by Winding Pathways | Nov 7, 2024 | Birds, Chickens, Garden/Yard, Nature
Cardinals and other birds visiting wintery backyard feeders need grit. They’ll appreciate finding some near the sunflower seeds and millet.
The old saying that something’s as scarce as a hen’s teeth is as true for the chickadees, cardinals, and goldfinches that visit backyards as it is for the hens in our coop. Birds have no teeth. Before they can digest coarse corn and wild seeds it must be thoroughly chewed. How do they do it?
What Is Grit?
Seeing birds along wintery roads solves the mystery. They’re picking up and swallowing tiny pieces of rock that will descend into their gizzard. A gizzard is a powerful muscular pouch that grinds tough seeds against grit, resulting in a seed slurry that then moves through the bird’s digestive system. Grit is a bird’s teeth.
When Is A Good Time to Spread Grit?
Birds flock to the seeds.
During warm months birds have no trouble finding tiny stones in bare patches of earth, but when the world is blanketed in snow or ice, they can’t find grit. Winter is when they appreciate swallowing a few tiny stones near bird feeders.
What Types of Grit Are Best?
As we fill our feeders at Winding Pathways, we sprinkle grit in with seeds and dribble some on the ground. We use two kinds of grit. When we have it on hand, we prefer baby chick grit that we buy at a farm store. It is tiny pieces of sharp quartzite that’s especially effective in grinding seeds in a gizzard. It’s sized for tiny baby chickens, so it’s just right for backyard feeder birds. When we don’t have it on hand we use regular sand. Traction and kid’s sandbox sand both work well and can be purchased at most home supply stores.
How Much Grit?
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Birds flock to the seeds.
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Sprinkle grit once a week to help birds in the snowy season.
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Spread grit when the ground is snow or ice covered.
Birds must have grit, but they don’t need much. A handful in and around feeders once or twice a week is plenty.
Other Uses
Grit’s useful around the house. When walkways are snow-slicked humans are mostly likely to slip and fall. Tossing grit on slippery walkways creates traction for people and may prevent a painful fall. Birds spot it there and occasionally pick up a few pieces. We keep about 50 pounds on hand and use most of it for traction and just a tiny fraction for our birds.
This winter when filling bird feeders scatter a bit of grit. Cardinals and other birds will appreciate it.
by Winding Pathways | Oct 31, 2024 | Nature, Reflections/Profiles, Trees
A national forest amid Nebraska’s grassy Sand Hills! Yup. Several units of the Nebraska National Forest are scattered about the central and northwestern part of the state.
In the 1990s we drove through miles of grassland with nary a tree in sight and then camped in a sprawling forest of Ponderosa pines and red cedars in the Forest’s Bessey Unit almost dead center in the Cornhusker State. How can there be a forest on land that nature intends to be a prairie?
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Nebraska grasses and fields.
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Fire spreads easily when branches touch
History
In 1902 University of Nebraska botanist Charlesy Bessey encouraged Forest Service Chief Gifford Pinchot and President Theodore Roosevelt to plant trees and create a forest in the grassy Sand Hills. The nation was facing a lumber shortage and most Americans valued forests over prairies and deserts, so they agreed.
Efforts
Millions of trees were planted close together over the 90,000-acre Bessey Unit. Many grew well; when we visited 30 years ago, they were mature and gorgeous.
Rolling hills along the Loup River.
A fire tower was also built and staffed to watch for fires. Sure enough, fires broke out and killed many of the trees. Fire is an efficient sorter. Grass is highly fire-resistant. Many trees are not.
Return to Nebraska’s National Forest
Decades later we camped there again in September 2024 and were amazed at the change. Although the Forest Service Campground remains in trees, much of the former forest has quickly returned to grassland, due to several fires.
We saw thousands of dead trees with stacks of trunks piled along the road.
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Grasses line a dirt road
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Nebraska’s grassland sandy soil.
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Recovering dead trees.
Lesson
Attempting to create a forest in a grassland was an ecological disaster. Over time nature is reclaiming land that should have been managed for what it is – healthy grass sprinkled with millions of wildflowers.
Continued Activity
Trees grow in the nursery
The Bessey Unit includes a modern nursery where the Forest Service grows trees for replanting on land in the western United States. The surrounding land is a fascinating place to see first-hand the result of past management based on a misunderstanding of the environment.
The campground’s trees were spared fire and remain a shady place to camp for anyone driving across vast Nebraska. Great opportunities exist here for education and enjoyment of the trails. But, it needs maintenance. So does the now abandoned fire tower. For information check usda.gov/nebraska.
by Winding Pathways | Oct 24, 2024 | Bugs, Garden/Yard
Wooly bears show up this time of year.
On a warm October afternoon bears were in our yard! Not to worry. They were wooly bears. Caterpillars. We like them and follow them as they scurry along as fast as their tiny legs can go.
Where are they going and how do they know how to get there? The answer to the first is simple. Wooly bears spend the late summer munching on plant debris, but when nights cool, they sense winter’s onset.
A wooly bear wandering around in October is looking for a snug place to overwinter. That could be in a rotting log or tucked under a porch. We often find them in January tucked in between chunks of firewood. When we discover one, we gently move it to another nearby safe spot so we can continue bringing in wood and it can continue slumbering until spring.
How Do Wooly Bears Know?
We can’t explain how they know where to find a place to overwinter. Maybe it’s a random search or somehow, they can sense safe places. It’s a fascinating mystery of nature.
What ARE Wooly Bears?
Wooly bears are cold-blooded, so their “wool “doesn’t help them stay warm. They have an amazing survival strategy. As the temperature drops to freezing a wooly bear’s heart stops beating. Then its gut freezes. Then its blood freezes, and soon the entire insect is frozen solid. Fortunately, frost crystals are outside its cells, so when warm weather arrives the wooly bear thaws and goes about its business.
How Many Species Are There?
There are eight species of wooly bear in North America. The adult phase is called an Isabella moth.
Predicting Weather
Winter Predictor?
Wooly bears are fun. We love watching them cross our driveway and twist their way through grass stems each fall. Can they predict the severity of the oncoming weather? Some people think so and carefully examine the bands of color on the caterpillar’s bristles that look like wool. We don’t take chances on wooly bear weather predictions and keep plenty of firewood on hand.
Woolly Bear Festival
Vermillion, Ohio, treasures its wooly bears. So do the 150,000 people who attend the Woolly Bear Festival, held annually in late September. It may be the Ohio festival attended by the most people.
by Winding Pathways | Oct 10, 2024 | Nature, Water Resources
The male protects the eggs from predators.
All Fish are awesome! Rich learned that firsthand. As a young boy, he spent hours watching male sunfish guard their saucer-shaped nests in the shallow water of Cedar Lake.
Sunfish
Sunfish are awesome! This huge family of fish flip-flops the way nature normally defines child-rearing. In most animals, the female gets the work. That’s not how sunfish families operate.
Male sunfish provide primary child care. He makes a nest in shallow water every spring over a sandy or pebbly bottom. When it’s finished a female hovers over it and releases hundreds of eggs as he releases millions of tiny sperm. Hopefully egg meets sperm and the now fertilized egg nestles into the sandy nest.
Tough Life
Life’s not easy. Small fish, and especially small sunfish, love feasting on the eggs. Mom departs with no child-rearing duties, while Dad stands by chasing off any intruder intent on a meal of eggs.
Where Sunfish Live
There are sunfish in nearly every body of relatively warm fresh water from Canada down to the Gulf of Mexico. Even renowned gamefish, like large and smallmouth bass, are in the sunfish family. The most commonly known is the bluegill. Most sunfish species are on the small side. They’re lumped together as panfish because they’re easy to catch, prolific, and tasty.
Fisherman’s Life
Awesome bluegill!
Rich had the good fortune to grow up next to a New Jersey Lake, where he watched fish and learned how to catch them. A love of fish led to his earning a degree in fishery biology and an early career working with fish in Alaska.
All Fish Are Awesome!
Book by Noel Vick
Not all kids are lucky enough to live near a lake, but a new book will help them learn that All Fish Are Awesome. That’s the title of Noel Vick’s new book. Its colorful art shows many amazing fish species of both fresh and saltwater, with a bit of text about each one. It’s a great book for parents or grandparents to share with a child perched in their lap. Then, on a pleasant spring day bring that kid to a nearby lake to spot sunfish nests and maybe even wet a line. It might ignite a lifeline passion for fish and fishing or even lead to a career.
Where to Buy the Book
The book’s available at Amazon or blueballoonbooks.com.
by Winding Pathways | Sep 19, 2024 | (Sub)Urban Homesteading, 1080 Labyrinth Blog, Garden/Yard, Nature, Wonderment
Partnership with Sustainable Landscape Solutions Creates Natural Beauty
Brilliant flowers
When we bought our home near Cedar Rapids in 2010 we had a vision to transform the yard that had been sprayed and manicured by its former owner into a wondrous place, brimming with natural beauty and fascinating wildlife. It would be a delightful yard with prairie and savanna wildflowers bouncing in the breeze, and goldfinches and swallowtail butterflies winging over. We sought to create natural beauty.
We have years of ecological restoration experience. Rich had been restoring prairies and oak savannas since 1975 in his position as executive director of two nature centers. Like Rich, Marion is an inspired naturalist and a labyrinth expert. Together we had managed our former home for diversity, but the new property offered more space.
Beginning almost immediately, we planted prairies in portions of our front and back yards and worked with Linn County Roads to restore prairie in the nearby road ditch. This helped hold runoff water that could percolate into the ground.
Working together.
Fortunately, we have experience managing fire. Rich is a former US Forest Service Hot Shot (wild firefighter) and we’ve used prescribed burns to help nurture the prairie. Burning has helped us resurrect native plants and wildlife.
August – Joy is a part of labyrinths.
In their largest prairie Marion crafted the Phoenix Harmony Labyrinth. This is a five-circuit, dual-entry path to the center where people can enjoy a bur oak and be surrounded by prairie grasses and forbs. She welcomes people to play and encourages anyone wishing for moments of contemplation to visit and walk its curving paths between blooming prairie plants. Her labyrinth is listed on the international labyrinth locator registry.
How Sustainable Landscape Solutions
Helped the Pattersons
Several organizations and businesses are collaborating to create and manage the prairie.
We needed help with our newer projects. “We wanted to transform a hilly patch of our front lawn into a prairie rich in wildflowers and fewer tall prairie grasses. The site was a long-established conventional lawn composed of exotic grasses,” said Rich. “That’s a challenging environment to establish prairie. I’ve established prairies on lawns before by broadcasting seeds and following up with prescribed burns. But, it’s a slow process. We wanted to speed up restoration and needed help killing the turf and preparing the soil,” he added.
In 2020 we hired Sustainable Landscape Solutions to do the prep by first spraying the existing turf and later working the soil. Pattersons took it from there and planted a seed mix they purchased from Pheasants Forever. It’s called their Leopold Mix and contains seeds of 82 species of native prairie wildflowers.
Patience
It takes prairie time to mature. A year after planting we had a few blooms. The next year a few more. In its third year, it began to look like a prairie, and by its fifth growing season, the area was a magnificent spread of colorful flowers fluttering in the summer breeze. Alive with bumblebees, butterflies, and other insects, it was rich with life.
Next Steps
Four years later we decided to pursue a different sort of property upgrade. The 2020 Derecho did a job on a cozy nook next to the garage. “We wanted to transform a weedy nook south of our house into a delightful place to sit on cool spring and fall days where the sun would warm us. We worked with Virginia Hayes of Sustainable Landscape Solutions to come up with a patio plan that allows us and our visitors to sit and enjoy our thriving natural landscapes.
Patience, Again
Multiple rains delayed the project as Sustainable Landscapes worked diligently to catch up on already scheduled, and now rain-delayed projects. The new patio was crafted in July 2024. “It’s an example of how our company was able to work with homeowners to create a vision and gorgeous yard. Pattersons had much restoration knowledge but we’re happy to help people less experienced transform their yards into areas of natural beauty,” said Sean Pearl of Sustainable Landscapes.
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Weeds overtook the area
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Small evergreens have replaced fallen Derecho trees.
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First removing dirt.
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Next steps
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Dusty job
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Water flows away
Coming together
Now, in early autumn, the nook is coming together nicely and we look forward to sharing it, the yard, and the labyrinth with others.
A Little More About Labyrinths
The Patterson’s labyrinth is created in a tallgrass prairie but these can be built in many ways, including in formal landscaping. “Many are made of bricks or pavers that enable a walker to negotiate the winding pathway,” said Marion. “Ours has a wide grassy path with borders of prairie grasses and forbs that change seasonally.” Labyrinths are structures with a path that winds to a center. Each time walkers follow the path around the center is called a circuit. Walkers find that the winding path slows down their minds and they can settle into a more relaxed space. Because of the natural setting, many walkers comment on how they recall times in nature as youth. Patterson is available to help landowners create labyrinths.
Blessings of the Changing Landscapes
We welcome visitors to our Winding Pathways website and to see our prairies.
by Winding Pathways | Aug 22, 2024 | Garden/Yard, Nature, Wonderment
Guest Blogger – Jacqueline Hull
Have you ever tried something fun as a gardener? Well, I have. My curiosity wondered if it were possible to root the head of a pineapple.
We love fresh pineapple. The head has to be cut off then the sides to get to the juicy pieces. Then, we stash the severed pieces in the compost pot for future use in the garden.
Will the pineapple take?
One day, after my husband, Peter, dissected our fresh pineapple, I retrieved the top piece and placed it into some moist potting soil. I made sure the soil was damp each day as I waited for it to root. After a time, to my delight, I discovered the head had indeed grown roots and was holding tightly to the soil.
For several years I fertilized and watered this pineapple as the spears grew larger and taller. I also transplanted it to a huge glazed pot.
Peeking down into the center of the plants one day, I saw a teeny tiny fruit that had developed. It kept growing and growing and eventually, a soft, golden color appeared in its greenery. It had about seven inches of fruit and I knew it was ready to be picked.
To our delight when we harvested the pineapple, the inside was sweet and juicy.
Now, we wait for the two that are growing on the porch to ripen. One has a fruit and we anticipate the other to develop its fruit.
Our adventure continues as we try to grow onions from pieces with roots and wonder if we could do the same with celery…maybe!
Editor’s note: Share your growing experiments with us on the comments page.
