Nature News
September 30, 2025
Nurturing Nature
By: Carol Suits
Liberty Wildlife Volunteer
Kid Stuff
Introducing Nature Explorers!
A nature activity workshop for kids in grades 4, 5, and 6!
Meet Liberty Wildlife animal ambassadors up close and personal! Go on adventures on the Liberty Wildlife campus and engage in activities to provide help to nature!
Sundays 1:30 – 3:30 pm
Oct 26, Nov 2, 9, 16 * $50 for all
Contact Carols@libertywildlife.org
Happy Fall!
It’s time to get outside and discover the changes happening all around you. Nature will begin getting ready for colder weather. Leaves will change color and drop off trees. Animals in colder places will start moving – migrating – to warmer places, sometimes traveling thousands of miles! Lots of animals migrate, especially birds.
Thursday, September 25th, about 43,700 birds flew over Maricopa County! We didn’t see them because they usually start migrating 30 minutes after sunset and most of them 2 to 3 hours later, when it’s dark.
To help birds not get confused in their journey, please get the OK to turn off outside lights.
Discovering Nature: A Scavenger Hunt in your Backyard
Scavenger hunts are fun ways to get outside and see new things! This scavenger hunt can be done in your backyard, at school or in your neighborhood park. See if you can find all the things on the list! Be careful not to touch things like spiders, caterpillars, or lizards.
Leave things where you find them or put them back when done. Thank you!
A spider web and be careful not to disturb it
A flower of any color*
3 different types of leaves*
A crooked stick already on the ground
A flat rock that can fit in your hand
Something yellow in nature (so a shirt, a shoe, or a paper that’s yellow doesn’t count!)
A feather that isn’t brown*
A lizard – not easy to spot! *
2 different birds that can be flying or perched somewhere. *
Something soft – but not a feather. Maybe a worm or caterpillar? *
A bush with no flowers*
*To find out the names of these animals, insects, or plants these Apps may help you.
Merlin Bird ID by Cornell Lab Seek by iNaturalist Picture Insect and Spider ID
Puzzles and Downloads!
Happy end of September! Enjoy a puzzle to wind down for the day! Plus download Nature News: Kids’ Stuff to save the fun for a future date!
Extinct or Extirpated?
By: Claudia Kirscher
Liberty Wildlife Volunteer
Extinction: “The state or process of a species, family, or larger group being or becoming extinct, dying out, vanishing, eradicated, wiped out. E.g.: The Dodo bird is extinct.”
Extirpation: “To render absent or nonexistent; no longer existing in one geographic area but occurring elsewhere; to pull up by the root; displacement; local extinction.” E.g.: An effort to reintroduce wildlife that had been extirpated from the region.” Local extinctions may be followed by a replacement of the species taken from other locations (wolf reintroduction is an example of this).
Extinct in our lifetime:
Baiji River dolphin, China (2011 from industrialization and over fishing of prey base); Christmas Island pipistrelle bat (2009); Costa Rica Golden toad (1989 most likely due to climate change); Pyrenean ibex (2000); Dusky seaside sparrow (1990 from DDT and habitat loss); western black rhinoceros (2011 due to poaching); Formosan clouded leopard (2011 due to poaching, habitat loss and elimination of natural prey); Eastern cougar (2015 due to human intervention of habitat); Guam flycatcher (1983 due to predation by introduced brown tree snake); Japanese sea lion (1974 due to commercial hunting); Javan tiger (1976 loss of habitat to agriculture); Passenger pigeon (1914 from hunting and habitat loss); Spix’s Macaw (gone in wild, only in captivity).
Facing extinction from climate change:
The American pika, a native of the southwest U.S., has already gone extinct in many areas locally; Polar bear due continued melting of the Arctic ice caps; Snow leopard (indirectly by loss of prey base); Narwhale due to melting ice in the Arctic; Elephant seals are being affected by the melted ice surrounding Antarctica; Coral due to rising sea temperatures across the glove leading to bleaching, killing off large portions of the world’s coral reefs; Asian elephant at risk because of disappearing fresh water (and poaching); Monarch butterfly.
Extirpated:
Aplomado falcon displaced from New Mexico, SW Texas, and SE Arizona into northern Mexico due to overgrazing and subsequent loss of suitable breeding and hunting habitat. It now faces the same threats in Mexico. The Peregrine Fund has begun to successfully reintroduce captive-bred Aplomados to mid and southern New Mexico. There is now documented evidence of wild-born and fledged young.
The greater prairie chicken was driven out of Canada by habitat loss and hunting. They were pushed south and can be found now in a few States including Kansas, Nebraska, and So Dakota.
The black-footed ferret was extirpated from Canada most likely due to hunting and elimination of its host prey, prairie dogs. Habitat loss is another factor. These ferrets have been successfully reintroduced in Arizona, Colorado, Wyoming, and So Dakota.
The Atlantic population of grey whales were easy targets for the early whalers because the whales swim slowly and tend to inhabit continental shelves. These mammals are now found along the west coast of North America.
Wolverines, mountain lions, grey and red wolves, as well as elk once flourished in the eastern US and Atlantic coastal states. They were pushed westward due to hunting, poaching, and habitat loss.
Why should you be concerned about a species that you have never seen or perhaps may never see? Most people become disturbed when they read about and see photos of charismatic animals such as cute polar bear cubs, but we need to broaden that concern. When animals disappear from an ecosystem, it indicates that the area is not only becoming less inhabitable for animals, but also for people. ” An ecosystem is like a spider web. It is held together by all the plants, animals, water, air, and nutrients, each being a thread in the web. With each thread that is removed, many other threads are weakened until the entire web collapses.” (tpwd.texas.gov)
Loss and/or fragmentation of habitat appears to be the number one cause for species declines. We can also list human interference/encroachment, illegal hunting/poaching/collection, and the visible/not-so visible effects of climate change.
There is positive news in steps to conserve our natural resources. Animals saved by the U.S. Endangered Species Act: Whooping Cranes, Bald Eagles, Peregrine Falcons, Alligators, Wolves, Grizzly Bears and California Condors.
The bottom line is YOU. Never forget, you are the voice for these animals. Get involved with local conservation efforts, habitat restoration, investigate proposed legislation and make your voice heard to the organizations involved and your state and federal law makers.
MAKE IT PERSONAL AND BE PART OF THE SOLUTION!!
Resources: msn.com; yahoo.com; Wikipedia.com; allaboutwildlife.com; allaboutbirds.com; tpwd.texas.gov
Welcome Them With Flowers
By: Gail Cochrane
Liberty Wildlife Volunteer
Who doesn’t love butterflies? Set your sights on a butterfly and feel your spirit soar. Butterflies flutter in a frivolous manner from flower to flower feeding on nectar, yet perform vital pollination duties.
Butterflies are nature’s magicians, changing their forms in an enchanting process called metamorphosis. Whether wearing muted colors or bright and bold, all butterflies’ velvety wings are composed of thousands of overlapping scales that allow flight.
It’s no wonder that children and adults respond to these beautiful insects. Planting gardens to attract, feed and shelter butterflies has become popular in school yards, back yards and at Liberty Wildlife. Let’s have a look at what goes into butterfly gardening.
In the Sonoran Desert these gardens are made up of desert-adapted plant species that provide food and shelter for butterflies. A successful garden must have both nectar plants and larval food plants. Flower nectar sustains adult butterflies while leafing plants provide larval food for caterpillars. Most species of butterfly larvae feed exclusively on certain plants, usually from a single family. For instance, Monarch caterpillars feed only on milkweed. Other caterpillar species munch on a wide variety of plants.
Invite butterfly visitors year-round with a variety of nectar plants, providing flowers in every season. Many of our desert adapted flowering plants bloom spring through fall. Be sure to add some winter bloomers!
Butterflies are capable of identifying plants from great distances, but you can help them by planting your flowers in masses. Choose a sunny location for your garden, with a little shade. Low water use plants can be grouped together for irrigation purposes, and high water use plants limited in this garden. You won’t be using any chemicals or pesticides here as that would surely harm your insect visitors.
There are 250 species of butterfly in the Southwest, belonging to six families.
Different species fill niches in all of our varied ecosystems. Most Sonoran Desert species are sedentary, flying short distances between nectar and larval food plants. Other species wander, some predictably and others at seeming random. Species such as the Monarch are migratory and make incredible journeys. Other populations come from as far away as Northern Mexico. This influx population adds numbers and variety for our butterfly watching pleasure. April and October are the peak times to attract butterflies to your garden. Welcome them with flowers!
There’s no time like now to start a butterfly garden. Here are a few of the suitable plants and their bloom times.
Good nectar plants – flowering shrubs and ground covers that attract adults:
Butterfly Mist – Ageratum corymbosum blooms mid-summer into winter
Baja Fairy Duster – Calliandra californica blooms spring through fall
Baja Passion Vine – Passiflora foetida summer bloom
Red Bird of Paradise – Caesalpinia spring to fall bloom
Lantana – Lantana montevidensis year-round bloom
Verbena – Verbena gooddingi spring bloom
Larval food plants – species that common caterpillars thrive on:
Bush Dalea – Dalea pulchra not only great larval food plant, but a winter bloomer
Milkweed – Asclepias subulata, Asclepias angustifolia Monarchs require these plants
Pipevine – Aristolochia microphylla attract Swallowtails
Desert Hackberry – Celtris pallida
Golden Dyssodia – Dyssodia pentachaeta
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