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Inviting Wildlife to Your Garden

Inviting Wildlife to Your Garden. Key elements needed to attract a wide variety of wildlife. NWF Certified Wildlife Habitat. Water Food Cover Place to Raise Young Sustainable Gardening. Water Features. Deep Water Beach Slow-moving Shallow Water Bog/Puddles Splash Drip Misters. Food.

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Inviting Wildlife to Your Garden

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  1. Inviting Wildlifeto Your Garden Key elements needed to attract a wide variety of wildlife.

  2. NWF Certified Wildlife Habitat • Water • Food • Cover • Place to Raise Young • Sustainable Gardening

  3. Water Features • Deep Water • Beach • Slow-moving Shallow Water • Bog/Puddles • Splash • Drip • Misters

  4. Food • Trees/Shrubs: Nuts, Berries, Fruit, Sap, Foliage, Twigs • Plants: Seeds, Nectar, Foliage, Flowers, Pollen • Insects/Invertebrates: Dragonflies, Butterflies, Grubs, Worms • Birds, Small Rodents, Amphibians, Fish

  5. CoverWeather/Predators • Woods/Large Trees • Evergreens • Thickets/Brambles • Ground Cover • Caves • Meadows/Prairies • Ponds • Burrows • Roosting Boxes • Toad Abodes • Brush/Log Piles • Rock Piles • Water Garden • Leaf Litter/Mulch

  6. Place to Raise Young • Allow for Mating/Courtship Behavior • Habitat & Materials for Nest Building • Food Sources for Young • Encompassed in “Cover” but with variations

  7. Sustainable Gardening • Reduce Water Usage: • Xeriscaping, Rainwater Capture, Drip/Soaker Irrigation • Reduce Erosion • Reduce Chemical Pesticides & Fertilizer • Reduce Non-native Plants & Turf Area • Compost • Mulch

  8. Butterflies & Moths Best Website: www.butterfliesandmoths.org

  9. Butterflies & Moths • Protected sunny, non-windy area • Low traffic • Specific Host Plants for caterpillars* • Nectar Plants for adults* • Boggy puddles • Citrus wedges/nectar feeders

  10. Caterpillar Host Plants • Swallowtail: Dill, Parsley, Fennel, Queen Anne’s Lace • Monarchs: Milkweeds (asclepias) • Silvery Blue: Lupine • Zebra Swallowtail: Pawpaw (asmina) • Buckeye: Snapdragons (antirrhinum), Monkeyflower (mimulus), linaria • Hummingbird Clearwing Moth: Honeysuckle, Hawthorn, Cherries/Plums • Great Ash Sphinx Moth: Lilac, Aspen, Ash

  11. Butterfly Adult Nectar Sources Perennials Annuals Lantana Snapdragons Verbenas Petunias Nasturtiums • Azaleas/Rhododendron • Bee Balms (monarda) • Butterfly Bush (buddleias) • Honeysuckle • Phlox • Milkweeds • Vibernums

  12. Dragonflies & Damselflies • Still Water (beach to 2 feet deep, 5-10 feet diameter) • Protection from wind • Underwater Vegetation (nymph hiding) • Water’s edge perching plants • Light-colored flat sunny basking rocks • Area free from fish • Feeds on smaller insects (mosquitos)

  13. Amphibians & Reptiles Best Websites: www.herpnet.net/Minnesota-Herpetology/ www.dnr.state.mn.us/reptiles_amphibians

  14. Salamanders & Newts • Eastern Newt • Tiger Salamander • Blue-Spotted Salamander • Habitat/Food • permanent woodland ponds • leaf & rotting log litter • eat fish & frog eggs, crawfish, water insects, earthworms, snails

  15. Frogs & Toads • Spring Peeper • Eastern Gray/Cope’s Gray Tree • American Toad • Northern Leopard • Green • Bull

  16. Frogs & Toads • Eat: Insects & Invertebrates • Great for controlling garden pests • Habitat: Permanent or Semi-permanent Ponds • Burrows in cool damp leaf litter and loose soil • More active at night, landscape lighting attracts prey

  17. Snakes • Plains/Eastern/Red-sided Garter Snake • Habitat: Pond edge, animal burrows, Log piles, Damp woods, Tall grass/meadows • Eats: Anything. Earthworms, Frogs, Toads, Salamanders, Mice, Bird Eggs, Fish, Carrion • Redbelly Snake • Habitat: Flat boards/logs in woods, dry sandy, near marshes • Eats: Slugs, worms, insect larvae

  18. Skinks • Prairie Skink (5-8” long) • Habitat: Burrows under rock piles, boards or logs in sunny prairies, under railroad ties • Eats: Grasshoppers, Crickets, Beetles, Caterpillars

  19. Hummingbirds • Multiple feeders, 4:1 water:sugar • Bright Ribbon in Trees/Shrubs (mid-march) • Year-round blooming plants* • Snags within 50 feet of feeders • Water misters & drippers • Encourage spiderwebs • Large tree with horizontal/downward branches facing open area

  20. Hummingbird Plant Favorites • Annuals in baskets (plant extra early!) • Petunias, Verbena • Tubular Perennials • Honeysuckle, Trumpet Vine, Bee Balm, Cardinal Flower, Red Columbine • Native Annuals • Spotted jewelweed • Other favorite annuals • Nicotiana, Snapdragons, Nasturtium, Zinnia, Cleome

  21. General Songbirds • Feeders that include both hanging and platform, away from windows • Feed within 5-15 feet of dense shrub or evergreen • Black sunflower, white millet, peanuts • Add variety such as suet, mealworms & fruit • Slow-moving water 2-3 inches deep with rough surface

  22. Suet Recipe • 1 cup Lard/Suet • 1 cup Peanut Butter (crunchy or smooth) • 1 cup cornmeal • 3 cups oats • 1 cup sugar • Dried fruit (optional)

  23. Cardinals • Feed: • Prefer platform, but will do perch • Seeds: sunflower, safflower • Peanuts, raisins, meal worms, grape jelly • Nest 4-6 feet above ground in dense low-traffic shrubs edging open areas • Stake territory from tallest structure in neighborhood • Attracted to shallow moving water year-round

  24. Baltimore Orioles • April 15-May1st put out food: • oranges halved on spikes in trees • grape jelly on platforms • Hummingbird feeders with perches • June 1st and beyond: • Add insects (mealworms) and suet • Nesting material = string pieces 8-12” in length

  25. Bluebirds • Feed: insects in a protected feeder • Fall: add berries, shelled seeds and suet (love raisins, dried cranberries and cherries) • Nest boxes: hole 1 ½ ” no perch, mounted on predator-proof pole within 5-10 feet of woods overlooking mowed grass/meadow, paired boxes for each bluebird • Remove twiggy dummy wren nests from one box • Monitor box weekly for blowfly larvae

  26. Rodents • Mice & Voles • Chipmunks • Red Squirrels

  27. Native Mice & Voles • Northern Grasshopper Mouse • Deer Mouse (Prairie & Woodland) • Western Harvest Mouse • Meadow Vole • Southern Red-Backed Vole • Meadow Jumping Mouse* • Plains Pocket Mouse*

  28. Native Mice • Northern Grasshopper Mouse • Grasshoppers, beetles, moths, flies, wasps, spiders • Hunt in packs, defend against intruders, “howl” • Deer Mouse (Prairie & Woodland) • Seeds (bush clover), keep stashes • Burrows, under logs, hollow stumps • Western Harvest Mouse • Weed & grass seeds, caterpillars, hide for later • Grass nests at base of dense shrub or tall grass

  29. Native Voles • Meadow Vole • Greens & seeds, garden produce • Create tunnels in grass • Southern Red-Backed Vole • cache food: seeds, nuts, fruits, leaves, bark, roots, fungi, and insects • Forest dwellers, territorial, favorite source of food for predators

  30. Other Rodents • Chipmunks • Black-oil sunflower seeds, berries, other plant seeds • Burrows, natural boulder walls, log piles (firewood) • Solitary, fight over food, semi-hibernate, leave territory where born • Red Squirrels • insects, seeds, bark, nuts, fruits, mushrooms and pine seeds or cones. Young birds & mice. • Forests, hollows of trees, solitary, vocal

  31. General Predatory Birds • Attract both nest habitat and food source • Place the prey’s food source open travel distance from it’s habitat • Provide a vantage point for the predatory bird to wait it out

  32. MN Suburban Predatory Birds • Birds that feed primarily on smaller birds • Cooper’s Hawk • Sharp Shinned Hawk • Birds that feed on rodents, amphibians, reptiles & small birds • American Kestral • Barred Owl • Broad-winged Hawk

  33. Fish-eating Predators • Great Blue Heron • Snowy Egret • Green Heron • Kingfisher • Raccoons • Mink

  34. Location, Location, Location Best Laid Plans…

  35. Put bluebird houses here

  36. www.happyponds.net 612-865-0440

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