Innholdsfortegnelse for September 2016 i Birds and Blooms Extra

“I love how gardening, nature and monarchs are connecting generations. My children cannot wait to show Poppa and Grandma the caterpillars they find.”—Lisa Ditlefsen, Hutchinson, Minnesota As a kid, I used to punch holes in the lids of old pickle jars. Then I’d gather up a few twigs, milkweed leaves and monarch caterpillars, and carefully place my treasures in the jars. I didn’t realize then how important the activity was for those summer butterfly friends who would be in danger years later. My own childhood memories aren’t as inspiring as reader Lisa Ditlefsen’s, though. She sent a story that not only made me smile but also reminded me that it takes just one family and one backyard to boost monarch populations. Lisa started raising monarchs 30 years ago with her…

KNOWN FOR: Summerfest (the largest music festival in the world), Harley-Davidson headquarters, craft breweries, beer gardens and miles of lakefront access for walking and various outdoor activities. GETTING HERE: The heart of the city is 8 miles from the airport, and Milwaukee is less than one day’s drive from Midwest cities such as Minneapolis, Indianapolis and St. Louis. GO BIRD-WATCHING: Wehr Nature Center is quaint, made up of several distinct wildlife habitats and jam-packed with birds in every season. Check its website, friendsofwehr.org , for a list of family-friendly events, like Bug Day and Birding Beyond the Feeder. Another hot spot, Lake Park, sits on a bluff overlooking Lake Michigan and is only minutes from downtown. The 138-acre park is full of surprises—migrating warblers in spring and fall, nesting hawks…

• Plant milkweed. “We need an estimated 1 billion to 1.5 billion additional milkweed stems on the landscape to reach our nation’s target population size by 2020,” advocate Wendy Caldwell says. Most people think of common milkweed, but there are 76 native species of milkweed from which to choose. • Add nectar plants. Adult butterflies need late-season nectar plants to fuel their migration. Ideally, these plants bloom all season long and are protected from wind. • Go natural. “A healthy wildlife garden welcomes bugs, dragonflies, bats, toads, praying mantises and other creatures,” says naturalist David Mizejewski. “The diversity of plants and animals keeps everything in check.” Pesticides kill good bugs, too. • Be a citizen scientist. “We have learned a lot about monarchs through contributions from citizen science volunteers,” Wendy…

HE OR SHE? Male and female blue jays are very difficult to tell apart, because they have identical markings. Jays are the loudest and flashiest of the Corvidae family, which also includes crows, ravens and magpies. They’re also considered to be among the most intelligent species of the bird world. Most jays have strong bills and feed on all sorts of food, but these birds especially love peanuts. Although at least 10 species live in North America, this spotlight is on the three most likely to visit your backyard. Blue Jay Chances are good you’ve seen this jay the most. Though a rare visitor west of the Rocky Mountains, it lives throughout the Midwest and East, and is hard to miss thanks to its bright blue markings and a loud…

1 Kaufman Field Guide to Butterflies of North America by Jim P. Brock and Kenn Kaufman, $20, kaufmanfieldguides.com 2 Handmade paper butterfly hair clips, set of 3, $42, spotlightjewelry.com 3 Butterfly maple wood serving board for bread and butter, $50, uncommongoods.com 4 Glass bowl and metal stake butterfly feeder, $30, gardeners.com 5 Butterfly wall decor set, $15, modcloth.com 6 Embossed beech wood rolling pin, $34, moodforwood.etsy.com have you seen a terrific product we should know about? Send us a note via our Submission Guidelines on page 76. We’re always looking for suggestions!…

I was clad in chest waders, it was hot and the mosquitos were out in full force. I had been walking for miles in up to a foot of water atop slippery trails and tree roots. Not an ideal day on the job, but it’s the cost of field biology in the remote boreal forest of Alaska. I concentrated on the bright songs of birds. Yet as I splashed through another long stretch of saturated trail, the idea of a desk job didn’t seem all that bad. Then I heard the distant but still loud three-note whistle I’d been hoping to hear. A year earlier, an olive-sided flycatcher had been captured, banded and equipped with a tiny data collector near the spot where I was walking. My job was to…

This cute pair of burrowing owls always showed up on my mail route. I finally stopped to take a photo of the two last summer. Christie Johnston WILDORADO, TEXAS HUNTING HABITS Burrowing owls hunt day or night and typically stay close to the ground. The goldfinches on my deck tend to start fights around the feeders, usually just with one another. But I happened to catch this moment when a female goldfinch got into it with a Carolina chickadee. I give all the birds plenty of birdseed, believe me, so there’s no reason for anyone to fight over it! Katie Joya LAWRENCEBURG, KENTUCKY I was at a farm photographing thistle plants when I stumbled upon more than a dozen American goldfinches. They were plucking seeds from the tops of the…

Insect ID Put your noggin to the test with this creepy crawly photo quiz. Here’s a hint: Only one of these bugs is a bee. Go to page 76 to see which ones you got right. Share your photos with us! Go to birdsandblooms.com/photo-galleries to submit your best ones. They might be featured birdsandblooms on our website .com !…

Submission Guidelines We love hearing from you—in fact, we couldn’t publish this magazine without you! How to submit: Go to birdsandblooms.com/ submit-your-story to send stories, tips or photos. What you’ll get: If you’re published, we’ll send you a lip balm made with honey from Wisconsin bees! Contact: We may contact you via phone, email or mail regarding your submission, but our small staff can’t acknowledge receipt of submissions. Rights: By submitting material to us, you grant RDA Enthusiast Brands, LLC, its affiliates, partners and licensees worldwide use of the material without time limitation, including the right to use your name and city/state/province in connection with any such use. We reserve the right to modify, reproduce and distribute your material in any medium (now or hereafter existing) and in any manner or…

25 Peanuts hold a lot of moisture—25 to 50 percent—when harvested, so hang the whole plant to dry for about 2 weeks. 40 A single plant produces around 40 pods and each holds one to four peanuts. 18 Reaching up to 18 inches, flowers soon turn downward where they develop the peanuts underground. 10 The peanut is the seed! Place shelled, raw peanuts on top of the soil, cover with an inch more soil and look for sprouts in about 10 days. 540 It takes about 540 peanuts to make a 12-ounce jar of peanut butter. 2 Two things are required to successfully grow peanuts: full sun and sandy soil. 100 To grow peanuts in the North, start seeds indoors and plant a variety such as Early Spanish that is…

KEEP ON BLOOMING! Encourage more flowers by deadheading African daisies. Use the bonus blooms as cut flowers. There’s more to daisies than plucking petals while playing “he loves me, he loves me not.” Stunners in any garden, daisies prevail no matter where they are planted, making them a go-to choice for beginning and pro gardeners alike. With more than 20,000 species and nearly every color in the rainbow, there’s bound to be a daisy for you. TOP 10 1 MARGUERITE DAISY 2 FELICIA DAISY 3 PAINTED DAISY 4 GERBERA DAISY 5 SHASTA DAISY 6 HABANERA ENGLISH DAISY 7 PURPLE CONEFLOWER 8 GLORIOSA DAISY 9 AFRICAN DAISY 10 MONTAUK DAISY Marguerite daisy ARGYRANTHEMUM FRUTESCENS, ZONES 10 TO 11, ANNUAL ELSEWHERE Older varieties of Marguerite perform best in the cooler temperatures of…

IT’S NOT UNCOMMON to encounter mystery birds or blooms, bullies at your feeders or plants that need a pick-me-up. You asked for answers, so we rounded up some of the common questions that our bird experts, Kenn and Kimberly Kaufman, and horticulture expert, Melinda Myers, have tackled over the years. Whether you live east or west (or somewhere in between), these industry pros solve your toughest backyard dilemmas. DID YOU KNOW? If a blue jay pecks at painted wood structures, it is probably seeking the limestone found in colored paint. I try to serve birdseed at my second house in Maine, but the squirrels and chipmunks devour it. I’ve used red pepper flakes, but that didn’t stop them. What can I do? Carol Webb SAUGUS, MASSACHUSETTS Kenn and Kimberly: This…

STEP 1. Choose a pot or bowl with a mouth about 16 inches across and drainage holes in the base, and use potting mix suited to the plant types. We used variegated liriope, black mondo grass and bush morning glory. STEP 2. Partly fill the pot with mix, position the tallest plant in the center and then add the rest. Fill around the plants and firm down the mix. STEP 3. Spread the mulch over all exposed areas of the mix to about an inch deep, but don’t smother the plants. TIP: Water plants well before mulching. STEP 4. Decorate the scene with ornaments such as this tiny cast-iron fairy sculpture and large pebbles. Mini landscapes Dive right into making your own tiny garden with these tried-and-true tips and suggestions.…