Garden Habitat, Thrushes and Something to read with coffee

31 May

The majority of birds passing in migration having now gone through … here are some pleasant observations from the past few days … not all birds.

Pleated Inkcap and Brittlestem fungi

Canada Goose chicks and adults

Golden Alexanders

Golden Alexanders (Zizia aurea) are yet another of the many carrot family species and native to our part of the world. What’s more they are the host plant for the caterpillars of the Black Swallowtail butterfly and wide range of species of bees, flies, wasps, butterflies, and other insects visit the flowers for its nectar. A good to have growing nearby.

Canadian Tiger Swallowtail (Papilio canadensis) on a branch of Amelanchier canadensis - larvae feed on birch, poplar and apple trees.

Blackpoll Warbler

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Urban Garden are Critical Habitat

Already, it is the last day of May and it seems only recently that I was writing about May Day. The third week of the month in particular was quite hectic in the garden and surrounding neighbourhood with many really interesting birds (see last week’s photographs for a taster) passing through. Often resting for a while in the garden waterfall before moving on. Some of the bird photographs I shared on the local town Facebook group because I know plenty of people like that sort of thing. I wasn’t thinking there was anything especially out of the ordinary though, mid-May as pretty well always busy with birds on their way back from the south.

And then, under a post of a Blackburnian Warbler, I saw a comment from someone living nearby. It said, simply this … “I don’t think I live in the same town as you do”.

That struck me as quite sad. Those same birds that we see in local parks and in our garden are the very same birds that must pass thought the gardens of our neighbours as they arrive and depart. Most of us have largish gardens and plenty of trees because it’s that sort of place (septic tanks mandate large plots). When I talk with neighbours they are all, clearly, interested in wildlife and nature but for some reason they just don’t, for the most part, see a fraction of what we do. You have to put the hours in.

Time to speak of the value of wildlife gardening in suburbia … again.

I am not going to offer the common “gardens are good for bees” statement. I suspect most people here have that level of baseline awareness but it often misses the deeper ecological narrative. Although kids and dogs playing on the lawn and family BBQs are part of gardening for many, I want to reframe the garden not as a static backdrop for human leisure, but ALSO as a dynamic, high-stakes node in a fragmented landscape.

At which point - have a look at this link to a (12 minute) TED-Talk video about gardening for wildlife. To be honest, if you are reading this then you probably know much of what the presenter is saying, but maybe you have friends and neighbours who have not yet made the garden and wildlife connection in their minds - this might explain to them what it is really all about … and why it’s a good thing. Worth watching anyway, she sets out her case convincingly in a short period.

https://www.ted.com/talks/rebecca_mcmackin_let_your_garden_grow_wild

“We tend to view our gardens as islands of order in a sea of concrete, manicured oases where nature is curated rather than wild. But this perspective is a fundamental misreading of the ecology at play. In an increasingly fragmented urban matrix, the average suburban garden is not merely a decorative extension of the home; it is a critical stepping stone, a micro-refugium, and often the only viable corridor connecting isolated populations of flora and fauna.

The real story isn’t just about biodiversity in the abstract; it’s about the specific, high-wire act of survival happening in your compost heap and beneath your rhododendrons. When we watch a fox navigating a fence line or a solitary wasp drilling into dead wood, we aren’t observing a quaint domestic scene. We are witnessing the operational mechanics of an urban ecosystem that is far more resilient—and far more fragile—than the pavement surrounding it suggests. To truly understand the city, we must stop looking at the skyline and start reading the soil.”

If anyone need proof of the biodiversity benefit of converting lawns to (mostly) native plantings, look at this chart from the Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology. A gardener in Florida kept counts of birds species from when their garden was traditional lawn and then for years after conversion - see the image below. I could draw a very similar chart for the birds seen in our garden way to the north near Montreal.

Provide plants and an environment that birds will feel safe in and, guess what, you get birds in your garden. Mind you, you do have to check what’s there - when you are relaxing, sit near a window or on your deck/patio with a pair of binoculars and look up from time to time. Keep notes before you forget.

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Noticing Nature #30 : Two Sorts of Thrushes

Here are two easily confused Thrushes we have seen in the past week or two - Swainson’s on the right and Hermit on the left. Deciding which you have is sometimes tricky unless you have them both side by side … which you almost certainly will not.

The most reliable visual marker is that the Hermit Thrush sports a distinctive reddish-brown tail while the tail of the Swainson’s Thrush is more Brownish with buffy edges and no reddish tones. Hermit Thrush also has cooler, grayer upperparts and a darker eye ring that does not connect across the forehead. Swainson’s Thrush has warmer, olive-brown upperparts with less facial contrast. I find it easiest to decide which I am looking at by the fact that (and this is subjective) the Swainson’s Thrush’s chest spots tend to be more diffuse, sometimes fainter than those of the Hermit Thrush, which are darker and a bit more distinct.

Climate Change Solutions …

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2026/may/24/could-nature-itself-hold-the-solution-to-climate-change

… we do not need remarkable innovation or great sacrifice to move things forward. We just need to allow a tiny fraction of our collective attention and wealth (perhaps less than 1% of global GDP) to flow towards these rural land stewards, supporting their ongoing efforts. Cumulatively, they result in hundreds of millions of tons of C02 captured – but that is only the beginning of their potential impact. The more degraded nature becomes, the more desperately we need it. When nature starts to bounce back, it doesn’t only provide livelihoods, food security and carbon storage; it revives the hope, joy and inspiration that our species so desperately needs at this critical moment in time. Though they might seem beside the point, these emotional reactions are the lifeblood of nature restoration, with the potential to generate their own feedback loops, far into the future.

Rewild your inner child

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2026/may/25/half-of-uk-adults-say-they-spend-less-than-three-hours-a-week-outside-in-nature

Most people have joyful memories of playing outside as children – and now wildlife charities are urging people to ‘rewild their inner child’. Climbing trees, squelching in mud, paddling in ponds or making dens in the woods – people’s memories of playing outside as children are often vivid and, a new poll has found, overwhelmingly positive, even those who remember falling in cowpats. Almost 90% of UK adults had rosy memories of the excitement and the feeling of freedom that outdoor play had brought them, the survey found. However, almost half of adults now spend less than three hours a week in natural settings such as gardens, parks, fields or woods, according to the survey. For one in 10 it is less than one hour.

Saving Stranded Whales

learning to save a whale

Rowan Blossom