Of Birds and Politics

I have spent the majority of the time on my "vacation" doing physical therapy and home exercises for my shoulder, which has been time consuming but neither exciting nor interesting; watching my backyard birds; and keeping track of the media reports--both social and old media.

First the therapy: mainly it's offset my plans for most birdwatching. I'd hoped to get out to some of the local bird haunts that are not subject to the Federal Government shutdown, like Lake Fairfax, and Riverbend Park.  Great Falls and Dyke Marsh unfortunately were affected by the shutdown. But not being able to hold binoculars to my face for very long raises the priority of the PT!

Onto the birds I have seen.  My "first of season" arrivals in the yard have started.  I've seen a White-throated Sparrow and heard the "tseeep" calls of at least one other. I've seen my first flock of Canada Geese--yes an extremely common bird, but they generally don't fly over my yard, except in the fall. And I saw a Ruby-crowned Kinglet.  I did catch a glimpse of a possible thrush with an eyering in my stand of pokeberries. Unfortunately, when I turned to grab my binoculars, it flew away.  Interestingly either a late-staying Gray Catbird has shown up, or one has stopped over from farther north. Finally, a Northern Mockingbird has started staking his claim--from both the top of my Chimney and the big Virginia Pine in front of our house.  American Crows--which form wintertime murders of thousands of birds and roost nearby have just barely started to form up in family groups. I saw 8 fly over last night.

I also had an unknown hawk come to visit. I neither saw nor heard him.  The explosion of probably Tufted Titmouse feathers near my feeding table was the tell tale sign.  The circle of life gets very sad when you've watched the prey grow up from a new fledgling.

On to politics!  Given the self-inflicted drubbing the Republicans are getting in the polls, I expect to be back in the office on Monday. According to a Wallstreet Journal/NBC poll (even Tea-baggers can't claim that this is liberal media bias) the GOP is (rightfully so, I say) receiving the blame for the shutdown. And furthermore, it is in grave danger of having opened a schism within its ranks that will take a long-time in healing.  The wrinkle here is whether or not Senate Republicans' being fed up with their lower house colleagues' shenanigans and coming up with a competing budget plan will further slow this process or speed it up.

Either way, I will endeavor to keep my blog resurrected!

Weed or butterfly host plant?

Many gardeners will recognize this picture of plantain, Plantago. I have allowed this weed to remain in my backyard wildlife habitat because it provides food for the caterpillars of Buckeye butterflies and some moth species. Every gardener seems to love butterflies, yet so many do their best to eradicate almost all of the food for their caterpillars.

I learned about this weed from the book Weeds: Friend or Foe?--An illustrated guide to identifying, taming, and using weeds by Sally Roth. I have the Readers Digest version, published in 2002, the version on Amazon has a second author listed--so this paragraph may not apply to the version there. As a gardener whose ambitions are larger than his time available, and of course as an avid bird watcher, I am constantly looking for shortcuts in what I can skip in my yard and can allow to grow as food sources for my backyard denizens. This book was a godsend to me! But, I do find one major flaw in Ms. Roth's book. She does not distinguish enough between common weeds and invasive species. There are many, such as multiflora rose and japanese honeysuckle that birds and pollinating/nectar drinking insects love, but these plants that crowd out our native flora need to be eradicated if we are to help our native animal species survive in our suburban "ecosystem." See Doug Talamy's book and website Bringing Nature Home for a discussion on just how important native plant species are to our local fauna. I am by no means an absolute purist in my garden when it comes to native --and local plants--but I am slowly working on ensuring that the plants in my backyard do the most to help the animal and insect species that should be here.