GardenFoundation LLC: Garden Log, May 2001

Bird Call - "We Found An Abandoned Baby Bird!"
This is the time of year when lots of people think they have found a "chick that's fallen from it's nest", or a "chick that's been abandoned by it's parents". Truth is, most baby birds become fledglings, which means they are not quite capable of adult flight, but they are out of the nest (kind of like teenaged kids!). These fledglings are capable of short flight, a couple of feet to several yards at a time (sometimes more). You may notice that fledgling birds have feathers that don't seem fully developed, have patches of down on their bodies, have short/stumpy wings & tails, and may seem to behave "stunned" or "lost" or "dumb", etc. Generally, when baby birds fledge, they do fly a short distance from the nest. Sometimes they return to the nest periodically for a week or so, but frequently once they're out, they stay out.

Most parent birds build the nest in an area they can defend from predators, and which is close to a decent supply of food. When the baby birds get big enough, the parents try to encourage their fledglings to a nearby area that seems somewhat 'safe', an area that may have food sources that the baby bird can learn as something good to eat. At this stage of development, the parent birds do allow their baby to be unattended for periods of time. This is Nature's Way. Sometimes the parent birds are off taking care of a second nest full of chicks. Sometimes the parent birds are simply taking a much deserved rest from their chick-rearing duties. But they are almost always nearby, keeping an eye on what's happening. So, when people come along, find the "abandoned" baby bird & take it home with the good intentions of "saving" it, the parent birds probably watched the entire process in horror, helpless to prevent their offspring from being "chick-napped".

The very best thing to do with a found fledgling is to return it to where you found it. The parent birds are probably nearby, hoping against hope that you will do this very thing. Sometimes fledglings need to be protected from cats or dogs or other predators, and this is especially the case if your pet is the one who alerted you to the bird in the first place. In fact, you may need to keep Fluffy or Fido out of the yard for a week or so until the bird is capable of flying away. This may or may not be practical, but it's worth considering.

Something else that is commonly talked about this time of year is when you actually find an occupied/active nest that's blown down from a tree, or which has been removed by curious kids. Again, the same advice applies - RETURN THE NEST EXACTLY TO WHERE IT CAME FROM. Human scent will NOT keep the parent birds from resuming their duties. It may take a day or so, but the parents will return, and hopefully the chicks will be able to survive until this happens. You may need to secure the nest to the branch or ledge from which it came. And if it was kids who disturbed the nest in the first place, then this is a Golden Opportunity to teach them about respect for Nature and wildlife. Just remember that everyone needs to stay away from the nest until the chicks are gone; you wouldn't want a dog or cat or other predator to follow your scent to the nest, would you?

Don't Send Your Garden To Bed With A Wet Head
What do I mean by that? Well, one of the best ways to prevent diseases from getting established in your garden is to make sure YOU DO NOT WATER AT NIGHT. Elevated humidity levels at night will allow certain diseases to just explode in your garden, threatening the health of your plants. Mildews & rusts are notorious for thriving in a wet-at-night garden.

Aphids on a rose

Insecticidal Soap Link (click image above)

Horticultural Oil Link (click on image above)

Do the tips of your rose branches look like a garden party is going on? Is there new growth on a cherished plant that is covered with sap-sucking varmits? Have you bent down to sniff a blossom & been repelled by the soft-bodied insect activity covering it? Then admit it - you've got aphids! You're in good company, because we ALL have aphids. My boxwoods each year get a special aphid, the wooley aphid, that excretes a gross strand of "somthing", making parts of my shrubs look fuzzy. Blech! Aphids are born pregnant, and start reproducing as soon as they possibly can. Aphids are one of thoses pests that you can never be without, it seems. And they don't limit their activities to gardens; there are specialized aphids that attack forests, too. Aphids come in all sorts of colors, including green, white (immature aphids are frequently white), yellow, brown, black, and red.

Luckily, aphids can be easily controlled. Yes, you will have to constantly work on them, but they can be controlled. Your first line of attack should be to blast them with a strong jet of water. The ones you knock off generally will not be able to climb back up the plant, and this is all some gardeners ever have to do to control them. The next level of attack is to use an insecticidal soap (click image at left). If the aphid population is not brought down to tolerable levels from insecticidal soap (it almost always is, though), your next step is to try a horticultural oil. BE VERY CAREFUL when using horticultural oils during the growing season! Lots of them are not formulated to be used during warm weather, or they aren't meant for certain kinds of plants, or they can't be used on new growth, etc... In fact, I recommend that a beginning gardener not use horticultural oil at all during the growing season! However, if you are more experienced, or feel that you can safely use this product without damaging your plants, then there are several which are formulated especially for home gardeners to use during the growing season (click image at left). By the way, I don't recommend that you use yellow-sticky cards outdoors, because you'll trap & kill many beneficial insects this way.

Aphids are especially attracted to plants that are over-fertilized with nitrogen. If you have a severe aphid infestation, check the nitrogen content on your fertilizer. It's the first number in a three number sequence, for instance, 5-5-5, or 10-10-10, or 30-40-30. Fertilizers with a nitrogen content above 10 or 12 are the ones most likely to be over-fertilizing your plants, thus making them more attractive to aphids. Generally, most plants do not need a fertilizer to have a nitrogen content over 10 or 12. In fact, such a high nitrogen content will often overstimulate a plant in an unhealthy fashion. If your fertilizer is high in nitrogen, AND you continually have a lot of aphids, you may want to reconsider your choice in fertilizer.

Many gardeners, including myself, rely heavily on beneficial insects & birds to control aphid populations. If you decide to go this route, it is imperative that you not use insecticides indiscriminately, especially horticultural oils. Insecticides do not discriminate in what they kill, so they will take out all your ladybugs & lacewings as well as your aphids. Also, if a bird eats a poisoned insect, it will be incorporating that poison into it's body, and this has serious effects on their physiology and chick-rearing abilities. If you do purchase some ladybugs or other beneficial predator for use in your garden, be sure to release them at night so they will be less inclined to fly away. Accept that many of them WILL fly away, though, as this is the way Nature has programmed them to behave. And please do not spray your beneficials with anything in the hopes to "stick their wings closed" or "prevent them from flying off". This will probably either harm them or kill them.

For further reading: http://www.attra.org/attra-pub/gh-aphid.html , http://www.bartleby.com/65/ap/aphid.html , http://www.agsolutions.ca/pub/east/resource/insects_disease/gen.cgi/aphid , http://ctr.uvm.edu/ctr/el/el176.htm

© Copyright 2000 - Judy J. Crawford - GardenFoundation LLC Last revised: June 04, 2001.

© Copyright 2000 - Judy J. Crawford - GardenFoundation LLC
Last revised: June 04, 2001.