Nature News
September 1, 2024
Nurturing Nature
By: Carol Suits
Liberty Wildlife Volunteer
Osprey are unusual hawks. Find out how they are different, listen to their calls, and check out the fish at a baseball game!
Click here to watch an osprey hunt fish in slow motion.
Is it a pop-up fly ball? No! It’s a fish! Click here to check out the video!
Summer is a great time to enjoy family activities. Try planting seeds and decorating garden markers or making a “solar still’. Then create some nachos to celebrate the 4thof July.
- Plant your name with seeds K+
- Planting seeds instructions Gr K+
- Garden markers made from plastic spoons K+
- How can you clean dirty water using the sun? In this experiment you will be making a “solar still” that is able to clean water and get the salt out as well. Gr. 4+
- Celebrate the 4th by making some 4th of July Nachos! K+
No Knife, Fork or Spoon
By: Claudia Kirscher
Liberty Wildlife Contributor
On a recent trip to Mission Bay in San Diego, I watched in fascination as a Black Skimmer flew just inches above the water surface with its lower mandible skimming underwater feeling for fish.
Closer to shore, a flock of Wilson’s Phalaropes were swimming in dizzying circles. They were creating a water vortex that captures small crustaceans and larvae, spinning them to the top for feeding.
I became curious about different avian feeding/hunting behaviors, many of which I’ve observed while birding but took only cursory notice… but not anymore, what a diversity!
Northern Shoveler ducks also swim in circles, disturbing the floor. They put their heads and beaks in the water, swinging side to side to filter out prey.
Doves are able to drink by dipping their bills into water and sucking up the fluid. Doves also store whole seeds in their crop for delayed breakdown away from predators.
Pelicans use their large throat pouches to scoop up fish, usually by diving.
Gannets, Kingfishers, and Osprey also dive into water for their prey. Of note, Osprey carry their fish head forward for less drag in flight.
Grebes (i.e. Western, Eared, Clark’s, Pied-billed) also dive for their meals of fish, aquatic insects, and crustaceans. Interestingly, Grebes add soft contour feathers to their diet, thought to aid in pellet formation.
Great Blue Herons have dagger-like bills to impale their prey. They are also known to drown their prey by holding underwater.
Green Herons have been seen using “bait” of some sort, dropping it on top of the water then snatching the fish that come to the surface.
Acorn Woodpeckers are one of many birds who store or cache food in holes they have made in trees. A single tree may have over 100 holes with acorns stashed.
Nuthatches often take over woodpecker holes to cache their own seeds.
Ravens and Crows are known to cache food in the ground, carefully camouflaging the site with leaves, sticks, and rocks.
Some birds use the whack’em on the ground or branches ’til they are dead.
I’ll save the raptors for another article.
Think about a Butterfly Garden
By: Gail Cochrane
Liberty Wildlife Volunteer
When you go outside, keep your eyes out for butterflies. Fluttering bits of fabulous color, they seem to float just beyond our reach. For a few moments, if we are lucky, they are close enough that we can admire their delicate wings and feel the wonder these creatures inspire.
Butterflies feed on nectar, so they are constantly seeking flowering plants that offer the sugars, and other compounds they need to survive. Many butterfly species have close relationships with a certain type of plant, feeding on only those flowers and laying their eggs on that host plant.
The most famous of these plant – butterfly relationships is that of the milkweed and the monarch. Monarch butterflies migrate long distances between summer and winter-feeding grounds. Along the way they need to eat. The milkweed plants that monarchs depend on used to grow in vast spreads across open land, along roadsides and bordering croplands. As residential developments and massive monoculture farms spread over the land, growing space for wild plants like milkweed has been cut out. Herbicides are sprayed to make sure the perennials will not be back. The population of milkweed has plummeted.
We can all help monarchs and many kinds of butterflies by growing milkweed and other flowering native plants in our yards or on our patios. Any sunny space can become new habitats for butterflies and other pollinators. Schools and churches are prime locations for butterfly gardens. For the best chance of attracting and helping local butterflies plant your garden with species that are native to our area.
Many independent local nurseries carry native plants. Desert Botanical Gardens and Boyce Thompson Arboretum are great sources as well, offering spring and fall plant sales. At these gardens you can see native plants in full flower, and perhaps butterflies will also be visiting the blooms. To see thousands of butterflies, visit Desert Botanical Garden’s Butterfly Pavilion. Open only from Sept. 21- Nov 10 from 9:30 am to 5 pm.
Other Butterfly Garden Resources
- DBG Fall Plant Sale Oct. 17- 20
- BTA Fall Plant Sale Oct. 12 – 27
- swmonarchs.org for a list of best low desert native plants for butterflies
- monarchwatch.org/waystations/ for how to plant and care for a butterfly garden
More from Nature News
© 2025 Liberty Wildlife - Privacy Policy