Loudoun Wildlife Conservancy

Yes, I’m talking about “our” Monarchs. The butterfly in this photo is on its migration to Mexico right now.

She will fly through parched prairies and fields all the way to Oyamel pine forests and hibernate through the winter. The future of the population rides on the wings of individuals like this one.

I ask you – What will become of this amazing species? The latest report from Monarch Watch is sobering. I hope you will click over and read it but I will also include an excerpt:

http://monarchwatch.org/blog/2011/09/monarch-population-status-12/ 

The migration is just beginning to navigate a 1000 miles of hell – a nearly flowerless/nectarless and waterless expanse of central KS, OK, TX, and NE MX….

It is too late for rains to change the situation in TX and northern MX. Monarchs will make it to the overwintering sites but their numbers will be significantly reduced by these conditions. My expectation is that that the overwintering numbers will be the lowest ever (previous low 1.92 hectares) and that the arriving butterflies will be in relatively poor shape with low fat reserves. If the average condition (mass) of the overwintering monarchs is lower than average, mortality during the winter could also be high. Other scenarios could include low returning numbers next spring with a reduced reproductive capacity due to low fat reserves. Keep your fingers crossed that there are no winter storms in MX that could make matters worse.

The fields at the Phillips Farm in Waterford are brimming with nectar-rich goldenrod right now. Nectar sources like these help our migrants build up fat reserves but will it be enough?

Will she and others of her kind find more rich fields along her travels before hitting the devastated lands of Texas and beyond?

In the last Habitat Herald, I wrote about “the slow ride of population decline.” In the case of Monarchs, it doesn’t feel so slow. But we have a choice – we can play a part in recovering a viable ecosystem. It won’t help the Monarchs or other species this year but the sooner we all start, the sooner improvement will come.

Every native plant you plant makes a difference.

Every journey starts with a single step, a single wing beat.

Will you convert an area of your yard into a flower garden filled with milkweed, goldenrod, asters, Joe Pye Weed, New York Ironweed and others? I have 50 seed kits left and would love to see 50 new people contact me to request a seed kit. Plant the seeds now — and hopefully they will blossom and bloom next spring.

Support Monarch Watch and register your garden as a certified monarch waystation, stay in touch, be part of the change.

Visit the Native Plant Sale in Broadlands this Saturday and start planting.

The Audubon Society of Northern Virginia had this great article in their latest newsletter. Cliff Fairweather, the author of the article, shares some wonderful tips. Also check out their Audubon at Home Program – they can give you advice on establishing a healthy habitat in your yard.

Fall – the Best Time for Planting

Cliff Fairweather, ASNV Naturalist

Spring planting gets all the attention with big plant sales and crowded garden centers, but fall is really the best time to plant. I consulted with a number of native plant gardeners in the Audubon at Home program about fall planting and I am now passing their wisdom on to you.

Fall is the best time to plant for a number of reasons. First, the plants are going dormant at this time of year and so they are less susceptible to transplant shock. In the spring, plants are expending a lot of energy on new growth, leaving them with fewer reserves to cope with the stress of transplanting.

Another good reason to plant in the fall is the weather. Summer temperatures are moderating so plants are suffering less water stress and so they don’t need as much water. Moreover, we generally have more rain, including soaking tropical storms that save us from turning on the tap. Still, you’ll have to give them some water, so water long (and patiently!) enough to encourage deep root growth.

Virginia Native Plant Society Potowmack Chapter President Alan Ford offers this advice on watering: “Water once a day for a week, once a week for a month, once a month for a year. This is most appropriate for trees but any plant will benefit. Reset your schedule any time you get an inch of rain or more.”

Cooler fall weather is easier on your plants and it’s easier on you than gardening in the summer heat. In our area, you can plant at least into November with natives – but resist the urge to tidy up the garden too much. Left-over seed heads feed birds and other animals, while plant stalks and leaves harbor insect eggs, larvae and pupae that will be next year’s pollinators and bird food. Also, take advantage of the autumn leaf-drop to create free mulch and compost.

Finally, fall planting gives your plants three seasons to get established and grow deep roots before they have to endure summer drought. I think conservation horticulturist Nancy Christmus sums up the logic of fall planting very nicely, “Just allow nature to work its magic; the plant will go dormant and appear in spring ready to rock and roll.”

Thank you to Alan Ford, Robin Rentsch, Kevin Munroe, Pam McMillie, and Nancy Christmus for their garden wisdom!

You may remember that last Novemver we did a habitat restoration project at Freedom Park in Leesburg by creating a rain garden filled with all sorts of wonderful native plants. 

Well, we went back this year with a great team on volunteers to do a bit of weeding and upkeep. Here’s the report from Joe and you can check out photos from the event in our Facebook Gallery:

When we got there all of us were impressed with how well the Freedom Park Rain Garden has done since we helped put it in last year.  Not only was almost everything we planted thriving, there were also a lot of invasive alien plants that didn’t belong. This left our team of 13 volunteers with a lot of work to do. 

While it was warmer than we had expected because of the intensity of the sun and harder work than several of us had anticipated, we finished the task by 6:30 pm.  We removed 31 large bags of invasive plants and spread 40 bags of mulch around the remaining shrubs and perennials. We did this to help stop the invasive plants from coming back and to retain moisture and prevent soil erosion around the remaining plants plants.

It was also incredible to see all those native pollinators as well as honeybees nectaring on all those plants we had planted.

Oh what would Dr. Seuss say! Well, he may have said something like,

“I like Green Frogs in our pond,
They sing like banjos all day long.

I watch them as they hop and play,
I see them do this every day!”

Ok, I’ll leave the rhyming to Dr.Seuss – but I did want to share some neat shots of the eggs that they laid in our little front yard pond.

Earlier this year, a snapping turtle showed up in the pond and the Green Frogs were clearly concerned. (I thought it was neat but I can see their point). After the turtle departed however, their activities returned to normal, and one day, as I peered into the pond, I saw a very large mass of eggs.

By a quick estimate, the mass must have had at least 800 eggs! These eggs did not go unnoticed though by the Wood Frog tadpoles and other creatures in the pond and many were gobbled up. (See, there are those that do like green eggs! even though these weren’t really green, they’re more brown)

The eggs that went uneaten hatched within a few days and the tadpoles are now in the leaf litter eating various things in the pond. They will take about 2 years to develop into frogs and only few will make it to adulthood, but it was fun to document their beginnings.

Having a backyard pond is a great way to watch wildlife and learn about nature — all sorts of animals walk, hop and fly in!

National Wildlife Federation recently published this article entitled, “Backyard Habitat: Making Dollars and Sense in Your Yard.”

http://www.nwf.org/News-and-Magazines/National-Wildlife/Gardening/Archives/2011/Making-Dollars-and-Sense.aspx

Fall is a great time to plant new trees and shrubs around your garden. It’s also a great time to sow seeds for perennials that will come up in the springtime.

Check our Gardening for Wildlife Plant List  for native plants that will bring your landscaping to life!

For those who are members of the Xerces Society, you already saw this article by Doug Tallamy entitled “Aliens,” in their publication Wings. For those who haven’t seen it, it’s a great article that talks about landscaping.

It’s been posted online and I wanted to share it here: http://www.xerces.org/wp-content/uploads/2008/06/Wings_sp11_alien-plants.pdf

I remember when we first moved to Loudoun, we had to get a landscape plan for our house. This was a first for me. At the same time though, I was going through the National Wildlife Federation’s Habitat Steward Class and had just learned about native plants versus non-native. 

I remember getting the landscape plan back from the designer and looking at it wide-eyed at all the non-native plants he planned for us. 

The layout of the landscaping was great and we went with that, but that was as far as it went. It was our choice — to plant natives or to plant aliens (ornamentals). I’m sure you can guess the path we chose. I bought books, created a native plant list, and tracked down native plants at every local nursery I could find and we planted our gardens with native plants.

It’s not all milkweed and goldenrod though, we do have a few non-natives and invasives like japanese stiltgrass, multiflora rose and others keep showing up throughout our property such that while I go off to work they get busy spreading.

It’s tough to keep the non-natives at bay but what we can do is make the choice to plant natives in our landscape, to replace the ornamentals that maybe came with our houses or that landscape designers who didn’t know better selected.

Later today (or sometime this weekend), after pulling a very aggressive but so far unestablished stock of mile-a-minute from our garden, I’ll post some shots and stories about butterfly caterpillars I’ve been encountering on native plants in our yard.  It’s good fun! (not the part about pulling mile-a-minute, but the part about the caterpillars)

I wish I could embed this video on the blog but it’s not that kind of link so….. here’s the website:

http://www.ted.com/talks/louie_schwartzberg_the_hidden_beauty_of_pollination.html

This is an exquisite 7-minute clip on so much more than pollination. The presenter, Louie Schwartzberg, asks the question, “What motivates the pollinators?”  Chip Taylor of Monarch Watch offered the explaination, “Nothing lasts forever, everything eventually wears out.” This is a question about life itself and the imagery of the film clip is a wonderful journey in that.

One commenter posted, “I am saddened to realize that most of the pollinators in these clips are seriously threatened – The honey bees by hive collapse syndrome, the bats by a fungus, the butterflies by habitat loss.”  I think that’s a pretty key obersvation.

As we get out into our gardens this spring, we have a nice opportunity to do some native plantings. 

Native bees are one of our most important pollinators and they’re really incredible to watch. 

As you start observing them you’ll also start to recognize different species that we have here in Loudoun – there are lots of different species!

The Xerces Society has put together a nice tip-sheet on plants that are great for our native bees.

Beautiful for your garden, great for the bees!  You can download it here.

We had almost 200 people come to our program last Tuesday [photo album], where Dr. Tallamy talked about how the choices we make in planting around our homes can make a huge impact on the populations of birds, butterflies, and other wildlife.

What an absolute inspiration!  Personally, I plan to plant 3 oak trees this spring to add to the mix of black cherry, birch and other trees around our house.  I’m also excited to get into the garden and make sure my host and nectar plants for butterflies are in prime form – ready to be gobbled up and enjoyed by caterpillars (who in some cases will be gobbled up by birds).

“Garden as if Life depended on it” — When Dr. Tallamy signed my book, he included that inscription, and I can’t think of a better, more succinct message.  Let’s do it! Because it does!

Dr.Tallamy’s website has an excel spreadsheet that you can download that shows which plants will bring the greatest wildlife benefit to your yard.  Use this, along with our Gardening for Wildlife Plant list and other materials.

Let’s talk with our neighbors and start converting our wastelands of lawn into thriving rich habitat of native plans – they’re beautiful and exciting! Let’s Bring Nature Home!

If you missed the program, keep an eye on his website for upcoming lectures and check out his book.

I saw this publication posted on one of the local listservs that I follow and thought it was a good one to share.

While it says Delaware in the title, most of the plants listed in here are also native to our area so it’s a nice reference for Mid-Atlantic states. 

I especially like how it has not only color photos and descriptions of plants but also the different types of beesthat will be attracted – not just honey bees but also leafcutter bees, carpenter bees, orchard mason bees, bumblebees and more.

Bees are so important to our entire ecosystem, and as one person put it, “Bees are not optional.” 

Through our gardening and our nature explorations we can both learn about the wide variety of bees and the roles they play around us.

You can download the publication here.