Urban Birder: Reflections, notes and an occasional rant from St. Louis

The yard

Two weeks ago I wouldn’t have thought I’d be watering my hardy native perennials. Most of the plants seemed to be tolerating the extreme heat well, but when the Monarda fistulosa blooms began turning brown only a few days after blooming, I gave in and turned on the sprinkler.

On June 24, there were two Great Spangled Fritillaries in the yard nectaring on Echinacea purpurea. This morning there was another (or one of the two I saw three days ago), also nectaring on the coneflower.

What’s blooming

Flowers, wild and not

1. Alcea sp.
2. Aquilegia sp. (just barely!)
3. Asclepias syriaca
4. Asclepias tuberosa
5. Blephilia ciliata
6. Coreopsis verticillata ‘Moonbeam’
7. Coreopsis verticillata (unknown variety)
8. Echinacea paradoxa
9. Echinacea purpurea
10. Erysimum capitatum
11. Glandularia canadensis
12. Monarda fistulosa
13. Monarda sp. (red ornamental variety)
14. Oenothera speciosa (pink)
15. Penstemon digitalis
16. Pontederia cordata
17. Pycnanthemum tenuifolium
18. Senna marilandica
19. Talinum calycinum
20. Tradescantia sp.
21. feral petunia

Shrubs

1. Hibiscus syriacus

Grasses

1. Chasmanthium latifolium
2. Elymus (virginicus? hystrix?)
3. Panicum virgatum

Getting ready to bloom

The button bush has six buds on it (I had resigned myself to waiting another year for it to bloom). Joe Pye has buds, as do Swamp and Purples Milkweeds.

I’m trying to remember when I birded last. A month ago, I think. My two-week migration vacation this year was spent mostly in the back garden, which is developing nicely.

Birds

There’ve been youngsters in the yard for several weeks—Common Grackles, American Robins, one Northern Cardinal, European Starlings, House Sparrows, House Finches, Mourning Doves…

I witnessed an instance of the plight of the first born. An American Robin was gathering mud in the wet area by the pond (I’ve put in a pond! One of the vacation projects), a sign that she was preparing to start on her second brood. She flew, and one of the young landed in the mud. When mom returned and began gathering more mud, it opened its bill, begging for a morsel. Mom ignored it and flew off with another billfull to her new nest. It was sad … and funny—You’re on your own now, kid.

Chuck was at a rehearsal on Wednesday evening, and I spent an hour in the yard wandering around weeding and then just standing and enjoying being outside. A Common Nighthawk was calling overhead, and I heard a call slightly farther away, so there were at least two. The one above the yard was persistently vocal and loud. Always a nice yard bird.

Butterflies and other insects

There have been few butterflies in the yard—some Cabbage Whites and Summer Azures, and something that looked like a lady tearing across the yard without stopping. It’s been a wet spring and early summer, though, so I’m optimistic. I saw my first Common Buckeye of the year in Forest Park on Thursday, June 11.

The yard

We finally had the concrete walk that was so out of place taken out in March or April—the area it ran through is now planted with native perennials: penstemon, liatris, delphinium, aster.

What’s blooming

Mostly the native plants, but some non-natives I’m fond of, as well.

Flowers, wild and not

• Alcea sp.
• Aquilegia sp.
• Asclepias syriaca
• Asclepias purpurascens
• Asclepias tuberosa
• Blephilia ciliata
• Echinacea paradoxa
• Echinacea purpurea
• Echinacea simulata
• Erysimum capitatum
• Glandularia canadensis
• Monarda fistulosa
• Monarda sp. (red ornamental variety)
• Oenothera speciosa (pink)
• Penstemon digitalis
• Pontederia cordata
• Talinum calycinum
• Tradescantia sp.
• Zizia aurea (one last hold out)
• feral petunia

Shrubs

• Hibiscus syriacus

Grasses

• Elymus (virginicus?)

After the Spigelia marilandica and all three Baptizia bracteata came up this year I realized that just because a plant is eaten down to the ground by squirrels and rabbits doesn’t mean that it has perished. So when one of the new ones was broken off at the base shortly after I put it in, I put rocks around that delphinium and am pleased to see it beginning to recover. I expect it to be back next year.

There were two Carolina Wrens foraging in the yard yesterday and again this morning.

A splash of bright red next to a small clump of contour feathers on the concrete slab yesterday afternoon was evidence of fresh carnage. A closer look at the feathers this morning showed that they had belonged to a pigeon.

I was thinking of taking down the feeders and not scattering seed. I can’t continue to lure the other birds to the yard—they can’t even find shelter in the thicket, not with Godzilla tramping through it in search of one of them cowering beneath the cover. A friend suggested I try putting out feed at the same times every day. He does that, and his yard birds have learned to fly in, eat, and get out. So for the next few days I’ll feed at morning and evening twilight and see what happens—the hawks have seemed to prefer full light.

I enjoy seeing raptors in the yard and wouldn’t be overly troubled by them dropping in once in a while and making the occasional catch. But providing them with daily meals of wrens, sparrows, pigeons, and doves strikes me as morally problematic. Yes, I know that smaller birds getting eaten by raptors is part of nature’s drama being played out. Hawks are higher up on the native food chain (and it’s not as if the yard birds were ending up in the digestive tracts of neighborhood cats). It doesn’t follow from that fact, though, that it’s a good thing to give them the means to shoot fish in a bucket.