Seattle University Main Entrance

Seattle University sits on 48 acres in the middle of Seattle, a five minute walk east from the middle of downtown. It’s in between the First Hill and Capitol Hill neighborhoods and is surrounded by hospitals, medical centers, stores, restaurants and housing. The campus has had a long commitment to sustainability dating back to the 1980′s when the college hired Ciscoe Morris, who is now a local gardening expert and celebrity. Ciscoe ended pesticide use by releasing beneficial insects on the campus which was successful and in turn launched an entire pesticide-free program. The success of the landscaping program spilled over to other sustainable practices such as an award winning recycling program, also begun back in the 1980′s. More recently the campus has seen LEED certified building, Built Green building, a composting program, solar power, electric vehicles, and a multitude of other green practices.

In the landscape the campus has addressed stormwater management with a green roof installed in 1989 and a rain garden installed after several basements in buildings on campus flooded in 2006. The grounds have won several awards for their sustainable practices and in 1989 the campus was designated a Backyard Wildlife Sanctuary by the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife; then in 2007 the campus was certified as Wildlife Habitat by the National Wildlife Federation.

Among the campus-wide wildlife habitat, there are several specialized gardens, several of which focus even further on habitat. Three of these gardens are the Rain Garden, Wildlife Garden and the Ciscoe Morris Biodiversity Garden, all of which I visited this week.

I’d often passed along the edge of Seattle University, but never actually stepped inside so it was a new experience once I finally did. I walked in at the main campus entrance on 12th Avenue and right away could get a glimpse at the essence of the campus. The long sidewalk is lined with a great number of plants such as heath, grasses and lavender, many of which were in full bloom. The landscape to one side has a rounded edge to the plant beds bordered by small areas of lawn, which contrasts nicely with the linear sidewalk plantings. From the entry I walked towards the new library which is currently under construction and by peaking through the fencing I saw a landscape that looks like it may be another stormwater management project.

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Another year of Funky Nests from Celebrate Urban Birds provides a whole new range of places that birds will nest. As I talked about in the Funky Nests in Funky Places post from the contest of the previous year, it is always amazing how resilient some species can be. Some of the prizewinning entries from this year include nests on top of tires, scaffolding, a sailboat, a mop and various statues, signs and window ledges.

This competition is one of my favorites from Celebrate Urban Birds because it shows that despite our best efforts to create the ideal habitat birds will nest in the most funky places like shoes, stairs, plant containers, gutters, and even on a roll of duct tape. It also shows that there are so many people paying attention to birds and their nests and taking care to not disturb them and even help them when they can.

Here are a few highlights of the entries, but make sure you visit the Funky Nests page from Celebrate Urban Birds to look through all of the entries.

Entry #6 Rachel Graham, La Mesa, California

I like this one, which is from the Geisel Library (Doctor Seuss) at the University of California San Diego, because I’ve been there and also seen many swallow nests attached all over the building as well. Although it wasn’t meant as habitat for nesting birds it sure has been successful. Plus, the building is amazing architecturally.

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In the northeast corner of Illinois you can find the city of Round Lake and the Round Lake Area Public Library. The courtyard at the library has been landscaped and is a certified wildlife habitat by the National Wildlife Federation. I recently contacted the library to find out more about their habitat and Debbie Allen, the Head of Youth Services was kind enough to respond. She helps take care of the courtyard and was responsible for getting it certified. At the end of the interview enjoy a slideshow of images of the courtyard through the seasons, kindly provided by Debbie Allen. I hope more libraries follow this example. What an excellent opportunity for nature education!

How was it decided to create wildlife habitat in your courtyard and to get it certified?

I have a background in Earth Science and Conservation and do nature programs at the library so the courtyard was like a mini classroom for some of our programs.  My own backyard is a certified habitat so that was how I was familiar with that program.

What kind of challenges did you face?

We have a limited budget as to how much to spend for plantings, birdseed, feeders, etc.

How has the public reacted to it?

The public has enjoyed our annual Plant Pals program where kids and parents plant flowers and other plants in the courtyard each summer.  We have added picnic tables and a bench for patrons to further enjoy that area. We have patrons who sit in the courtyard and use their laptops. Other people just come and enjoy the quiet.

In what way do you incorporate it into library programs?

Each June we have a Plant Pals program in which patrons help beautify the courtyard by planting flowers and sees.  Last fall a local school group came  to rake leaves, clean up the dead plants and de-litter the area. Since we recently added picnic tables this summer, I plan to take my nature club into the courtyard this fall  to observe how plants are reacting to the advancing fall season.  Storytime sessions may use it this fall, also.

What was the design theory for the habitat?

When I first started planting 10 years ago,there were some ornamental trees and a few bushes.  I added more bushes and perennials.  My aim was for shelter and housing for the birds and other wildlife.

What types of plants have you planted?

Each year we plant flowering annuals in flower beds,put up hanging flower baskets,  plant herbs in containers, etc. I have also planted ferns, arborvitae, spirea, holly, hostas.

What other types of elements have been added such as water, shelter, housing etc.?

We added a birdbath, 3 birdfeeders, 1 hummingbird feeder, niger seed sock for goldfinches, and a birdhouse.

Do you keep track of what species or types of wildlife are seen?

Last winter we were part of a Cornell University bird count and I kept weekly records of the birds who visited our courtyard.

What have you seen? Birds, mammals, insects, etc?

We have seen cardinals, orioles, goldfinches, chickadees, bluejays, robins, mourning doves, house sparrows, crows,juncoes,  house finches and more. I don’t know who visits at night but staff have seen squirrels,chipmunks, a rabbit (once) and a lost groundhog. Insects: bees, wasps, monarch butterflies, mosquitoes, and ants.

How do you manage coexisting with the wildlife?

We(staff) enjoy watching the wildlife through our staff lounge windows. By providing food, water and shelter we help them survive while they give us entertainment and moments of peaceful contemplation. Patrons enjoy looking at the plants and watching the birds feed from the feeders.

Further Reading::

Round Lake Area Public Library

Round Lake Area Public Library Plant Pals Photos

Alley Habitat

Alley Habitat

Alley Habitat

Alley Habitat

I continue to be  surprised as I walk around the city by the tiniest of patches and pockets of habitat. As I mentioned in the first Unexpected Habitat post, these areas are perhaps not perfect, they’re not all native plants, they don’t offer all of the necessary elements, and yet they are being used by wildlife. Recently I walked through an alley with an unexpected row of plants alongside a building. There was the most minimal space for soil and some harsh afternoon sun, but nonetheless, many plants were growing and the bees were visiting them. Despite being an alley I found it a very nice space. The plants along the brick wall and the interesting architecture of the windows and hobbit-size, wooden door were rather enchanting.

Seven Hills Park

Seven Hills Park

Seven Hills Park

Seven Hills Park via Mithun

In the Capitol Hill neighborhood of Seattle a new community garden is currently under construction called Seven Hills Park. It consists of a large grassy area with seven large boulders representing the historic landscape of Seattle, an allay of trees on one end and a new type of community garden at the other end. This garden, or P-Patch as they’re called in Seattle, will be a collective garden. While other community gardens have designated spaces that are rented out, this one will be a collective, a new experiment in Seattle. As of my last visit, the grass was starting to sprout and the garden area had been staked out and labeled. What excited me were two of the stakes that were labeled ‘Butterfly & Hummingbird’ and ‘Pollinator Paradise’ among the rest of the labels for herbs and vegetables. I also noted several large logs off to the side that look like they’re going to be incorporated into the garden. I’ll be watching closely to see how the garden progresses.

Eryngium and Bees

Recently, I revisited the Thomas Street P-Patch which I highlighted in the last Unexpected Habitat post and observed more wildlife. There were many butterflies flitting about and a yellow jacket nest that had notes warning visitors, but the real star was an Eryngium plant, which was teeming with all manner of bees. There were dozens of individual bees and at least half a dozen different species. I’m not sure what specific type of Eryngium it is, but it was incredibly popular with the bees.

View more photos of the community gardens on Flickr:: Metropolitan Field Guide on Flickr

Further Reading::

Friends of Seven Hills Park

Howell Collective

Capitol Hill Park:: Mithun

Insect Egg via National Geographic

Kingfisher Hatchlings via Guardian.uk

Spontaneous City in the Tree of Heaven via inhabitat

Garden for a Living London

Interesting Nature

• The Beauty of Insect Eggs:: From the latest issue of National Geographic shows a fascinating side of insect eggs, through a microscope. The details of these structures are simply amazing.
• Ladybug:: Also from National Geographic, this profile of our aphid-fighting friend highlights some fascinating facts such as there are over 5,000 species worldwide.

News

• Kingfisher hatchlings prove success of Cambridgeshire’s ‘bird hotel’:: From the Guardian newspaper comes this article and fabulous photos of a brood of kingfishers being raised in an artificial structure designed partly for kingfishers but also for sand martins.
• Ducklings hatch in Hamilton High courtyard:: This is a great story about wildlife habitat at a high school and when the duck decided to lay eggs in a courtyard on the other side of the building, the students and faculty made a living fence through the building to the other courtyard with the pond.
• Some NYC buildings dim lights for migrating birds:: A brief article from the Boston Herald.
• Nighthawks are nesting atop Notre Dame power plant:: An article from the South Bend Tribune about nesting nighthawks and how the current roof construction was put on hold until the chicks fledged.
• Organic Golf Course Is Exclusive, but a Weed or Two Sneak In:: This interesting article from the NY Times highlights a golf course on Martha’s Vineyard that has decided to go organic and how their experiment is working.
• Urban bees fare better due to varied diet, research reveals:: This article from the Guardian.uk discusses how urban honeybees have a more diverse range of pollen than their rural counterparts due to the diversity of plants in the city and why that is important for the bees.

Designs

• Spontaneous City in the Tree of Heaven:: A recently installed art project as part of the Secret Garden Project which consists of a series of houses for birds. The houses are set on elastic bands that are designed to expand in girth as the tree grows.
• Bird-Friendly Glass Designed With Help From Spiders:: From TreeHugger comes this interesting article about a new type of glass that was designed to be seen by birds, but not by humans. It uses the same technique that spiders use to prevent birds flying into their webs.
• Encouraging Native Bees with Insect Walls:: This excellent article from Studio G compiles many examples of bee and insect nesting walls.

Resources

• Pollination Canada:: Do you live in Canada? Check out this resource full of great pollinator information including profiles of dozens of different types of pollinators.
• Bee Trees:: A great article from Local Ecologist which features many great trees for bees.
• Garden for a Living London:: Whether you live in London or not, this page has some great resources from planting a mixed hedgerow to tips to ‘wild up your deck’.
• Butterfly Gardening:: Just added this excellent resource from the Dallas County Lepidopterist’s Society website to the Regional Plant Lists at the top of this page under the ‘pages’ tab.
• Planting a Native Hedgerow:: Check out this great resource from Mast Tree Network with tips and links to resources for designing and maintaining a hedgerow.

This is my comprehensive project that I completed in my final year of the Landscape Architecture program at the University of Oregon. The two-term project was the culmination of my educational career and I wanted to choose something meaningful that would relate to my main interest of creating and designing urban wildlife habitat. I started to ask around and very quickly a project fell into my hands from Mike Houck, the Executive Director of the Urban Greenspace Institute in Portland. He has been responsible for creating Oaks Bottom Wildlife Refuge as well as a giant mural on the side of the Portland Mausoleum that overlooks Oaks Bottom Wildlife Refuge, and had been interested for some time in creating a green roof for the building. I was lucky enough to also consult with Bob Sallinger, Conservation Director for Portland Audubon as well as Tom Liptan from the Bureau of Environmental Services, City of Portland and local eco-roof expert. In addition I talked with the building manager for the Mausoleum.

This project was a challenge because no plans for the building existed, they had all disappeared, so no measurements or structural information were available for the design. Instead I had to take some measurements and measure the rest from Google Earth.

Read through the presentation with the script added in, for a full detail of the design including goals, hypotheses and design reasoning.

Start with the presentation::

A Roof for the Birds:: Creating habitat on the Portland Mausoleum roof (PDF)

(be patient, may take a little time to load)

Other documents

A Roof for the Birds:: Script without slideshow (PDF)

A Roof for the Birds:: Hypotheses (PDF)

Click on ‘continue reading’ to see the posters.

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Courtyard 1

Courtyard 2

These two courtyards are in my neighborhood in Seattle and present dramatically different landscapes. One is in the center of a U-shaped, tall building and faces north while the other is a short building with an L-shaped courtyard and opens NW. The first one has minimal trees, only small ones in the courtyard and entrance while the second has large trees that cast heavy shadows over much of the courtyard. The first is full of flowers, some native plants and some minimal structural plants of hedge-type plantings. It’s a really lovely space that most people may miss because it’s elevated from the street level. The second courtyard is also elevated, with a locked gate, but it’s not at all lovely. It seems very barren, with only a few varieties of plants, nothing of color and most the plants are heavily trimmed.

From a design perspective there’s no competition, the first courtyard is far more inviting, comfortable, colorful and nicer to walk into. The second courtyard is far from inviting, hard, and seems cold. From a habitat perspective, the results are much the same. The first courtyard has a lot of pollinating flowers with color, which invites in many bees and butterflies. The bright space also is welcoming to insects who need to warm themselves in the sun to become active. The amount of plantings, and lack of bare space provides cover for bees, butterflies or birds while at the same time providing a lot of space for insects (prey) as well. The second courtyard offers almost nothing for wildlife with the exception of the trees.

It would be a lot of fun to replant the second courtyard with better plants including flowers and native shrubs and groundcovers. Despite the shady areas of the courtyard, there’s enough sun to plant flowers and other sun-loving plants in select areas. There are also a number of shade tolerant plants native to the Pacific Northwest that provide different aspects of habitat from food to shelter. The hardscaping of the courtyard lend itself to a formal design, but a space can be formal and welcoming to wildlife as well, as the first courtyard demonstrates. With some more variety of plants, added color and a greater amount of plantings, the second courtyard could be quite welcoming for the buildings inhabitants as well as wildlife.

Courtyard 1

Courtyard 1

Courtyard 1

Courtyard 1

Now you can find plant lists for wildlife for each region, and most states in the US, right here on The Metropolitan Field Guide. Just use the ‘Pages’ drop-down menu on the top of this page and go down to ‘Regional Plant Lists’. There you will find lists that cover the US as a whole along with links to the regions. Or just click directly on the region from the drop-down menu and find plants for birds, butterflies, bees and other wildlife for your state and even specific county in some cases.

See anything missing that you know about? Send it to me using the contact form, also found on the ‘Pages’ drop-down menu and I’ll post it.

If you don’t follow on Facebook or Twitter then you probably miss some of the interesting tidbits I post there. So that you don’t miss out I’m going to start posting ‘Foragings’ periodically, which will be some of those interesting tidbits. So without further ado….

Cemetery Habitat

Pollinators

Bird Bath

Bee Nest

News Articles

• New York’s Urban Jungle Grows Wild as It Greens:: from the NY Times is a great article that highlights how many wildlife species are starting to reappear in the city as urban green space grows in area. They also discuss the problem of human-wildlife interactions and how we may overcome that. It’s a really excellent article that everyone should read.
• Wildlife will find your sanctuary if you create the habitat:: is an article from Kansas City that discusses backyard habitat success.
• Seabird safety nixes Hawaii Friday night football:: Related to the recent post City Lights and Urban Wildlife comes this story from Hawaii about moving high school football games to Saturdays during the time Newell’s Shearwater chicks fledge because they were getting confused by the lights and falling.
• Scientists Stalk Cemeteries for Signs of Wildlife:: is a fascinating article and audio story from NPR which discusses the idea of some cemeteries being possible refuges for wildlife due to their being some of the least disturbed pockets amid development and agriculture.
• Birding in the Big City:: Did you know Craig Newmark of Craigslist is a city birder? Here’s an article about how he watches birds in San Francisco.

Resources

• Pollinators:: from the USDA is a website full of information about pollination, specific pollinators, and cultural importance and even gardening. Did you know that beetles comprise the largest group of pollinating animals and they’re particularly important for ancient species such as magnolias?
• Nectar plants for honey bees:: is a resource from Sunset which highlights a few plants that can be useful for people and bees such as basil, rosemary, squash and beans.
• Build a Nesting Block:: is a great resource from the USDA which gives detailed directions for building three different types of Solitary bee nests.

Designs

• Solitary Bees Trellick Tower Nest:: is a video which shows a bee tower designed to look like a London building.
• Repurposed Light Fixture Becomes a Bird Bath:: from re-nest has an excellent example of a bird bath made from reclaimed materials.
• Make Your Own Bird Bath, It’s Easy!:: from Life on the Balcony is another creative way to make your own bird bath, perfect for your balcony or small spaces.

Events

• The Bay Area Wildlife Garden: Birds, Bees, Butterflies and Other Beneficials:: is an event coming in October to Berkeley, California.”
• Puget Sound Bird Fest:: is coming in September and will offer classes for attracting hummingbirds and creating native plant habitat as well as wildlife habitat and native plant demonstration garden plus a backyard wildlife habitat tour.

We talk about ecology a lot, but what is it really? Chances are, unless you took some ecology classes you may have missed out on some aspects of ecology. A better understanding of ecology can help with designing and creating any wildlife habitat. Additionally, the more you know about ecology the better you’ll understand articles or books and find it easier to explain concepts and educate others. Let’s start with the basics, what exactly is ecology?

Ecology- the relationship between organisms and the environment (from the Greek words oikos, home, and logos, to study).

Ecology studies not only the interactions between the various organisms but determines distribution and abundance of the organisms.  There are many divisions of ecology that study many of different aspects such as population ecology, which focuses on the number of individuals living in an area, landscape ecology, which focuses on the factors controlling the landscape, community ecology, which is all of the interacting species in an area and ecosystem ecology, which looks at energy flow and chemical cycling.

How do these all connect? A group of one type of organism that lives in an area is a population while all the populations in an area together are a community. The community of living organisms live in a nonliving surrounding which is an ecosystem. The living organisms are considered biotic while the nonliving components, such as chemical and physical elements are abiotic. All of the ecosystems together create the biosphere which can be thought of as the global ecosystem. There are two types of organisms, autotrophs are organisms that can manufacture their own food through cellular respiration and photosynthesis such as with plants. Heterotrophs are organisms that take in preformed nutrients such as animals.

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