November Wildlife Garden

November is a significant month for a wildlife garden because it's generally the turning point for the first frosts of winter. This November has been warm - I harvested raspberries yesterday! - but the rains have begun in earnest.

In September I wrote about my Nature-Culture ideas: living my life as part of nature; sharing my resources with those who share theirs (the bees and the birds, etc.); becoming more aware of nature's needs so I can be a better neighbor; changing my habits so I can cause less harm.

My working definition of Nature-culture is "Humans living in unity with nature: acting in ways that create shared spaces that mimic the diversity, stability, and resilience of natural ecosystems."

Agenda:

1. Bird watching

2. Feed the birds

3. Add to my wildlife garden habitat

4. Winter vegetable garden tasks

5. Personal life-style goals

6. Education and advocacy plans

1. Bird watching:

My first intention for my wildlife garden is to stay in daily touch with my home ecosystem - observing and interacting, learning the names of the flora and fauna that visit in fall and winter; being mindful of the season and climate; becoming a better neighbor.

The winter rains make my intention to "stay in daily touch" a less inviting activity, but birdwatching from the comfort of my front room window is always entertaining, and learning the names of new birds helps me be a better neighbor.

Yesterday I set out our binoculars and my Nature Notebook by the front window, and settled in for some viewing. (My Nature Notebook is for collecting the names of all kinds of my Nature Neighbors - I try to add one new name each day of a plant, insect, bird, or animal that I see in my yard or neighborhood.) I spent some time trying to identify a small tan bird - maybe a female Kinglet?

The changing season sets in motion the annual bird migration. Though many birds leave Oregon in early fall, others move here for the winter. And some shift from the mountains to the valleys or vice versa. As natural food is depleted in the countryside because of environmental degradation, we might notice more birds in our urban gardens. 

My "regular" winter yard visitors: Dark-eyed Juncos, Red-breasted Nuthatches, Black-capped Chickadees, Flickers, and Anna's Hummingbirds are very frequent all winter.

With the onset of November rainstorms, I'm on the lookout for new birds! Here are a few travelers I'm watching for:

Varied thrush - moves from mountains into valleys for the winter. Usually found foraging on the ground by late October. They are shy but will sometimes approach suet feeders, or underneath seed feeders.

Evening Grosbeaks - even more erratically opportunistic than Varied Thrushes; they were (apparently) forced into the lowlands in late 2010 due to a poor conifer seed crop in the Cascades.

Ruby- and Golden-crowned Kinglets - Look for these tiny birds amongst the "usual" flock of chickadees in late November.  They are tiny, constantly moving, and tend to forage relatively high up in trees. 

Warblers (Townsend's and Yellow-rumped Warblers) - With the mixed flock of small birds, look also for warblers foraging high up in trees, eating berries, and occasionally picking at suet.

 

Finches - Pine Siskin, House Finch, Lesser Goldfinch, and American Goldfinch.

 

2. Feed the birds:

This is the time of year that I put out my feeders again after the summer hiatus. Here's what I supply:

• Black oil sunflower seeds in a simple tube feeder with a metal cage for perching: These are a crowd pleaser, and we always see chickadees, nuthatches, finches, and juncoes (who clean up the spillage).
• Nyjer seeds in a thistle feeder for the finches.
• Suet in a wire cage.
• Nectar in a glass feeder, for our loyal Anna’s Hummingbirds. I make my own nectar with a mix of 1 part white sugar to 4 parts water.

Here is how I plan to fine-tune my bird feeding habit this year: 

• First, I'm going to add a sees feeder by my office window.
• I think I need to get a "weather dome" for my main feeder, to help keep my seed dry.
• And I need to be more diligent in cleaning my bird feeders, including the nectar feeder. Damp weather paired with birds flocking to feeders increases the potential for diseases to spread, including salmonella. A good cleaning routine is twice a month:
• Clean your feeders with soap and water and rinse;
• Soak for 10 minutes with a solution of 1 part household bleach to 10 parts water;
• Rinse, and dry before using again.

3. Add to my wildlife garden habitat:

My second nature-culture intention is to create a wildlife garden - specifically, planting more native plants and adding intentional habitat, to reverse some of the human-caused habitat destruction that is hurting wildlife.

To that end, I will take these actions:

1. 
   Make a couple of new log piles in the garden - one in the front and one in the back, among the thimble berries - to provide a hibernation place for toads, frogs, salamanders, and newts, a place for wood-boring beetles to live, and a damp place for mosses, ferns, lichens and fungi to grow. (Over time I will add more wood to the pile as the bottom logs decompose, but take care not to disturb the habitat.)
2. Leave flower stalks and seed heads until early spring. Some insect friends overwinter in hollow stems and leaves as larvae, eggs, or in their adult form. They need shelter and food and will thank you by coming back in large numbers in the spring.
3. Avoid trampling around between plants in my wildlife beds, as many moths overwinter as pupae below the soil surface and the caterpillars of some butterflies spend the winter deep in vegetation in borders. They are all mulched now, and ready to leave be.
4. Plant wildflower seeds now (milkweed and lupine) so they have time to chill out over the winter; they need cold stratification before they will germinate. Birds will likely help themselves so sow heavily and dust come compost over the top to hide a few.
5. Gather leaves as they fall and tuck them under the front shrubs, to create a habitat for wood mice, voles and many invertebrates. 

4. Winter vegetable garden tasks:

My third nature-culture intention is to grow a winter food garden using regenerative agricultural practices. I'm using the Second Breakfast Garden monthly guides this year to update my checklists, because they are in zone 8b.

1. Harvest, mostly bok choy, kale, and beets.
2. Collect leaves, the most wonderful gift: My trees haven't dropped many yet, but my neighbors are piling them in the street, so I just need to take time to collect them. If I'm careful I will preserve overwintering insects. I can put leaves into chicken wire bins, pile them around the yard as mulch, and especially make a pile near our compost bin.
3. Thin and mulch raspberries: My everbearing raspberries are still blooming and making berries, but they just mold now because of the rains. These canes are in their first year, and should have been left to over-winter, but I got lazy and pruned them pretty low. They will still produce a summer crop on these short stems next spring. Raspberries are vigorous growers, and they will sucker! They produce runner or stolons, which are horizontal running underground stems that will move out to other parts of the garden, which root and shoot to produce more raspberry plants. I've let too many of these grow into plants, and my bed is crowded. This is the best month to dig these out to give away. I'm aiming to leave plants that are at least 2 feet apart (because they will fill in again quickly!)
4. Establish new beds: Get your boots and shovels! The dormant season is ideal for landscape projects. The weather is cool, the soil is soft, time is easier to come by, perennials have time to settle into their home and establish their root systems before spring demands new growth, and there is time for organic materials to compost naturally, building teams of worms and microbes that will be ready to boost spring growth. 

5. Personal life-style goals:

My next two nature-culture intentions are to live our indoors life as close to nature as possible - using less plastics and less processed foods; causing less harm, and to limit waste by recycling, reusing, and repurposing materials, making compost, and using brush and weeds on site.

I'm always thinking about ways to improve our lifestyle, and at the holidays I have a couple of goals -

1. Buy no new plastic gifts (used plastic toys are okay).
2. Make as many gifts as possible, using recycled materials (cloth scraps, wood scraps).

6. Education and advocacy plans:

And my final nature-culture intention is to pay forward the benefits we receive from nature by educating others and advocating for nature. I have big intentions for the next year regarding climate change advocacy work, and I'm setting things in motion this month by inviting clearness, and collecting resources.