ENHS Nature Trails September 2005 Article 3

September Nature Notes
by Reida Kimmel

QUIET TIME

 Have you ever noticed how silent it seems outdoors at the end of summer? The birds have raised their broods, and without territories to defend with fearsome song, the families disperse to fatten for the journey south. Many of the birds that breed here in the hills above Eugene spend the winter in town. Our feisty rufous hummingbirds leave in mid August, rarely visiting again until spring, despite the fact that we do keep filling the feeder with fresh sugar water. The finches, whose songs so delight us when we sit outdoors in the evenings, also leave in August. We can, however, expect to see house finches again from time to time in the fall. Occasionally a goldfinch drops by. This year both evening grosbeaks and blackheaded grosbeaks bred close by, and the several families were at our feeders for long periods every day. These big birds were the first to leave us in late July.

We enjoyed a huge increase in our barn swallow population this year. There were four nesting pairs in various parts of the horse barn, and all but one pair succeeded in raising several babies. The failed nest was right under the roof on the west side of the barn, and though one nestling survived, the other poor chicks most likely succumbed to the heat coming through the roof. Two pairs raised two broods. The last three chicks fledged the 29th of August. The next day was the most glorious "swallow day" I have ever experienced. It was hard to count, but between eighteen and twenty barn swallows soared, swooped, fluttered and called, off and on, all day and into the evening. The next day there were only five swallows flying about, and by August 31, there were no swallows. I miss them most of all. Now three vultures wheel silently above the farm. When they go, it really will be fall.

Of course it's not utterly lifeless around here. There are several vocal song sparrows in the vegetable garden. The songs are lovely, but I wish the sparrows would eat more of the snails that plague my greens. The juncos, a noisy lot, come to feed several times a day, and the chickadees and nuthatches are back. We seem to have a lot more nuthatches this year, but whether they are the young of our usual pair or refugees from the latest clear cut logging operation in the neighborhood, I cannot say. Other flying creatures, bees, are providing some interesting entertainment. Chuck has two honeybee hives, both from wild swarms that he captured. This was not difficult for him (well, us) to do, as they are quiet-tempered bees, and both swarms are small. The swarm that he got this year had alighted on the tree by the front door. After they were properly hived, we kept the little hive on a picnic table under the tree for several weeks, until, a potluck impending, we thought it wise to move the bees to a more private location. They hated being moved to the other side of the house and returned to the picnic table every day for nearly a week before adjusting to their new home. With two hives on the property, we have a great many honeybees in our flower garden. In the past, I have been hostile to having honeybees because I felt that they would compete with the native bees, and I love bumblebees. I have been watching my flowers and worrying about the bumblebees this summer, and I have noticed that the two kinds of bees have very different feeding strategies and may not compete at all. Some flowers seem to be the exclusive domain of the bumblebees, Nepeta and lavender for instance. Other flowers, Autumn Joy sedum, oregano, thyme, goldenrod, and germander are always covered with honeybees. Rarely, if ever, are they visited by bumblebees. But if the day is cool and windy, the bumblebees definitely have the advantage. Then I see few foraging honeybees, and the bumblebees are on both the flowers they generally favor and on all the others as well. This seems to mean to me that if the weather conditions are still and mild, the honeybees do have a suppressing effect on the larger but less numerous bumblebees, but when the weather is less pleasant, the bumble bees have the definite advantage.

Watching the flowers and their visitors has made me very aware of just how full of insects the garden is. All the flowers have many small butterflies and all sorts of flies, from tiny black ones to large, golden, bee-mimicking flies. I am really excited about learning more about bees and their feeding strategies. I do indeed plan to help my friends the bumblebees by growing more of their preferred plants, like Nepeta next spring.

Reida Kimmel

[ Back ]

Page last modified: 16 October 2005
Location: http://biology.uoregon.edu/enhs/archive/sep05/sep053.html
E-mail the WebSpinner: cpapke@gmail.com