October 1997, Volume 31, Number 2

Geysers Pipeline Threatens Sanctuary October General Meeting Pee Wee Welcomes Fall: Fruits, Nuts,and Seeds Audubon Adventures Booming Madrone On-line Annual Leveque Lecture: Sea Otters Correction Observations Midweek Walkabout Results Beginning Bird Walks Field Trip Report Squeaking, Pishing and Other Gross Noises Made By Birders Welcome New Members Through the Garden Gate: Backyard Birding Volunteer Opportunities: Mayacamas Sanctuary Species List for Developmental Center

Through the Garden Gate: Backyard Birding by Judy Brinkerhoff This is the first in a regular series of columns that Judy Brinkerhoff will be providing for the Leaves. She would be happy to hear from you about topics you'd like to see covered or questions you'd like answered. She can be reached at (707) 887-1500, or write to her at 8587 Vila Road, Forestville, California 95436. Bird and butterfly habitat is continually being lost to concrete and asphalt. We see it every day--a pasture, field, a wooded lot--it's suddenly gone, seemingly overnight. In its place is parking lot, a building, a whole development. What happens to all the wildlife that was dependent on that small ecosystem? Perhaps if more householders, developers, landscape designers, and other businesses that deal with the environment were aware of the impact they have on wildlife, they would plan and plant differently. Hopefully we gardeners and backyard birders can make a difference and help provide for lost habitat, both through what we plant and by deliberately providing food, shelter, and water for the birds. Sometimes, small changes can make a big difference to wildlife. For example, throughout this summer and fall I have been allowing my entire cottage garden to go to seed. Coneflowers, cosmos, tithonia, coreopsis, verbena, cleomes, zinnias, annual salvias, all became fat storehouses of seeds. The garden may look a little scruffy and faded--it does at this time of year anyhow--but the birds are in avian paradise, gobbling up berries and seeds from spent flower heads. A Plant for the Birds: Elk Clover or Spikenard (Aralia californica) is a native California shade-lover that will tempt birds in the fall to feed on its shiny, red-purple berries. It's native to woodsy shade and requires lots of moisture. Give it room to grow, as it produces enormous leaves and can reach a height of six feet. It goes dormant in winter, but by summer tall flowering stalks, topped by whitish flowers, will rise above the leaves, to be followed in autumn by yellow foliage and the attractive berries. Judy Brinkerhoff, who is Publicity Chair of Madrone Audubon, is also a member of the California Native Plant Society. An avid birder and gardener, she writes a weekly gardening column for the Sonoma West Times and News (formerly the Sebastopol Times), and contributed for three years to the North Bay Gardens Newsletter. She is available for gardening consultations.

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