies shoot straight into your water supply completely unfiltered along with a massive quantity of water that is guaranteed to erode the banks off of whatever unlucky stream is its recipient, unleashing a whole host of new problems that will need their own post!
Moral of the story: concrete BAD, native vegetation GOOD (note, fescue grass is NOT native vegetation). Planted swales along street sides GOOD, curb and gutter BAD (we will explore that more in the future as well). Forests GOOD, shopping malls, big box stores, and ginormous parking lots with no opportunities for soil infiltration BAD.
Obviously, much as I desire it, we cannot get rid of all the parking lots and warehouse-sized buildings in the world. Sigh. But we can make them MUCH more functional and MUCH less damaging. It's all about good design. And you'll just have to stay tuned until the next post to find out!
Here's a hint until next time:
Friday Fun Fact is back!
