John Marzluff at the University of Washington (Go Dawgs!) has been doing interesting science with birds (you may be familiar with his work on crows) for some time. Last week, I heard this report on KUOW about the results of his somewhat counterintuitive finding that some suburban habitats are actually good for native bird biodiversity.
...researchers found development brings not necessarily extinction but
replacement, with new native species colonizing the suburban
environments that used to be forests.
Marzluff has advice for homeowners that sounds like he's been looking at my yard (especially the uncut grass):
"People typically like fancier looking shrubs and they like
things to be very neat. Birds like native shrubs and messy things. So
be messy! Don't cut all the grass. Let some of it grow up and fall over
so a junco can nest under it. The native ferns – and salmonberry
especially – is an important species."
I followed up this week with a Thinking Locally on birds & burbs.
Here's some great native plant advice from wildlife biologist Russell Link.
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