Backyard Wildlife Habitats

Building a Mini Wildlife Sanctuary in Your Back Yard

You too can create a garden that provides a habitat that will draw birds, butterflies, and other wildlife. Habitat loss is the greatest problem that many of our native species face. By recreating habitat that imeets the needs of wildlife, you can help them survive and maintain biodiversity in our local environment and, at the same time, enjoy a garden that is truly alive with the comings and goings of hummingbirds, bees, butterflies, chipmunks, and lizards.

How do you create such a habitat? The four elements of food, water, cover, and places to raise young are all that is required. You can begin by surveying your garden as it is now, discovering what plants may already be serving some of the needs of our wildlife, and adding some of the missing elements. It may be too late to begin planting this year but now is a great time to do some observation and planning for next spring. And in the meantime you can you put up a bird feeder, fill a saucer with water, and make a wet place for butterflies.

Plants may provide food or cover or places to raise young or fill all three needs. Try choosing native plants rather than formal garden plants and lawns, recognizing that many natives require little water and local wildlife has evolved with these plants. Plants provide food in the form of seeds, fruit, nectar, and insects for many species of birds and butterflies. You may already have ponderosa pines, pinons (if your were lucky), and junipers in your yard. These all provide food (seeds/berries), cover, and places to nest. Deciduous trees such as hawthorns, redbuds, and New Mexico olive can also fill these needs.

Good shrub choices for food and cover are golden currant, three-leaf sumac, fendlerbush, Apache plume, serviceberry, Western sand cherry, Gambel oak, wild wood rose, cliffrose, mountain mahogany, and chamisa. And many native wildflowers provide nectar that attracts birds, bees, butterflies, and sphinx moths. Beebalm (monarda) and the tubular flowers of penstemons attract all four species of hummingbird that are seen in Los Alamos: broad-tailed, black-chinned, rufous, and calliope (rare). Our native sunflower (Helianthus annuus) provides seeds that are very popular with lesser goldfinches and pine siskins as well as other birds. Other wildflowers that add beauty and color to your garden while providing food for wildlife include columbines, geraniums, fleabanes, blanketflower (gaillardia), coneflowers, evening primroses, and yarrow. But you don't need to stick exclusively with native plants. Local greenhouses stock many drought-tolerant plants that are well adapted to our area that are also attractive to our wildlife. Lavender and Russian sage are two such plants that come to mind.

You may attract many of the birds common in our area such as hairy and downy woodpeckers, acorn woodpeckers, lesser goldfinches, mountain chickadees, robins, black-headed grosbeaks, canyon towhees, and spotted towhees. And butterflies such as painted ladies, monarchs, skippers, yiger swallowtails, black swallowtails, and many others (See Dorothy Hoard's butter fly exhibit at the Center for easy identification of our local species). You may also want to try creating a butterfly feeding station by placing fruit pieces on top of a layer of steer manure. Or, if this doesn't appeal to you, keep a bit of ground damp so that butterflies can 'drink' and extract the salts they need.

Also very important in a backyard habitat, particularly here in the Southwest, is water. While even a bird bath is sufficient, you may want to go farther and try creating re-circulating ponds with miniature brooks and waterfalls that provide the sound of trickling water, a great attractor for wildlife. Reciruclating pumps have the additional advantage of requiring little water and electricity. Water can attract many spectacular birds, such as Western Tanagers, Lazuli Buntings, Indigo Buntings, Western Bluebirds, sapsuckers, and hummingbirds. Garter snakes, squirrels, and chipmunks will also frequent the ponds. Fish and tadpoles will have no problems making it through the winter if you install a small aquarium pump that bubbles air through the pond during freezing weather.

And, don't forget to include a place for people in your backyard wildlife sanctuary. Put a bench in some shady corner of your yard where you and your family and friends can sit and watch and learn about some of the other creatures that inhabit the Pajarito Plateau.

Resources:

Selvi Viswanathan has established a garden that was certified by the National Wildlife Federation in 1995 as a Backyard Wildlife Habitat. If you have gardening questions, please contact Selvi at 661-2618 or hariselvi@juno.com

A display on creating a wildlife sanctuary in your back yard is now posted at the Center. Also, the Viswanathans have created a DVD about their remarkable local garden. The DVD features some of the wildlife visitors seen over the years as well as some of the water lilies, lotus, and other flowers. They have donated a copy of the film to PEEC.

For more information about creating a backyard wildlife sanctuary contact:

National Wildlife Federation
Habitat Programs
11100 Wildlife Center Dr.
Reston, VA 20190
ph 703-438-6000
or 1-800-822-9919

or visit the NWF's home page on the Web at www.nwf.org/backyardwildlifehabitat

Mesa Public Library and the White Rock Branch Library have books on native plant gardening, back yard bird feeding, attracting butterflies to your garden, and wildlife in your yard.