Archive for category: News

Winter can be hard. It’s cold and frozen and sometimes all you want to do is snuggle down with a warm blanket and hot chocolate in front of a fireplace. But before you get too comfortable, take a moment to consider what you can do to help local wildlife before winter hits.

Think about it this way: if you’re providing for small animals and plants in a meaningful way, that action moves all the way up the food chain and promotes a healthy and thriving ecosystem in your backyard throughout the cold months.

With just a little preparation, you can winterize your backyard and make it a haven for your local wildlife. Simply remember the three basic things every animal needs to survive the winter: food, water, and shelter — then make sure your yard provides them.

Food

Fill Your Bird Feeders. Bird feeders are one of the easiest ways to provide food to wildlife. Use a seed that provides a lot of substance and energy, such as black oil sunflower seeds.

Put Out Suet. Suet is fat found near the kidneys in beef and mutton. It provides a great high energy food for winter birds and is a particular favorite for woodpeckers, jays, and chickadees. Make suet cakes by adding fruits, nuts or insects, but don’t leave it out when the weather turns warm. Suet spoils quickly when temperatures are above freezing.

Use Nature’s Home-Made Feeders. There are a number of things nature provides that you can use to feed wildlife. Hang dried sunflower heads and let the birds and squirrels pick out the seeds. You can also use dried corn on the cob or make a straw wreath for animals to sneak pieces from to make their bedding. Half of a pumpkin shell encourages little critters to grab a quick bite to eat and provides lots of nutrients. Peanut butter smeared pine cones rolled in cornmeal is a favorite to get the kids involved. For the holidays, make strings of popcorn and cranberries and hang where animals and birds can reach them.

Plant Berries, Nuts, and Seeds. One of the easiest ways to help wildlife survive the winter is to plant trees and shrubs that produce seeds, seed pods, fruit, (berries) and nuts, but stick to something native to ensure your local wildlife eats it. A few standbys that farewell include dogwood, winterberry holly, and sumac. Leave the fruit on the plants and when winter comes, the animals will gratefully devour it.

Water

Heat Your Birdbath. A heated birdbath can become one of the most popular items in your yard. Not only does it provide water for drinking, which more than just birds appreciate, but it gives the birds a place to splash and play. Bathing is essential to their survival in the winter and actually helps keeps them warmer. When birds bathe, their inner feathers fluff, creating more insulation to protect them against the elements. You can modify your existing birdbath into a year-round paradise by adding a simple heating element available at most garden stores. These elements keep the water temperature right above freezing and cost only a few cents a day to run.

Two Birdbaths? If you really want to make a difference to your local wildlife this winter, place a second heated birdbath on the ground with no base. This provides water to animals that don’t climb, such as rabbits and hares, and keeps the climbers, like raccoons and squirrels, off of the other one.

Build a Pond. (Extra points for this one) If you have space and the motivation, build a small pond; even an ornamental one in your flower garden can do wonders for winter wildlife. Fresh, consistent water is one of the most important things an animal needs in the winter and one of the hardest to find.

One Dish at a Time. If you don’t have a birdbath and aren’t planning a pond, you can still encourage wildlife by placing a dish of water outside. Even a dog dish full of fresh water can mean the difference between life or death for some animals. Refill it every day and before long, you’ll have regulars who stop by daily for a drink.

Shelter

Make a Brush Pile. Instead of bagging or burning your leaves, find a place in the corner of your yard and use them as the base for a brush pile. Add sticks and twigs and even throw on your Christmas tree after the season’s end. A brush pile provides a warm habitat for many different kinds of wildlife including spiders, salamanders, butterflies, toads, and mice. Don’t think these small critters don’t matter. They’re the food for many larger species and a necessary component to the food chain. By making a cozy home for insects, moles and other small animals, you’re doing your part to make sure the fox, owls, and eagles survive as well.

Cover Your Flower Garden with Leaves. Like your brush pile, covering your flower garden with leaves provides shelter to small animals and insects throughout the winter. And while you’re at it, hold off trimming back your flowers and pruning your hedges until spring. The dead flowers, stalks and overgrown branches offer places to sleep and hide. Remember, the more coverage an area provides, the more wildlife it can protect.

By winterizing your yard, you help the little guys who, in turn, help the big guys thrive. When mating and nesting season comes along, there are healthy populations everywhere, thanks to your yard.

Fourth of July. New Years Eve. Weddings. Special Events. These are all becoming common instances where fireworks are included. We are all familiar with the colorful displays of light and the loud booms, but we may not be aware of the effect this has on other living beings, especially our companion animals and nearby wildlife.

As is commonly known, dogs and other animals have an acute sense of hearing, much stronger than that of their human counterparts. What is startling to our senses can be quite terrifying for animals and could result in them behaving unpredictably which could put them or their caregivers at risk.

People are told to leave their dogs at home, or even worse, to crate them, when fireworks are scheduled to be lit, but the American Humane Society strongly advises against this. A dog left alone in a house, or even confined to a crate, is more at risk to injure themselves trying to escape the noise. The Humane Society goes on to say that the most common behavior problems associated with loud noises is destruction and escape.

There are things that can be done, not just for the benefit of our domestic animals and wildlife, but also for people with noise related phobias such as individuals with PTSD and sensitive little children. Fireworks are being developed with less flashpowder (the chemical that produces the loud bangs) and the associated noise levels have been reduced significantly. Of note, noise reduction in fireworks began around 1999 and has grown in popularity and there are now more, and better, quieter fireworks available.

Please consider joining the list of cities and towns, both domestic and abroad, who have chosen to use fireworks with reduced flashpowder and thereby significantly reducing the noise factor. Go to your town council meetings and be a voice for the animals. You can help make your town a compassionate leader by introducing quieter fireworks on behalf of our domestic animals and wildlife.

Call Friends off Cape Wildlife anytime to talk more about what you can do. 508-375-3700.

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