Getting kids outside is very important all year round, but it can be kind of a challenge in winter. Still, there are many ways to share the wonder of the natural world, even in winter.

There are many fun and educational activities that kids can do in the winter to connect with nature and wildlife gardening:

Bird watching: Encourage kids to observe and identify different bird species in their backyard or a nearby park. You can set up bird feeders and bird baths to attract birds to your area.

Winter tree identification: Teach kids how to identify trees in the winter by their bark, branches, and any remaining leaves.

Snow tracking: Have kids look for animal tracks in the snow and try to identify what type of animal made each track.

Seed starting: Start seeds indoors for spring planting. Kids can learn about seed germination, plant care, and the lifecycle of plants.

Nature journaling: Encourage kids to create a journal to document their observations of nature and wildlife. They can include drawings, sketches, and notes.

Building birdhouses: Help kids build birdhouses to provide a habitat for birds during the winter. They can learn about bird behavior and the importance of providing shelter for birds.

Winter composting: Teach kids about composting and how to create compost piles, even in the winter.

These activities provide hands-on opportunities for kids to learn about nature and wildlife, and also help to foster a lifelong appreciation for the environment.

What does Certified Backyard Wildlife Habitat Mean?

For the purposes of the National Wildlife Federation, these were the key elements in a backyard wildlife habitat when my garden was certified:

• Food
• Water
• Shelter
• Safe places to raise young

It used to be that you could install several birdfeeders, put in a birdbath, and slap up some nest boxes and call your “habitat” done. Your garden could be certified on the basis of that alone.

It also used to be that having a “certified wildlife habitat” sign hanging in your garden was a type of status symbol for some gardeners. They had the sign, so they did not have to do anything else.

Disappointment and Disillusionment

It has been my strong feeling since going through the process of certification that there had to be more:

• What did the birds eat if we weren’t there to fill the feeders?
• How could we recreate or mimic elements of natural ecosystems in our gardens that would provide for the needs of not just birds but butterflies, pollinators, amphibians and other wildlife as well?
• Could we make better choices to benefit wildlife by reducing our use of fossil fuels, pesticides, herbicides, and chemical fertilizers?
• How could we responsibly manage stormwater and garden waste?
• What if we created welcoming habitats for wildlife on our whole properties, not just the backyard?

It has been my mission for almost 20 years to answer those deeper questions and to share those answers with you, whether as a garden consultant or here on these pages. Answering these questions and more is what led me to the concept of Ecosystem Gardening.

Because I was working so hard to provide better information for homeowners to make more responsible choices for wildlife in all aspects of property management, I became disillusioned and disappointed in the National Wildlife Federation’s approach. It seemed they were providing very minimal, basic information for wildlife gardening, while using the status of “the sign” merely as a fundraiser for their other projects.

This disappointment was so profound that I have not even looked closely at their website for several years. I felt that they were doing a large disservice to the many people who were looking to them to provide good information, by focusing solely on the acquisition of the sign for their fundraising purposes.

The New Certified Wildlife Habitat Program at NWF

In the past several weeks I’ve been looking again at the information included at the National Wildlife Federation’s Certified Wildlife Habitat program.

I have to say, I am liking what I see!

Here are the new elements of a wildlife habitat garden:

• Provide food for wildlife–Everyone needs to eat! Planting native forbs, shrubs and trees is the easiest way to provide the foliage, nectar, pollen, berries, seeds and nuts that many species of wildlife require to survive and thrive. You can also incorporate supplemental feeders and food sources.
• Provide water for wildlife–Wildlife need clean water sources for many purposes, including drinking, bathing and reproduction. Water sources may include natural features such as ponds, lakes, rivers, springs, oceans and wetlands; or human-made features such as bird baths, puddling areas for butterflies, installed ponds or rain gardens.
• Create cover for wildlife–Wildlife require places to hide in order to feel safe from people, predators and inclement weather. Use things like native vegetation, shrubs, thickets and brush piles or even dead trees.
• Give wildlife a place to raise their young–Wildlife need a sheltered place to raise their offspring. Many places for cover can double as locations where wildlife can raise young, from wildflower meadows and bushes where many butterflies and moths lay their eggs, or caves where bats roost and form colonies.
• Let your garden go green–How you maintain your garden or landscape can have an important effect on the health of the soil, air, water and habitat for native wildlife–as well as the human community nearby. Reducing chemical use, composting, mulching and reducing turf grass in your yard are important steps to gardening greener.
• All of this information and more can be found at the Create a Certified Wildlife Habitat page.

There’s a wealth of wonderful information to check out there. Make sure to spend some time perusing all of the pages.

Mourning Cloak Life Cycle

The Mourning Cloak overwinters as an adult, which requires quite a bit of specialized biology. Hibernating adults can survive through the winter by use of “antifreeze” chemicals (glycerols) in their blood. They locate sheltered tree crevices where they will spend the winter.

On sunny days, even while there’s snow on the ground, some adults will emerge to feed on tree sap, especially oaks, and then return to their sheltered winter hiding place.

Prior to these appearances, they use isometric shivering to raise their body temperature to 15 degrees or more than ambient temperatures.

In the spring, the males seek mates by “perching”–finding a sunny spot on a hillside or other elevated spots where it sits and watches for passing females. He will then fly out to intercept her and attempt to mate.

Eggs are laid in groups which circle the twigs of the host plant. Caterpillars live in a communal web and feed together on young leaves, then pupate and emerge as adults in June or July.

After feeding briefly, the adults estivate until fall, when they re-emerge to feed and store energy for hibernation. Some adults migrate south in the fall.

Mourning Cloak Caterpillar Host Plants

This is a generalist butterfly with many varied caterpillar host plants: Willows including black willow (Salix nigra), weeping willow (S. babylonica), and silky willow (S. sericea); also American elm (Ulmus americana), cottonwood (Populus deltoides), aspen (P. tremuloides), paper birch (Betula papyrifera), and hackberry (Celtis occidentalis). Older caterpillars wander about and may be found on plants that they do not eat.

Adults feed mostly on tree sap, especially that of oaks. They walk down the trunk to the sap and feed head downward. They will also feed on rotting fruit, and only occasionally on flower nectar.

Mourning Cloaks in your Butterfly Garden

For this species, your nectar plants are less important than your trees and shrubs. You can encourage this winter-flying butterfly to take up residence in your wildlife garden by planting any of the above trees that are native to your region.

You will be delighted on sunny winter days to witness the magical flight of this butterfly while snow still lingers in your garden.

Yes.

Taking just these two steps would make a huge difference for the wildlife in your area. And teaching your neighbors to take the same action will magnify your efforts and help a lot more.

Now I’m not saying there’s some kind of magic bullet that would solve all of the dangers facing our native wildlife, but doing these two things will certainly help to stem the tide of their decline.

The Ecosystem Gardeners Pledge

I promise to stop purchasing/planting invasive plants and to remove them from my landscape. I promise to add more native plants to my garden. I will help my neighbors take this pledge, too

That’s it. These are the two most important things that every one of us can do to help our native wildlife and make our gardens more welcoming to them.

Promise to Stop Planting Invasive Plants and Eradicate them from your Property

This is not as easy to do as it sounds. Take a trip to any Home Depot and almost any nursery and you’ll find a large selection of invasive plants.

Why?

Well, some nursery owners simply haven’t educated themselves to the dangers of some of the plants they are selling. Others say “If I don’t sell them, someone else will. So I might as well make the money.”

So in addition to educating your neighbors, you may have to educate your local nursery owner, too.

I’ve talked about why invasive plants are so dangerous, and I’ve begun making a list of the worst invasive plants, but you need to educate yourself prior to purchasing any plants for your wildlife garden.

The easiest way to do this is to contact your local native plant society or your state conservation service and request a list of invasive plants in your area. This is easily done online by googling “invasive plants your state”

Arm yourself with this list every time you go shopping for plants. Do not buy any plant from this list, and take the time to tell the nursery owner how disappointed you are that they continue to sell these plants.

Plant More Natives

Native plants form the foundation of the food web that supports the birds, butterflies, pollinators, and other wildlife we want to attract to our Ecosystem Gardens, an idea that is most elegantly stated by Doug Tallamy, author of Bringing Nature Home.

Most gardens in this country are filled with plants from around the world, but very few plants actually native to this country. The problem with this is that it leaves wildlife with nothing to eat.

Simply put, no native plants means no wildlife. No birds. No butterflies. No frogs happily croaking through the day.

A very boring garden indeed.

No life.

Now our major purpose in Ecosystem Gardening is to create welcoming habitats for wildlife to share our little patch of the planet with. That means adding native plants every time you are purchasing new treasures for your wildlife garden.

Are you ready to take the pledge?

I hope so!

According to Mike Quinn at Journey North:

Life cycle of Monarch Butterflies

Every spring Monarch Butterflies leave their wintering grounds in Mexico and begins a journey north. They will fly as far north as they can in search of milkweed. Here they will lay their eggs and die.

The next generation goes further north still, mate lay their eggs and die. This cycle is repeated until the Monarchs have populated all of North America.

In the fall, however, the last generation does not yet breed, instead flying from Canada and across the US all the way back to the wintering grounds in Mexico, where if it is lucky enough to survive the winter, will breed and begin the journey north once again.

Monarchs arrive in Mexico by the thousands, tattered and worn, and exhausted from this amazing journey.

What You Can Do to Help Monarch Butterflies

Plant milkweed. Monarch caterpillars must have plants from the family Aesclepias in order to grow and survive into adulthood.

Go to the USDA plants database to determine which species are appropriate for your region.

Unfortunately, current agricultural practices and management of roadside edges require the application of herbicides which wipe out many areas of milkweed. So Monarchs must fly longer and use up more energy before finding milkweed on which to lay their eggs.

When the wintering population is already so low, lack of milkweed along the journey north may have catastrophic consequences on this amazing butterfly.

Give generously to organizations like Monarch Watch who are researching this population and managing conservation efforts.

What are you doing for Monarch in your garden? What milkweeds do you plant?

Several years ago, I posed the question at Ecosystem Gardening “Is Sustainability Only About Human Benefit?” I asked this question because advocates of bamboo as a sustainable flooring and other building materials seemed to blithely ignore the fact that bamboo is considered an invasive plant (a plant from a foreign location that is causing damage to natural ecosystems), and has degraded many natural ecosystems, making them less able to provide for the needs of wildlife.

In the comments people left at that post, and especially at the Facebook page I was basically painted as an ignorant fool for advocating for wildlife gardens. Humans are part of nature, therefore our actions are just as benign as the bird who poops out the seed of some invasive plant, allowing it to spread through another ecosystem was the essence of the argument against what I had said.

Yes, humans are part of nature. And we have repeatedly shown that we make very poor decisions that continue to cause great harm to our ecosystems, the wildlife that depend on them, and the health of our planet. We have a very poor track record in our selfish quest for more resources, more space, and more income from development. And yet we are loath to take any responsibility for the harm our actions have caused.

The good news is that we can remediate some of these negative impacts by adding more wildlife gardens and welcoming habitats for wildlife at our own properties.

After spending the winter in its chrysalis, the Tiger Swallowtail butterflies emerge in the spring. The chrysalis looks like a rolled up brown leaf left dangling from a host plant tree. In some Southern states, you may see these butterflies year round.

In spring, the adult butterflies emerge, and the males will go patrolling for females. Eggs are laid on suitable host plants. It takes about 30 days to go from egg to caterpillar, to chrysalis, to adult.

Tiger Swallowtails are generalists, meaning the caterpillars are able to feed from a wide variety of host plants, including wild cherry, magnolia, birch, ash, cottonwood, and willow. Adding some of these native trees to your ecosystem garden will ensure that you will have the beauties close by.

Note that those pretty Japanese Cherries that are so famous in Washington DC and around the country are NOT host plants for this caterpillar. You must have a native cherry to appeal to these butterflies. The best way to determine this is by checking the USDA plants database or by contacting your local native plant society

If you live on the West Coast you will be seeing the Western Tiger Swallowtail (Papilio rutulus). And on the East Coast you’ll have the Eastern Tiger Swallowtail (Papilio glauca).

Adult Tiger Swallowtails will feed on nectar, so be sure to have a wide variety of nectar plants in your butterfly garden, including purple coneflower, buttonbush, pepperbush, and a large selection of native wildflowers.

Hundreds of thousands of Monarch butterflies migrate through Cape May, NJ every year, and thousands of people come from around the world to see them. This spectacle is an amazing phenomenon, but also one which raises a lot of questions.

Monarch Monitoring Project, Richard K. Walton

How many Monarchs that pass through Cape May actually make it to their wintering grounds in Michoacan Mexico in the Trans Volcanic Mountains?

How many miles do they travel each day?

What is the migratory pathway that they travel?

Do all Monarch Butterflies use the same pathway?

These and other questions led to the founding of the Monarch Monitoring Project in 1991 with Richard K. Walton (Director), Louise Zemaitis (Coordinator), and Lincoln Brower (Co-Researcher and Scientific Advisor).

Monarch Monitoring Project, Louise Zemaitis

Much is still unknown about the phenomenon that is Monarch Butterfly migration. And there are many conservation concerns that could put this phenomenon in danger.

Weighing just 1/2 gram, Monarch Butterflies make an incredible journey of more than 2000 miles from Canada and points south to their wintering homes in the mountains of central Mexico. And many of them do not make it.

Monarch Monitoring Project, Patsy Eickelberg

Your wildlife garden is crucial in helping Monarch Butterflies successfully complete this amazing journey. Create a Monarch Waystation full of milkweed because Monarchs can only lay their eggs on this plant, plus adult butterflies will nectar at the flowers to fuel their journey.

Monarch Monitoring Project, Paige Cunningham

On all parts of their journey they are threatened by environmental changes caused by human action: habitat loss, pesticide use, genetically modified corn crops, and illegal logging at their wintering roosts. Some years have seen harsh weather conditions at the wintering sites that caused the Monarch population numbers to plummet.

Monarch Monitoring Project, Mark Garland

It was for these reasons that the Monarch Monitoring Project was begun. Researchers in Cape May are working to monitor the numbers of passing Monarchs and to learn how various environmental conditions impact these numbers.

Monarch Monitoring Project, Jen Howard

Three times each day from September 1 through October 31 a standardized census is taken to count the Monarchs and make note of temperature, wind speed, and other climatic conditions.

In addition (from their website):

Thousands of monarch butterflies are tagged each year in Cape May. The tags are small bits of coded adhesive paper placed on the leading edge of a monarch’s wing. The tags don’t change the way the monarchs behave or fly. Dozens of monarchs tagged in Cape May have been found in Mexico. Additionally, tagged monarchs are sometimes caught again at areas to our south, providing valuable data about the speed and routes of the migration. One monarch tagged at Cape May was found the next day at Fisherman Island, in the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay in Virginia – about 140 miles from Cape May!

I was thrilled to be in Cape May this past weekend and to observe several of the daily tagging demonstrations. In mid-afternoon a large crowd gathers in the pavilion below the hawk watch platform and a hush falls over the crowd as 6 volunteers enter to explain the incredible journey undertaken by the Monarchs each fall, the work of the Monarch Monitoring Project, and to demonstrate the tagging process.

The excitement is palpable as children (of all ages, adults become as excited as the younger folks) are allowed to release the tagged Monarchs to continue on their journey with expressions of “Adios, amigo!”

Monarch Butterflies congregate on New England Aster

The Monarch Monitoring Project is carried out each year by mostly volunteer efforts, although a small salary is paid to the coordinator and an even smaller stipend is paid to a seasonal biologist who completes the daily censuses and assists with the tagging project. And the truth is that this project is supported by donations from generous folks like you.

You can “Adopt a Monarch” by making a donation to the project, You’ll receive a certificate with the tagging details of the monarch you adopt. If that monarch is found again, either in Mexico or at some spot along the way, you’ll receive another certificate that chronicles the journey of your special butterfly.

You can adopt a monarch in your name, in the name of a friend or relative, in honor of a special occasion, or for a school class or club. All contributions will be used solely to support the monarch monitoring project.

Please take a moment to check out the Monarch Monitoring Project and adopt your Monarch now. It’s a great program and really needs your help.

But if you’ve ever experienced that sucking of the teeth and aghast looks that some gardeners do when talking about your wildlife garden, you totally understand this side of the equation. So I ask Are Wildlife Gardeners Real Gardeners?

What are the “Real Gardeners” meaning when they suck their teeth at us?

Sometimes they think that our gardens are nothing but an ugly overgrown mess, because our gardens have been stereotyped that way.

They don’t understand that if we chose to, we could design a completely formal garden using nothing but native plants. Or a cottage garden, a Japanese Garden, or any style of garden we choose.

They don’t seem to mind our quaint exclamations of joy when we find a new bird or butterfly in our garden, they can even sometimes handle the fact that we’re thrilled to find caterpillars munching away on our plants. Gasp!

They’re not quite sure about encouraging rabbits to make their homes in our garden, and they are very skeptical about our delight when we find a snake. Oh the horror!

So what is the problem?

It’s our choice of plants.

I mean native plants, EWWWW!

They’re ugly. They’re boring. They don’t have fancy cultivar names.

In fact, some “Real Gardeners” get quite worked up over the subject of native plants. They despise them. I’ve even seen a very well known garden writer completely trash an excellent book because in three pages of it’s total of 389 pages it talked about the value of native plants in our gardens.

They don’t know (or don’t want to know) that without native plants in our gardens we would not have the wildlife that we do.

We know that if we want to create welcoming habitats for wildlife in our gardens we have to increase the amount of native plants in our landscapes. No native plants means no insects, which means no baby birds, no caterpillars, and no wildlife.

They don’t understand why we don’t fall into a swoon when some fancy new peony is released to the market.

They don’t understand why we’re not racing out to the nursery to get the latest fancy cultivar into our gardens.

They don’t understand our frustration because some native plants are quite difficult to find for sale.

And they don’t understand that the entire reason we garden in the first place is for the wildlife. My garden is for the birds (and the bees, butterflies, dragonflies, frogs, toads, bats, snakes and other wildlife that makes its home in my garden).

Wildlife gardeners know that they have a responsibility to become the steward of their small piece of the planet and make decisions that will protect the environment, contribute to ecosystem services, and provide for wildlife.

We know that every choice we make in our gardens can either positively impact the world around us or create negative impacts such as the chemicals that run off from gardens that destroy soil organisms, pollute our streams, kill off wildlife, and poison our waters.

If we look all the way back in our history to the very first gardeners we see that the first man and woman were told to take care of their space and become stewards of the wildlife that lived there.

Since that time we as humans have done a very poor job of taking care of our planet. Wildlife gardeners are working to reverse that damage.

So are wildlife gardeners “Real Gardeners”? I say yes!!!

Note: I really don’t believe in the Us vs Them mentality. I think most of us make the best choices we know how to make. Lack of knowledge or commitment to positive change are things that can be overcome. It is up to each of us to help educate our friends and neighbors about the benefits of gardening for wildlife and making our world a better place. Many of you are actively involved in this education and I say Kudos to You!

Even though I live in the highly urban and over-developed city of Philadelphia, there is still a large selection of natural areas to visit right here in my city.

Last weekend I made one of my regular visits to the John Heinz National Wildlife Refuge, located adjacent to the Philadelphia Airport. And even though this space is surrounded by oil tank farms, landfills, city development, highways, and the airport it’s easy to see why creating welcoming habitat for wildlife in our urban gardens is so important.

Planning a visit to your local natural areas can provide lots of inspiration for your own wildlife garden. You’ll get to see what native plants work best in your area, and get to observe the wildlife species that benefit from these plants. And you’ll get lots of ideas to add to your ecosystem garden….See the photos and read more of A Visit to John Heinz National Wildlife Refuge at Native Plants and Wildlife Gardens

Urban Habitat at John Heinz National Wildlife Refuge

The John Heinz National Wildlife Refuge is a wonderful example of how habitat can be created even in urban areas.

The John Heinz National Wildlife Refuge at Tinicum is located in Philadelphia and Delaware Counties, Pennsylvania, about 1 mile from the Philadelphia International Airport. In fact standing on the road around the impoundment at the refuge is a good spot to watch planes taking off and landing at the airport, which doesn’t seem to be the best place for a wildlife refuge at all.

Signs of the urban nature of this wildlife refuge are everywhere. You can see the oil refinery tanks on the other side of Darby Creek from the impoundment road.

Gulf Oil donated a portion of this refuge to the city, but has maintained an oil pipeline that runs through the refuge.