Follow These Five Easy Steps to Attract Birds, Butterflies, and Other Wildlife to Your Backyard!

1. Grow plants that provide wildlife with a natural food source such as nuts, berries or nectar, or offer supplemental feeders.

2. Provide water for wildlife with a birdbath, small pond, or shallow dish.

3. Offer protective cover for wildlife by providing ground cover, a hollow log or rock piles, dense shrubs, or a roosting box.

4. Provide places for wildlife to raise young such as a water garden, a pond, or a nesting box.

5. Practice sustainable gardening such as mulching, composting, or reducing your lawn area.

To learn more about making your yard a Certified Wildlife Habitat (TM) site, visit www.nwf.org/certifiedhabitat or call 1-800-822-9919.

VISIT THE NATIONAL WILDLIFE FEDERATION

If you need more options, click here to browse even more Nature Field Guides.

Nearly tripped over this one in the park the other day! The Eastern Box Turtle (Terrapene carolina carolina) is the state reptile for Tennessee and North Carolina.

Here’s some more about this little guy (or girl?):

Turtles are able to care for themselves from birth. Box turtles often crawl onto roads on rainy mornings in search of food. Drive slowly and watch out for them, especially around curves. If you see a turtle in the road and can safely stop to help, be careful – ANY turtle can bite you and might if frightened or hurt. Pick up the turtle by firmly grasping the sides of the shell with the tail towards you. NEVER lift a turtle by the tail as this could cause spinal damage.

The Eastern Box Turtle like the one pictured, has a lifespan between 30 to 60 years and can grow to be about 6 inches in length. The box turtle will never venture far from its birth home so if you find one on the road just move it out of harms way don’t take it home or anywhere else as that will mean certain death. P.S.: In Tennessee it is illegal to keep any animal taken from the wild as a pet.

Did You Know?

Box Turtles are the most common terrestrial turtle in the eastern United States. A key characteristic of box turtles is their hinged plastron (bottom of the shell) that can be shut completely to exclude predators. Although mud, musk, and blandings turtles also posses hinged shells, they cannot be closed completely. Superficially, box turtles resemble tortoises but they are actually more closely related to many aquatic turtles and belong to the same family as spotted, bog, chicken, map, and painted turtles, as well as sliders, cooters, and diamondback terrapins. Although this subspecies is highly variable in coloration, it is often more brightly colored than the other subspecies and almost always has four claws on the hind feet.

There are 2 species of Box turtles in the United States:

• The Eastern Box turtle – which ranges from Texas throughout the southeast and north to Michigan and southern Massachusetts, and,
• The Western box turtle (Terrapene ornata) – which ranges west of the Mississippi to Colorado and New Mexico. The western box turtle is superficially similar to the eastern box turtle but is typically smaller and has a shell marked with radiating yellow lines.

The Amazing Box Turtle

Eastern Box turtles are amazingly versatile animals and inhabit a wide variety of habitats from wooded swamps to dry, grassy fields. Although these turtles can live in a variety of different habitats, they are most abundant and healthy in moist forested areas with plenty of underbrush (that’s where I spotted this one!). Although not aquatic, box turtles will often venture into shallow water at the edge of ponds or streams or in puddles. In cold climates they hibernate through the winter in loose soil at a depth of up to two feet.

Box turtles are omnivores in the broadest sense of the word. They will eat almost anything, animal or plant, that they can fit in their mouth. Intriguingly, it is thought that young box turtles are primarily carnivorous and that as they grow their diet shifts more and more towards plant material. Favorite foods include almost any insect (although they seem to particularly relish worms and slugs), any fruit or berry, mushrooms, a variety of vegetable matter, and even carrion. Interestingly, box turtles are even able to eat many mushrooms that are toxic to humans.

Endangered?

Turtle populations are in serious decline throughout the world due to loss of habitat and the pet trade. Please don’t take one home, let these turtles live out their natural lives in their natural habitat.

Sources:

Davidson College, Biology Department, Davidson, NC, http://www.bio.davidson.edu/people/midorcas/research/Contribute/box%20turtle/boxinfo.htm, Accessed November 21, 2011.

Smithsonian National Zoological Park, Reptiles & Amphibians, Facts, Fact Sheets, http://nationalzoo.si.edu/Animals/ReptilesAmphibians/Facts/FactSheets/Easternboxturtle.cfm, Accessed November 21, 2011.

Merlin posing for the camera.

Seeing wildlife here in Middle Tennessee is easy as a walk in the park…literally!

I spotted this Merlin after he swooped down in front of me twice while hiking in Nashville. I caught up to him perched on this branch.

Now just let me say that I believe this to be a Merlin. I’ve found after doing some research that truly accurate bird identification is hard, if not impossible.

There are so many varieties of falcon, of which this Merlin (I think) is one. And within his own family, more variations exist. But I’m pretty sure he’s a Merlin because he fits the main criteria I found which includes:

• Small falcon lacking the strong facial markings of other falcons.
• Short, pointed wings, a long, banded tail, and brown streaking on the chest and belly.
• Back is solid gray in adults and brown in first-year birds.
• Females are noticeably larger than males (I admit, this could be a female).

My research also indicated that this is a rare bird to spot in this part of the country. In fact, I probably caught this one in during his migration. Merlins may stick around Nashville during the winter like a lot of other northern birds, but we can expect him to be on his way by April. Nashville and Middle Tennessee seem a natural winter home for Merlins as their main diet is other, smaller birds, which we tend to have a lot of here. Merlins actually catch their prey in flight! I’d like to see that.

The majestic, petite, Merlin.

But if the Merlin is a bit rare here, he’s not in other parts of the country. He’s not endangered, but like most birds his habitat is being destroyed pretty rapidly, and pollution is another concern of course. Both of these dangers puts all wildlife in peril.

Interesting facts about Merlins:

• In medieval Europe, Merlins were popular in falconry. Because of their smaller size they were often referred to as “lady’s hawk” – and was indeed popular with women falconers including Catherine the Great and Mary Queen of Scots.
• Today, they are still occasionally trained by falconers for hunting smaller birds, but due to conservation restrictions this is not very common any more.
• Merlins do not build a nest, but instead refurbish old nests of other raptors or crows.
• A group of merlins has many collective nouns, including a “brace”, “leash”, and “illusion” of merlins.

Merlins are in the hawk family, but less hawk-like than most others of the family. Some call Merlins “pigeon hawks” because it is said they resemble a pigeon in flight. Perhaps, but seeing a Merlin in person I doubt anyone would mistake this majestic – if petite - falcon for a pigeon!

Sources:
TennesseeWatchableWildlife.org Birds, Tennessee’s Birds, “Merlin”, Accessed November 2, 2011
EnWikipedia.org, “Merlin (bird)”, Accessed November 2, 2011
Identify.WhatBird.com, Field Guide to Birds of North America, “Merlin”, Accessed November 2, 2011

Careful! Watch out for Walking Sticks on your next hike.

I almost stepped on this one before realizing that not only was it not a twig, it was alive and moving!

The picture is not great, you can see better ones on the web for sure, its the best my camera phone can do right now! I spotted this little guy while hiking in Nashville, TN.

Out of the corner of my eye I saw what I thought at first was a spider of some kind, but as I focused on it I saw it was a walking stick insect. This is the first one I’ve ever seen in real life, so I thought it merited a spot in our “Amazing Creatures” section.

Here’s some general info on Walking Sticks:

• Resembles the twigs among which it lives, providing it with one of the most efficient natural camouflages on Earth.
• Along with the leaf insect, it comprises the Phasmida order which indcludes about 3,000 species.
• Also called “stick insect.”

Highlighted version - Next time I'll bring a better camera!

• Ranges in size from half-inch to 13-inch (Phobaeticus kirbyi of Borneo). (Our specimen was about 1.5 inches)
• Females are normally larger than males.
• Many stick insects have wings, some have spines and tubercles.
• Found predominantly in the tropics and subtropics—although several species live in temperate regions.
• Natural habitat is forests and grasslands.
• Natural food sources is leaves.
• Normally nocturnal, they spend much of their day motionless, hidden under plants – although the one I saw was sunning itself…

The pet trade presents a potential threat to walking sticks due to the popular practice of framing their carcasses – similar to butterflies. So please don’t collect them – just take home a picture or two.

Source: http://animals.nationalgeographic.com/animals/bugs/stick-insect/, “Stick Insect Phasmida”, Accessed November 1, 2011

The Tennessee Naturalist program is a corps of volunteers providing education, outreach, and service dedicated to the beneficial management of natural resources and natural areas within their communities. Tennesseans interested in this program become Tennessee Naturalists through training and volunteer service.

The mission of the Tennessee Naturalist Program is to teach Tennesseans about our natural world; to inspire in them the desire to learn; and to instill in them an appreciation of the importance of responsible environmental stewardship.This is only the second year the Tennessee Naturalist Program has been offered. There has been trouble getting funding for the program, and hopefully interest in the program will provide elegibility for a grant of some type.

The program is sponsored by the following groups:

Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency (www.state.tn.us/twra/)

Tennessee State Parks ( http://tn.gov/environment/parks/)

Tennessee Parks and Greenways Foundation (www.tenngreen.org)
Metro Nashville Parks and Recreation (http://www.nashville.gov/parks/index.asp)

Center for Environmental Education at Middle Tennessee State University (www.mtsu.edu/mtsucee/)

Owl’s Hill Nature Sanctuary (www.owlshill.org/

The first class starts September 10, 2011.  Registration is open! 

You can view the course schedule, learn more, and register here:  http://www.owlshill.org/tnp

If you decide to register, please let me know!! I’ll look forward to learning with you!

]]> http://www.luminearth.com/2011/08/16/the-tennessee-naturalist-program/feed/ 2 http://www.luminearth.com/2011/07/10/common-milkweed-asclepias-syriaca-luminearths-guide-to-wild-edible-medicinal-plants/ http://www.luminearth.com/2011/07/10/common-milkweed-asclepias-syriaca-luminearths-guide-to-wild-edible-medicinal-plants/#comments Sun, 10 Jul 2011 12:00:15 +0000 Becki Baumgartner http://www.luminearth.com/?p=4092  

Common milkweed with goldenrod in the background.

Names: Common Milkweed (Asclepias syriaca), Algodoncillo, Broadleaf Milkweed, Cottonweed, Herbe à la Ouate, Kansas Milkweed, Silkweed, Silky Sallowwort, Seidenpflanze, Seidenpflanze Virginia Silk, Wild cotton

Visit Our FREE Online Guide to Wild Edible & Medicinal Plants

Appearance: Common Milkweed is found throughout the US in old fields and on roadsides, in disturbed habitats, and in poor, sandy soil near the seashore. It grows 3-5 feet tall and is thick-stemmed and unbranched. If leaves are broken you will find a bitter, sticky white latex or “milk”. This protects the plant from insects. The long-stemmed purplish-pink flower buds are 1 ½ -3 inches across and look like loose heads of broccoli. The mature seedpods look like warty cucumbers and are filled with fluffy seeds. During World War II children collected the milkweed fluff to stuff life preservers for the armed forces in the Pacific. Even today you can find pillows, jackets, and comforters stuffed with milkweed down. It is very soft and fluffy, and reportedly insulates better than goose down.

Edible: Other milkweed species are poisonous, so make sure that you use Common Milkweed that grows in the Eastern United States. Most parts of the Common Milkweed can be eaten as a cooked vegetable, but must be boiled in two changes of water to get rid of the bitter sap that is mildly toxic. This is done by covering the milkweed with boiling water and boiling for 1 minute. Drain, then boil for 10 minutes.

The shoots are edible when are 8 inches tall or less, when they first appear in mid-spring. Later on, you can eat the tender tops of the older plants and the young immature leaves near the tip of the plant. The unopened flower buds are edible and look and taste like broccoli.

The opened flowers are also edible. These contain much less sap and only have to be parboiled one minute. They can be cooked as fritters or used in soups, stews, casseroles, etc.

You can also eat the young Milkweed pods and silk. When fully grown, the seedpods are 3-5 inches long. The pods are best when under an inch long and can be eaten whole. They are similar to okra and can be used in stew, stir-fry, or eaten plain as a cooked vegetable.

Medicinal: A decoction of the root strengthens the heart and soothes the nerves. It is also a diaphoretic (will make you perspire) and expectorant (loosens mucous in the lungs and throat) and because of this is often used for coughs, colds and arthritis aggravated by colds. It has also been used for asthma, bronchitis, female disorders and diarrhea.

Native Americans rubbed the milk of the milkweed plant, rubbed on several times daily, to remove warts.

Click Here to Visit Our FREE Online Guide to Wild Edible & Medicinal Plants

Click Here to Visit Our FREE Online Herbal Materia Medica

Sources:

• Brill, S. (1994). Identifying and Harvesting Edible and Medicinal Plants in Wild (and Not So Wild) Places. New York: Harper Collins.
• Thayer, S. (2006). The Forager’s Harvest: A Guide to Identifying, Harvesting, and Preparing Edible Wild Plants. Ogema, WI: Forager’s Harvest.
• Williams, J. (1995). Jude’s Herbal Home Remedies. St. Paul: Llewellyn Publications.

The Books We Use:

• A Field Guide to Edible Wild Plants: Eastern and central North America (Peterson Field Guide)
• Great Smoky Mountains Wildflowers: When and Where to Find Them by William Hutson
• Identifying and Harvesting Edible and Medicinal Plants in Wild (and Not So Wild) Places by “Wildman” Steve Brill
• Jude’s Herbal Home Remedies: Natural Health, Beauty & Home Care Secrets by Jude C. Williams, M.H.
• Ortho’s All About Herbs by Maggie Oster
• Rosemary Gladstar’s Herbal Recipes for Vibrant Health by Rosemary Gladstar
• Secrets of the Chinese Herbalists by Richard Lucas
• Sunset Herbs: An Illustrated Guide by The Editors of Sunset Magazine
• The Forager’s Harvest: A Guide to Identifying, Harvesting and Preparing Edible Wild Plants by Samuel Thayer
• The Herbal Drugstore by Linda B. White, M.D.
• The Natural Physicians’s Healing Therapies: Proven Remedies Medical Doctors Don’t Know by Mark Stengler, ND
• The Scientific Validation of Herbal Medicine by Daniel B. Mowrey, Ph.D.
• The Way of Herbs by Michael Tierra, L.Ac., O.M.D.
• Wildflowers of the Land Between the Lakes Region, Kentucky and Tennessee

]]> http://www.luminearth.com/2011/07/10/common-milkweed-asclepias-syriaca-luminearths-guide-to-wild-edible-medicinal-plants/feed/ 1 http://www.luminearth.com/2010/10/14/the-great-work-by-thomas-berry-%e2%80%93-a-book-review/ http://www.luminearth.com/2010/10/14/the-great-work-by-thomas-berry-%e2%80%93-a-book-review/#comments Thu, 14 Oct 2010 15:00:31 +0000 Joyce Dierschke http://www.luminearth.com/?p=4215

The subtitle to Thomas Berry’s book is “Our Way Into The Future” and it is a sort of guide about how we need to go forward in this life on earth. But The Great Work is also a history book that timelines how we got to where we are: in environmental and moral peril.

Thomas Berry’s writing style is both lyrical and inspirational, making The Great Work: Our Way into the Future a wonderful book from a stylist point of view.  Yet the substance of the material is what will truly move any reader. Logical, practical, Berry describes a world that sounds unbelievable, yet it is indeed the world in which we live. Berry examines the roles played by the universities, the corporations, the economy and politicians.

Humankind has moved from a race of people who once lived in harmony, literally in tune with the earth, to a population at odds with the earth. We have put aside our respect for our natural Mother and instead now seemingly only seek to dominate her and her treasures. World societies have transformed into nothing more than exploitative enterprises, with wealth-attainment (for the few) at any cost the driving principle.

We clear cut forest, blow apart mountain tops and obliterate our brother and sister species with reckless abandon. Corporations have brain-washed society into thinking that all this is more than ok, because it is in the name of progress and more frighteningly with the attitude that this behavior is our right.

The Great Work: Our Way into the Future honestly and plainly points out all that as awesome as the earth is, its natural resources are not limitless. There will come day when all the oil fields are dried up, when the last tree has been timbered, when the final fish has been pulled from the sea – IF we continue on our current course. If we continue to allow the few to control the many.

Thomas Berry is not the only one advocating such change, there are many, more and more everyday that see there is only one way out of our dilemma: STOP.

But is such dramatic change even possible? Berry believes so, but then he is a philosopher. I’m not so sure our society is capable or even interested in such change.  We have been programmed so perfectly to want more and more possessions and offer less and less respect to each other and the world around us.

What catastrophe will have to occur to convince us? We’ve already experienced ravaging floods, some of history’s most powerful and devastating earthquakes, devastating tsunamis, tragic famines… But what we are becoming experts at is re-building. Just the way it was, as if nothing ever happened, regardless of the cost.

We rarely look at ourselves to ask what we may have done to provoke these so-called “natural” disasters. What can we change about the way we live in order to avoid such tragedies in the future? The Great Work: Our Way into the Future offers some answers. If you’ve started to ask yourself some of these questions, if you agree that we need to change and we need to start today, I suggest you read The Great Work: Our Way into the Future as a way to first understand where we are, how we got here and how we need to proceed. We ignore our present circumstances at the peril of our very lives and the lives of our children and grandchildren.

Click here for More Books by Thomas Berry

]]> http://www.luminearth.com/2010/10/14/the-great-work-by-thomas-berry-%e2%80%93-a-book-review/feed/ 0 http://www.luminearth.com/2010/09/27/plant-a-billion-trees-one-dollar-one-tree-one-planet/ http://www.luminearth.com/2010/09/27/plant-a-billion-trees-one-dollar-one-tree-one-planet/#comments Mon, 27 Sep 2010 17:48:50 +0000 Joyce Dierschke http://www.luminearth.com/?p=3991

]]> http://www.luminearth.com/2010/09/27/plant-a-billion-trees-one-dollar-one-tree-one-planet/feed/ 0 http://www.luminearth.com/2010/04/29/everything-has-spirit/ http://www.luminearth.com/2010/04/29/everything-has-spirit/#comments Thu, 29 Apr 2010 22:10:16 +0000 Leo 'Circling Bear' http://www.luminearth.com/?p=2279 by Leo ‘Circling Bear’

The act of honoring an animal or anything in creation is not an act of  worship. It is the acknowledgment of their power and their being as brothers and sisters of the entire universe. It is a sign of our gratitude for their help. The energy of the animals, birds and other creatures that assist us should be honored. Native Americans often leave tobacco scattered on the ground as a gift. You could also burn incense in honor of the animal. When honoring animal wisdom and energy, always leave a gift of some sort. Always remember to say “Thank you.” For all the help they give us they deserve our gratitude.

Often humans forget (or never learn) that there are others on this planet who have wisdom to share.

All natural things communicate and can be talked with. However very few people actually try to talk to anything other than fellow humans.

To speak with an animal, plant, stone or other object, relax and get in tune with it. Imagine what you are trying to communicate in your mind. Feel its differences from you. If it is not a mammal try to understand its life, that of a plant soaking in the sun or a stone existing much longer and slower, slowly being worn down by the elements. Then try to sense the being that you wish to communicate with. Allow any image that comes into your mind. A rock spirit won’t necessarily look like a chunk of quartz. It might just as easily take on the form of a woman in a gown. Just let an image come to you. If you manage to connect, take some time to commune with it. Ask it for a message. Get to know it and remember to introduce yourself. Manners are manners no matter who or what you are talking to. Remember to say thank you and good bye.

Leaning up against a tree or looking at a river is often enough to find that connection. Notice that rocks and trees tend to respond slower than animals since their concept of time is so different. In addition when talking to trees or rocks try to slow down to meet them at a level closer to theirs. This can be very calming. Think about trying to jump from the concept of millennia to the concept of minutes while hiking up a steep trail and you should be able to figure out why!

Be still and know. All new learnings, all ideas about new things, creativity, daydreaming and mental effectiveness come to those who learn about silence. All warriors know about the power of silence.  All Elders know about stillness. Be still and know God. Meditation is about the place of silence. This is the place to hear God’s voice. We can find tremendous amounts of knowledge in the place of silence. This is the sacred place of God.

~Charles A. Eastman (Ohiyesa), SANTEE SIOUX

We have a common destiny with the tree, our DNA are as the same.  As we exhale the tree inhales our breath when the tree exhales we breath. It is like a tantric exercise between us and the tree.

Source: Leo Circling Bear, Glasgow Reiki Meetup Group

Related Links

• Brainwave Entrainment Aids in Development of Telepathic Abilities
• Learn How to Contact Your Spirit Guides
• Mind Sync: World of Alternatives
• Paranormal eBooks
• Shaman Consciousness
• Telepathy: Develop Your Telepathic Skills

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