Roadside Pollinator Gardens and Traffic

Mountain laurel. © Beatriz Moisset

Pollinator gardens are blooming along many highways. Perhaps the idea originated with Lady Bird Johnson and her beautification program. But it goes well beyond that. Planting wildflowers along highways has many advantages besides the esthetic ones. With the growing loss of pollinator habitat, it is a blessing to use the wasteland of roadsides as wildflower gardens to take care of the needs of pollinators.

Butterflies and bumble bees are more abundant where wildflowers bloom than in areas where grasses are dominant and where mowing and pesticide treatments are routine according to many reports. The possible downside is that larger numbers of dead butterflies, and perhaps bumble bees are found along highways with abundant wildflowers. How serious is the problem? Do the benefits outweigh the damages?

Skipper on asters. © Beatriz Moisset

It isn't easy to assess all the aspects of the situation. But the weight of opinion is that the deaths by vehicles are not much higher than those by natural causes. The increase in food supplies and shelter for the pollinators benefits them and contribute to larger populations. So, those who study the matter feel that it is worth to continue creating habitat for pollinators along highways.

Other advantages of such roadside pollinator gardens are a reduction in mowing frequency once the gardens are established and a reduction in pesticide use. Did I mention that the view is also more pleasant to the eye? Perhaps, this improves the mood of the drivers and brings down accident frequency.

Milkweeds. © Beatriz Moisset

References

Pollinators and Roadsides. Xerces Society. 
Manage your Roadsides for Bees & Butterflies. 
Use of Roadside Prairie Plantings by Native Bees. Iowa State University. 
Roadsides as Habitat for Pollinators: Management to Support Bees and Butterflies. Jennifer L. Hopwood.
A Sticky Situation for Pollinators. Minnesota Conservation.

List of Articles
Guide to Pollinators and Other Flower Visitors

© Beatriz Moisset. 2013

One Bite out of Three and Wildlife

So, we all agree that we owe one third of our food to pollinators. Now let us stop thinking about us; instead let us devote a few minutes to our companions on planet Earth. Does wildlife need pollinators as much as we do? It seems that nobody has looked at this matter systematically, thus, it is not an easy question to answer. Yet, we can try.

I will try to look at the diets of some feathered and furred creatures, mammals and birds and ignore for now the scaly or slimy sorts, amphibians, fish and reptiles. I will merely list the foods that need the services of pollinators, rather than attempting to estimate percentages for lack of information in the matter. What we are trying to see is whether wildlife requires the services of pollinators. Also, I will not bore you with long lists of animals and their diets, simply limit myself to some better known examples.

Birds that come to our backyard feeders are easy to observe. They show a preference for sunflower, thistle and peanuts. Summer and winter, many birds depend on berries, from blueberries to raspberries to crabapples to holly. Of course, not all their food is insect pollinated like the ones mentioned above. Many birds feed on insects and or grass seed. You can learn more about the role of pollinators on the diets of some of the most beloved songbirds such as wood thrushes and blue birds at the North American Pollinator Protection Campaign fact sheet.

Another common wildlife of our forests and backyards is the squirrel. The eating habits of squirrels are similar to ours as a look at the way they dig through our leftovers proves. When there is no human garbage around, they go through a variety of berries, seeds and tender leaves. It would be safe to conclude that they are as indebted to pollinators as we are. The same could be said of raccoons.

One animal that symbolizes wildlife more than most is the bear. Let as take a quick look at what a bear eats through the year. When it comes out of hibernation, there isn't much plant life around, except for skunk cabbage, and skunk cabbage becomes its breakfast, lunch and dinner with some Jack-in-the-pulpit as a side dish. A bear must have a strong stomach because these plants have tiny salt crystals that would make most other animals, including us, very, very sick. I mentioned in previous posts that skunk cabbage and Jack-in-the-pulpit are both pollinated by small flies, which are the only pollinators flying around so early in the season.

Other foods become available later on. A bear will add some vegetables to a wide range of other things. When fall comes and berries ripen, it is the time to eat berries. In areas where blueberries are abundant, a bear is likely to spend long hours in blueberry fields, gorging itself. Do I need to repeat that most berries are pollinated by insects?

The many herbivores, deer, bison, skunk, rabbit, may eat mostly wind-pollinated grasses; but they also need other nutrients that can only be obtained from flowering plants, from clovers to asters.

Finally, if you are wondering, even meat-eaters benefit from pollinators, since much of their food, the herbivores, feed thanks to them.

Now, we have further reasons to be grateful to pollinators. It isn't just us, humans, who are in their debt, but practically all other animals of our fields and forests.

One Bite out of Three
One Bite out of Three Before Columbus

List of Articles 

Beginners Guide to Pollinators and Other Flower Visitors

© Beatriz Moisset. 2013

Lawn for Pollinators. Part III

As mentioned many times before, it is preferable to have a wildflower meadow than a large expanse of lawn; however, some areas need to be mowed to allow walking on them or to enhance the garden. Grass companions, plants that are good to pollinators and to wildlife in general are welcome in such areas. They are healthy for the lawn, can be quite pleasant to look at and can provide food for many types of wildlife including bees, butterflies and birds.


One grass companion that is good in the fall is the aster, or several species of asters. Their pretty, daisy like flowers add a sparkle to the uninterrupted greenness. The genus Aster is rich in species; some of them are so similar that even botanists have trouble telling them apart. Many are used in wildflower gardens and wildflower meadows; they can be too tall to become part of a lawn; a few manage to escape the meadow and survive repeated mowings, growing very low and close to the ground. Thus they become grass companions.


Here is a field where asters are interspersed with the grass; if mowing isn’t too frequent they manage to grow several inches tall and to produce many flowers in September and October. If the lawn receives more frequent mowings the plants hug the ground and still produce a pleasant array of little flowers. Finally if the lawn is mowed closer to the ground and with higher frequency the asters may fail to bloom, but they still provide a nice ground cover, green, thick and supple.

Such flowers don’t fail to attract a considerable number of pollinators; I see them in abundance when I walk through a field where asters are accepted as part of the lawn. Skippers are very common visitors; other flashier butterflies, such as fritillaries and buckeyes, also show up.



A variety of Syrphid flies or hover flies come to visit the aster blooms. They may not be very efficient pollinators but they perform another very important function: their babies devour aphids; so they are welcome visitors in any garden.


Finally, some of the most important pollinators come to the asters: many sorts of bees, among them the beleaguered honey bees, several types of bumble bees and a few other native bees of the solitary type.





Update, 2013: Many species of native asters are now in the genus Symphyotrichum.

Lawn for pollinators. Part I
Lawn for pollinators. II

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© Beatriz Moisset. 2012

What is good for the birds is good for the bees

Let us say that you want to help pollinators by creating a habitat in your garden that is beneficial to them. If you are a nature lover and have been trying to attract birds to your yard, chances are that you have already been helping the pollinators without knowing it.

At the top of the list of what you can do for both birds and pollinators are two things: grow native plants and avoid pesticides. By native plants we mean not just native to North America, but to the particular region where you are located.

Plants and animals of each region have been adapting to each other for eons. Local plants usually provide the best food and shelter for the local wildlife. More specifically, wild flowers provide the right cues and produce the right food for pollinators, e. g.: scent, kind and amount of nectar and pollen, right colors and shape. Many times, cultivars and non-native plants lack one or the other of these features and are worthless to native pollinators. Of course, this is not always the case; many species of bees visit the flowers of introduced fruit trees and butterflies find the non native butterfly bushes to their liking; but these are the exceptions, rather than the rule.

Dead trees or snags or dead branches provide housing for pollinators, they are also good for birds. A brush pile, some leaf litter, keeping dried up tall grasses all winter, also turning some of your lawn into a meadow, a variety of flowering and berry producing shrubs and trees are, once again, good for both kinds of creatures providing food or shelter or both.

I would add to this list small lawn "weeds", all those little broad leaved plants that some people consider unsightly, are helpful to pollinators and are actually beneficial to your lawn, for instance, enriching the soil in the case of clover. So, if we could change our vision of what is esthetically pleasing we would be benefiting our precious wildlife.

Finally, a few bare spots in the lawn are not a bad thing; some pollinators nest in the ground, building pencil thick tunnels and storing pollen and nectar at the bottom of such tunnels. Mulch, gravel or a very thick lawn may prevent them from finding the right spot. Is it too much to ask to allow a few bare spots in the farther areas of a yard where they are out of sight?

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© Beatriz Moisset. 2012

The pure magnificent green bee

A female Augochlora pura gathering pollen on her leg baskets

Among the many metallic green bees that you see in the summer there is a particularly beautiful one, Augochlora pura. It doesn't have a common name but its scientific one means "pure magnificent green" and it is a very fitting one.

You may have seen this little jewel diligently visiting flowers to gather food for her family. You would be surprised to find out where she takes her load of pollen and nectar. If you could follow her, which isn't easy, you would see her arrive at an old fallen log and disappear inside a crack of the loose bark. That is where she has started building a home for her babies, in the space between the bark and the log. She builds chambers using her own saliva, some wax from her abdominal glands and loose debris, abundant in such places. Later on, she kneads the cargo that she brings from flowers into tiny loaves that look like golden tiles with which she paves the inside walls of the chamber. When there is enough food to feed one baby all the way to adulthood she deposits just one egg and seals the cell; afterward she starts building another one and so on.

A dead log, home to a few metallic green bees

An unhappy mother whose nest has been disturbed when I lifted a chunk of bark. You can see the ripped open cell, where the larva lays surrounded by a nice supply of "bee loaves" made of pollen and nectar

The babies grow on such rich food and emerge in the fall. By then the mother is approaching the end, her wings are torn and frazzled. The bees of the new generation, on the other hand, have a youthful look, with glossy wings and nicely coated by delicate hairs; these are the ones you are likely to see in October and November.

Young females getting ready to hibernate in late fall, November

The young bees mate promptly. This is the end of it for the males who die shortly afterward. But the recently mated females visit some of the abundant fall flowers stocking up on food to see them through the long winter and get busy finding cracks under wood to spend the cold month in safety. By the end of November you are not likely to see any more activity from these handsome bees; but rest assured that they will emerge from their seclusion next spring when the sun warms up the land and when blooms are ready and waiting for them.


 
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© Beatriz Moisset. 2010

THE BIRDS AND THE BEES. The True Story

When October comes along we stock up on bird seed for the winter and try to make the right choices; some cheap brands are no good. A visit to the Cornell University Ornithology lab website would help us know what is best. Here we learn that some of the most common seeds are: sunflower, safflower, millet, cracked corn, peanut hearts, flax, sorghum and rape seed.

A house finch eating sunflower seed

Sunflower tops the list of preferred bird food because it is nutritious and rich in oils, badly needed by winter birds to generate the energy that keeps them warm. Some types of millets and flax are regarded as fillers and the Cornell lab doesn’t recommend them.

Woodpecker feasting on peanuts

The visitors to your bird feeder are wild animals that can survive on their own without your handouts. They are resourceful and can find wild foods through the winter; in fact many of them simply have no access to birdfeeders. They eat wild seeds similar to the ones you provide and berries of many sorts. If you are a birdwatcher you know that a good way to spot finches and other small birds in winter is to look at shrubs, preferably the ones laden with berries.

Let us examine these foods from a different angle. It is said that thirty percent of all the food that humans eat comes to them courtesy of pollinators primarily bees, what about bird food?

Long-horned bee pollinating a sunflower

Millet, corn and sorghum are cereals; the plants that produce them are wind pollinated. All the other bird seeds are from flowering plants that require the services of pollinators to produce seed. We are familiar with the flashy sunflowers and may have seen bees visiting them. Safflower is a type of thistle, also a blooming plant. Peanuts are members of the pea family with complicated flowers that require skilled pollinators to trip them and get to the pollen; these plants sometimes dispense with pollinators and simply fertilize themselves, but they produce more seed when pollinators are present. Rape is mustard, also dependent on pollinators. Finally, berries are dependent on pollinators.
So this is the true story of the birds and the bees.

BUMBLEBEES. Are Some Bumblebees Going the Way of the Dodo?

Who doesn't like a bumblebee? With their plump, fuzzy bodies and striking black and yellow or black and white stripes they easily capture people's hearts, especially when they are seen buzzing around from flower to flower.

What most people don't know is that some species of bumblebees are in decline. We have heard about the plight of its relative, the domestic honey bee; but haven't paid much attention to the situation of this wild cousin. Why should we care? It isn't just because bumblebees are charismatic, but also, and more importantly, because they play key roles in certain ecosystems. So far, we know of only a few species that are showing a reduction in numbers, both in North America and in Europe. It isn't as if all the species of bumblebees were going extinct overnight; fortunately some species are doing well, even in unexpected places such as suburban gardens. But, perhaps we should start paying attention to what is happening now rather than when it is too late. Besides, it is possible that many other species of wild bees are suffering similar declines in their numbers and we have no way to estimate what is happening because we know so little about them.

Here are some of the things that bumblebees do: they pollinate 15% of our food crops, worth about 3 billion dollars; they also pollinate countless wild flowers. Wildflowers are important not just for their beauty, but also for the seeds and berries that they produce. They become food for many species of wildlife, from birds and small rodents to large animals such as bears. Birds don't know what percentage of their food crops are pollinated by bumblebees, but it is possible that for some species is closer to 90% than to 15%. If we are not worried about our own food, we should worry about all the many species of birds and other wildlife that may be suffering because of a reduction on the numbers of wild bumblebees.

Goldfinches and many others owe their food to hard working pollinators such as bumblebees.
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© Beatriz Moisset. 2010

THE WEB OF LIFE. The Bear, the Waxwing and the Bee

You may be wondering what bears, waxwings and bees have in common. We'll get to that later.

Let us start with a black bear, the formidable resident of forests and broad spaces. An encounter with one of them can be an unforgettable experience. It is surprising to realize that an animal built up with such powerful claws and jaws is seldom a hunter; in fact perhaps only 10 or 15 percent of its diet consists of animal matter and a good part of that is carrion or insects. So, what does a bear eat? With great versatility it finds a wide range of plant food in the course of the year. In early spring, fresh out of hibernation it may find skunk cabbage to its liking as well as sprouts from plants in the pea family, horsetails and sedges. Later in the season it will find the growing cow parsnips and dandelions, as well as flowers of several kinds. It may supplement this vegetarian diet with some animal protein, from caterpillars to the occasional newborn elk; but still about 80 percent of the summer diet is vegetable. In the fall, it is the time to feast on berries; blueberries, raspberries and everything in between. It can devour enormous quantities of this food because it needs to fatten for the long winter ahead. It is hard to believe that such diet can become many pounds of fat in the short period of a couple of months.

And now for cedar waxwings, those attractive birds that are so much fun to watch. They are especially interesting when they are engaging in their peculiar tradition of passing berries from one to another. Cedar waxwings eat an assortment of berries through the year. In summer, when they are raising young, they enrich their diet with insects; but berries are the main staple of their diet.

Finally, let us talk about bees. Let us make it clear that I am not referring to the domestic honeybee but to any of the numerous native bees and bumblebees that feed on pollen and nectar of wild flowers. If we want to be more specific we can choose the blueberry bee. This industrious little bee is very specialized on the pollen it chooses to feed her family. It goes almost exclusively to blueberry flowers. When doing so it carries some pollen from flower to flower and from plant to plant, providing the plant an invaluable service, pollination. Once the flowers are pollinated they can start setting seeds and developing fruits.

Now, you see the link between bees and birds such as the cedar waxwing and larger animals such as the black bear. They feed on the berries that have been pollinated by the bees or, in the case of the bear, on other plant parts that also require pollination to multiply.

Experts on pollination remind us frequently that one third of our food comes to us courtesy of pollinators; most fruits and vegetables require the services of these little go-betweens, most of them bees. What they forget to mention is the large number of other species that also depend on pollinators for a good part of their diet. The bear and the waxwing are just two examples of a very long list that intertwines the little bees with the more visible birds and mammals.

Another twist in this intricate web, the bear and the waxwing digest the berries but not the seeds. So they end up dropping them farther from the mother plant and surrounded with an amount of excellent fertilizer. So, the pollinator, in turn, also depends on the seed dispersers.

But the final, and perhaps most marvelous twist, is that the plants, so dependent on pollinators and seed dispersers are actually making use of them. They are very skilled in attracting their attention and supplying their needs, either with rich pollen and nectar or with juicy, nutritious fruits. At the same time, they make sure that not all the pollen gets eaten and that the seeds can safely go through the intestines of the berry gluttons.
Thus the web is complete: flowering plants need the pollinators and the seed dispersers; bees need the flowers and the seed dispersers and, finally, bears and birds need the plants and the pollinators. When you walk through the woods or the meadows, think about this invisible web and what it is doing to make everything possible.

Bear feeding: BearDiet

Cedar waxwing feeding: Appalachian Mountain Club: Bird of a Feather...