Another candidate to add to Stewart's list is Cascara, Rhamnus purshiana.
For a short time in late summer/early fall, it is the most popular target
for many songbirds in my area near Scatter Creek, even with all the other
plants on Stewart's list growing nearby. I just noticed this for the first
time this year, and will try to add more Cascara to our landscape.

Bob

Bob Sundstrom
ixoreus at scattercreek.com
Tenino, Washington

----- Original Message -----
From: "Stewart Wechsler" <ecostewart at quidnunc.net>
To: "Wayne C. Weber" <contopus at telus.net>; "Dennis Paulson"
<dennispaulson at comcast.net>
Cc: "TWEETERS" <tweeters at u.washington.edu>
Sent: Thursday, December 07, 2006 2:22 PM
Subject: [Tweeters] Promoting alien berry plants breaks my heart


> It saddens me every time I hear of people, especially serious naturalists,
> advocating for the use, planting or just letting live, alien berry
> producing
> plants to feed "the birds". In the short term you have some happy
> American
> Robins, Starlings and other winter fruit eaters. In the long term, after
> the Robins, Starlings and Waxwings sprinkle the seeds all over the
> landscape
> with little packets of fertilizer, and these alien shrubs and trees
> replace
> the native plants and in turn displace the other native organisms best
> adapted to living with those native plants, we get less biodiversity.
> This
> includes, most likely, fewer of some of the very bird species that eat
> these
> berries. Some of the "biodiversity" we do get by planting these alien
> shrubs and trees is a false biodiversity in the global sense with more of
> the same shrubs, trees and associated organisms that occur elsewhere in
> the
> world.
>
> I am constantly pulling these alien shrubs and trees out of our wilder
> parks
> and natural areas to make room for the disappearing natives that once
> supported more species of native birds, butterflies, beetles etc.. Our
> wooded areas and semi-open areas are under an ever increasing assault by
> the
> multiple species of escaped and now naturalized Cotoneasters, English
> Holly,
> English Laurel (Prunus laurocerasus), Pyracantha, European Mountain Ashes,
> English Yews, Himalayan Blackerries and English Ivy among many others that
> have been spread through our wilder spaces by the birds feeding on their
> berries in yards and parks where people have either planted them or let
> them
> be.
>
> As I mentioned before, many or most of our song birds primarilly feed
> their
> young caterpillars even if they are berry and seed eaters as adults. One
> way these alien berry bearing plants could harm the very birds that feed
> on
> them in the winter is by depriving the moths and butterflies of suitable
> host plants on which to lay eggs which in turn means fewer caterpillars
> for
> the baby birds. For the most part these moths and butterflies are not
> adapted to using these alien plants in their caterpillar stage. You can
> have more adult fruit-eating birds making it through the winer, but if the
> limiting factor on their population is the number of caterpillars
> available
> to feed the chicks at the time when there are the least caterpillars and
> most chicks, you might end up harming that very species by having too many
> berry plants that don't double as good caterpillar plants that support a
> diversity of caterpillar species through the whole nesting season. You
> also
> need a supply of caterpillars through years when one or another population
> of caterpillar species is down for one reason or another. The non-fruit
> eating song birds, the migratory song birds that aren't here to eat those
> winter berries just lose out with no boost in winter food with their
> caterpillars and other insect foods depleted
>
> If people understand the impact of these ornamentals and weed spreading
> bird
> feeder bushes and still plant them or leave them alive, I would consider
> it
> irresponsible. If they don't understand, I would just consider it
> uninformed.
>
> Some western Washington native fall and winter berry producers include:
>
> Douglas (Black) Hawthorn - Crataegus douglasii
> Suksdorf's Hawthorn - Crataegus suksdorfii (was C. douglasii ssp
> suksdorfii)
> Blue Elderberry - Sambucus cerulea
> Pacific Crabapple - Malus fusca (was Pyrus fusca, also called Malus
> diversifolia)
> Bald-hip Rose - Rosa gymnocarpa
> Evergreen Huckleberry - Vaccinium ovatum
> Madrone - Arbutus menziesii
> Tall Oregon Grape - Mahonia aquifolium (a.k.a. Berberis aquifolium)
> Long-leafed or Dull Oregon Grape - Mahonia nervosa (a.k.a. berberis
> nervosa)
> Salal - Gaultheria shallon
> Western Serviceberry - Amelanchier alnifolia (most fruit gone or dried up
> by
> late fall, but dry berries likely used by birds
>
> Stewart Wechsler
> Ecological Consulting
> West Seattle
> 206 932-7225
> ecostewart at quidnunc.net
>
> -Advice on the most site-appropriate native plants
> and how to enhance habitat for the maximum diversity
> of plants and animals
> -Educational programs, nature walks and field trips
> -Botanical Surveys
>
> --
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