pwn-08-25-14

38 August 25, 2014Pinewood NewsBirds of Munds Park #57The Case of the Fallen Featherby Margaret DyekmanWe were visiting family in San Diego a couple of weeks ago and in the middle ofthe at-home happy hour there, I received a text and photo from Andy: “We foundthis feather while hiking in Munds Park. What bird is it from?” At first glance Ididn’t know, so I showed the photo on my phone to Andrew, our niece’s husband,who (conveniently for me) works in one of the bird departments of the San DiegoSafari Park, previously called the Wild Animal Park. Andrew was sitting in frontof the television with the rest of the men watching pre-season football. He managesa department that handles rare bird egg incubation and raising chicks and hascool projects like transporting captivity- bred California Condors for release intothe wild in Idaho.Andrew didn’t know whose feather it was either, so heasked me from across the room, “What is your cell phonenumber”? He then texted me, and I texted back to him thephoto sent to me by my hiking friend. Next Andrew textedthe photo to two of his Safari Park work colleagues, Tianaand Jenny. Almost immediately one of them respondedback: “What habitat”? He texted back: “High elevation,pine forest”. Then Jenny sent us a link to a photo she foundfeather photo by Andy using the internet connection on her phone – and it wasdead on! A Northern Flicker tail feather. In the meantime,both Andrew and I were using our bird apps (I use iBird and also Peterson’s) onour phone to pull up more photos. In the span of about five minutes and with theawesome help of technology, we were able to text back to Andy the identity of thetail feather. The rest of the wine-and-beer sipping relatives in the room werethinking we were bird nerds, but we were actually quite proud of figuring out themystery of the Fallen Feather.The Northern Flicker we have in Munds Park,Flagstaff, and even the desert around Phoenix isthe Red Shafted species. The Yellow-ShaftedFlicker is found in the East. However, the twoforms have hybridized extensively and are nowconsidered one species called “NorthernFlicker”. There is also a “Gilded Flicker” that isfound in the southwest deserts, but it is muchRed Shafted Flickerharder to see. The Northern Flicker is a largewoodpecker that has a black crescent on its breast, red side mustaches, and ispretty easy to identify when flying because of its prominent white rump patch. Ittends to forage on the ground, eating ants, beetles, and other insects. It is morelikely to fly on your hummingbird feeder and suck out the sugar water with itslong tongue rather than frequent a seed bird feeder. Why did this one lose a tailfeather? It’s molting season! Nests were built, eggs hatched, and babies raised.So now is the time to grow in new feathers to prepare for the next season.The Fallen Feather episode really makes me appreciate again the many forms oftechnology we have at our fingertips. It probably was entertaining watching Andrewand me excitedly solve the mystery of the feather by texting, surfing the internet,scrolling through our bird guides, and sending photos using just our cellphones. My favorite birding app is iBird Plus and it quickly seems to be replacingmy books. However, I still treasure the very large Audubon’s “Birds of America”volume my parents bought me when I was 11 years old. Not only does it have extensiveinformation in it, but it also takes me back to happy times pouring over thepages and first discovering the many species of birds we have here in the Statesand their unique characteristics.Take Care of your TreesbyMike & RoslynMerristem Tree ServiceAdvice From Your Local Arborists: Synthetic Vs. Natural FertilizersFun Fact: The oldest living tree known to man is a spruce located inDalarna province in Sweden. It is 9550 years old and dates back to thelast Ice Age. However this spruce stands at a whopping 16 feet talland closely resembles Charlie Brown's Christmas Tree.Here in northern Arizona you might often find yourself standing in frontof a wilting, discolored, kind of sorry looking plant despite proper wateringand optimal weather. Immediately one’s mind defaults on fertilizeras your solution. But what kind should you use? To begin, there aretwo categories of fertilizers: natural and synthetic. Synthetic fertilizersare probably the most popular option because they make large corporationspiles of money resulting in better marketing. Don’t get mewrong MiracleGrow is very effective at what it claims to do and its applicationis extremely user friendly but the “best”, in my humble opinion,it is not. Synthetic fertilizers add basic nutrients to your plant byusing salts to make those nutrients available to the plant. These salts,however, kill virtually all of your soil’s beneficial biology such as fungiand bacteria. The beneficial soil biology is the natural process by whichyour plant accesses the nutrients naturally occurring in your soil. Oncethe soil has been depleted of these microbes, your plant is now completelydependent on synthetic fertilizers. Not only are you now forcedto feed your plant chemicals but synthetic fertilizers are extremely toxicto all life. If you have ever been overzealous one season with applyingMiracleGrow, you might have noticed that your plants and grasses turnyellow and die, a result we refer to as “fertilizer burn”. I am, if you havenot already noticed, a devout proponent of natural methods. Naturalfertilizers such as compost, manures, and worm castings benefit yourplant because of their high content of beneficial microbes and nutrients.If you search around, you can find natural fertilizers that are alsoeasy to apply such as compost tea. Many might associate natural fertilizerswith the pungent smell of a horse stall or chicken coop however awell matured compost pile smells like nothing but healthy dirt. Compostand worm castings also provide optimal soil structure. Here we aresurrounded by nothing but compact clay and rocks so soil structure isjust as if not more critical than fertilizing nutrients. Soil structure refersto the drainage and moisture retention characteristics of soil. So althoughthe synthetic fertilizers might be on sale at Home Depot, trustme, a good natural fertilizer is much more of a bang for your buck. Stayinformed, your plants will thank you.Meristem Tree CareMeristemTree@gmail.comYou can reach me at margaretdyekman@cox.net, and you can read all the archived Birdsof Munds Park articles and leave your comments at www.birdladyblog.wordpress.com.I welcome your questions, reports of sightings, and your ideas for future articles.