NWF Naturalist David Mizejewski with an alligator, from the Today Show’s Instagram page.

In honor of this annual celebration of National Wildlife Federation’s 40-year-old Certified Wildlife Habitat program, I brought some “backyard wildlife” on my Today Show segment this week.  But these animals are definitely NOT the songbirds and butterflies that typically show up in a wildlife-friendly garden.

Instead, I brought species that might surprise you if you spotted them in your garden.  My goal was to let folks know that species other than birds and butterflies need our help and can benefit from wildlife-friendly gardens, and also to point out what to do to avoid conflict with some of these species.

I mean, groundhogs, alligators and beavers aren’t necessarily the most welcome species in the garden.  But two other predators I featured in the segment definitely are species you want around.

Here’s the full segment.  Watch it and then head over to our Garden for Wildlife Month page and certify your garden as wildlife-friendly with NWF!

Click here to view the embedded video.

See more of David’s TV appearances and find out where he’ll be appearing next! 

Photo of cardinal flower donated by Paul Lackey

So, take a look below to find the best native plants for your area. Then, get planting!

Midwest

A wildlife favorite: Cup plant. This plant is a perennial that has numerous large, yellow flowers. The small cup formed by the leaves holds water and attracts birds.

More plants: New England aster, wild columbine, black oak, cranberry viburnum

Northeast

A wildlife favorite: Cardinal flower. Because of its long tubular flowers, cardinal flowers attract hummingbirds, which feed on the nectar.

More plants: Eastern red cedar, blue vervein, red chokeberry, winterberry

Pacific Northwest

A wildlife favorite: Salmonberry. This shrub hosts bright pink flowers and yellow or salmon-red fruits resembling blackberries in all but color. Birds and small mammals love to feast on the sweet berries.

More plants: Douglas fir, western serviceberry, red columbine, beach strawberry

Photo of Aspens donated by Chad Martens

Rocky Mountains

A wildlife favorite: Quaking Aspen. This tree can be planted as an ornamental. Beavers, rabbits, and other mammals eat the bark, foliage and buds, and grouse and quail feed on the winter buds.

More plants: Rocky Mountain juniper, dotted blazing star, golden currant, scarlet gilia

Southeast

A wildlife favorite: Climbing aster. With its unusual rambling habit and abundance of blooms, this shrub is a good choice for gardens. It is a caterpillar food plant for the American Painted Lady butterfly and provides nectar for many species of adult butterflies.

More plants: Willow oak, American elderberry, trumpet honeysuckle, narrow leaf sunflower

Southwest

A wildlife favorite: Skunkbush sumac. One of the more widespread sumacs in the West, this shrub provides fruit that is an important source of winter food for many songbirds, as well as gamebirds and a number of small mammals.

More plants: Desert willow, teddybear cholla, desert marigold, Rocky Mountain juniper

Native plants can help provide the food, water, shelter and places to raise young that wildlife need to survive. When you provide these four essential elements, you’ll also be eligible to certify your yard as an official Certified Wildlife Habitat® site. You’ll join a community of like-minded gardeners and receive great benefits. Certify today!

Note: For the top native plants in Alaska, please visit this page. We have not provided a native plant list for Hawaii because the plant diversity changes from island to island.

At the osprey nest on our ranch in Lolo, Montana my wife and I are extremely careful not to leave twine around as we’ve seen ospreys take off with their talons caught up in dangling twine knowing that this is a great hazard. We like to think of our habit as child-proofing a home, except these youngsters aren’t people. We’d like to encourage others to “child-proof” their area by picking up twine which can get caught in nests.

In setting up an osprey camera up at our ranch, we hoped to support the University of Montana’s osprey research program and to share these incredible birds with the world. You can see the osprey nest and the bits of twine the adults have brought to it at the Dunrovin Ranch website by following  the webcam link.

Harriet, the osprey fusses with her eggs at Dunrovin Ranch in Lolo, Montana. Photo by Suzanne and Sterling Miller.

This year our fingers are crossed that both the parents and their offspring will survive until fall when they migrate to Mexico or even further south for the winter.  For more information on this nest and on the dangers posed by twine to osprey, visit  The West’s Best Nest .

And whenever you see a piece of twine lying around, remember to think of these great creatures and please pick it up!

The morning light reflecting off of the copper basin creates a golden hue on this American goldfinch. Photo by Howard Cheek.

Create a haven for critters in your own backyard and have it designated as an official Certified Wildlife Habitat site. Certify in the month of May and we’ll plant a tree in your honor!

This Photo of the Day was donated by a participant in the annual National Wildlife Photo Contest. See more photos or sign up for the 42nd Annual National Wildlife Photo Contest.

Not all the wildlife that can benefit from a wildlife-friendly garden are songbirds, butterflies and cute, furry mammals. Some of them are slimy, slithery and nocturnal too, and they are no less important or cool to see (although hosts Jenna Wolf and Lester Holt still might not be convinced based on their funny facial expressions).

Watch the segment below and meet some of these non-traditional species, and then submit your garden to become a Certified Wildlife Habitat!

Special thanks to partner American Beauties Native Plants for providing the gorgeous plants for the segment.

Here you can see him talking to the group about an amphibian house that they have created. It is a simple design where they have buried a door in the soil and covered it with leaf litter to create great habitat for our reptile and amphibian neighbors.

You can create wildlife habitat like this as well! In a few simple steps you too can enjoy wildlife like frogs and lizards right in your backyard!

Want to know more? The National Wildlife Federation has tons of ideas to help you bring wildlife to your backyard!

You can also come by our booth (#2508) and say hi.








On Friday, February 10th at 11 a.m. in the Hood Room, join National Wildlife Federation for a presentation by celebrity naturalist and author David Mizejewski. called “Create a Backyard Wildlife Habitat Attracting Birds, Butterflies & Wildlife.” David will also be signing copies of his book,Attracting Birds, Butterflies and other backyard Wildlife.


Can you make it? Let me know by connecting with NWF’s Pacific Regional Center on Facebook and Twitter We’ll be sending out up-to-date information on what is happening at the Garden Show and in our region!

America’s First ‘Green Flag’ Flies Over Sustainable Savannah School

April 29, 2011 – Savannah Country Day School in Georgia was named the nation’s first Green Flag Eco-School in a ceremony yesterday, signifying exceptional achievement in ‘greening’ school grounds, operations and curricula. The school achieved this honor through a combination of excellence by “green” management of its facilities and grounds, providing opportunities for outdoor education and by integrating environmental learning throughout its curricula.

New Guidance Moves to Restore Clean Water Act Protections

April 28, 2011 – The EPA and the Corps are taking an important and necessary step to restore the Clean Water Act by providing new guidance grounded in law, science, and public health. This move will begin the process of restoring vital environmental safeguards for rivers, lakes, streams, and estuaries that are essential for sustaining healthy communities for people and wildlife.

Possible Tar Sands Price Fixing Needs FTC Probe Attorneys Say

April 28, 2011 – There are enough indications that tar sands oil companies are trying to manipulate U.S. oil prices to warrant an investigation by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), attorneys for the Natural Resources Defense Council and the National Wildlife Federation allege.

May is Garden for Wildlife Month

April 28, 2011 – May has been designated Garden for Wildlife Month and it’s a great time to adopt some gardening practices that will make your yard a sanctuary for wildlife. To celebrate its 75th anniversary this year, National Wildlife Federation will plant a tree for every wildlife habitat that is certified during the month of May. “Anyone can garden for wildlife, no matter how big your space, or how expert a gardener you are,” said David Mizejewski.

U.S. Department of Education Announces Green Ribbon Program to Advance Sustainable Schools (pdf)

April 26, 2011 – The U.S. Department of Education announced today the creation of the Green Ribbon Schools program, which will recognize schools that have taken great strides in greening their curricula, buildings, school grounds and overall building operations. The program, celebrated during a tree planting ceremony at the Department of Education headquarters, will help cash-strapped schools save money and prepare students for 21st Century jobs.

And here are a few highlights from NWF in the News:

• Los Angeles Times: President Obama seeks to extend Clean Water Act protections
• Savannah Morning News: Savannah Country Day School captures the Green Flag
• Public News Service: Ethanol Production Threatens America’s Vanishing Grasslands

For more National Wildlife Federation news, visit www.nwf.org/News

A concerned reader writes: “I hear that April is National Frog Month, so I would like to know, how do I tell whether I am a frog?  And if I am one, can I get some sort of government benefits during National Frog Month?” (signed) Ambivalent Amphibian, living in the Land of Whimsy (The Land of Whimsy lies precisely on the US/Canadian border; nearly 3,000 miles long, it is nothing wide, making it hard to visit unless you book a flight of the imagination). To these questions I respond:

Dear Ambivalent Amphibian:
 

A bullfrog in a wetland. The bullfrog is the largest frog in North America, weighing up to a pound.

If you are a frog you get government benefits year round through programs that protect wetlands and other places frogs can’t live without.  If you are especially rare, you might get benefits from the Endangered Species Act. You can also get benefits from private efforts, such as protected areas provided by people who sign up for NWF’s Backyard Habitat program and offer living space for frogs. 
 
To get these benefits you must first, as you wisely suggest, establish if you are a frog. Frogs do differ widely from other animals. Here are six ways to tell if you are a frog:

1. Do friends often call you a toad? If you answer yes, then you may be a frog. Frogs and toads belong to a group scientists call Anurans (meaning, “without tails”), and there is no real difference, scientifically speaking, between frogs and toads. Basically, toads are frogs that may spend most of their time on dry land. As a result, they tend to have drier skin than more water-oriented frog species and their skin is likely to be rougher, which helps camouflage them in the knobby world of dirt, sand and leaf litter. So if you look like a toad, there is a good chance you are a frog.
2. Do you have four legs? Frogs are four-legged creatures. They also may have webbed feet, a trait especially common in water-loving frogs, or they may have little round pads at the tips of their toes with skin especially designed for climbing, a useful trait for frogs that live in trees. Regardless of your feet, if you look like a toad and have four legs, you may be a frog.
3. Are your hind legs built for leaping? Frogs typically have long hind legs with extra joints, unknown in mammals, that help frogs leap usually far. Muscles in the hind legs are long and powerful, especially those used for jumping—the muscles used to get legs back into place after a leap are much smaller and weaker. How good are frogs at jumping? Well, the best is probably the Australian rocket frog, which can jump 50 times its body length—covering more than 6 feet of ground. This leap would be like a 6-foot tall man jumping the length of a football field. If you look like a toad, have four legs, and your hind legs are built for jumping, you may be a frog.
4. When you were young, did you have a tail and gills and live in water?  If so, you may have been a tadpole, sometimes called pollywogs. Tadpoles have gills and have long tails that help them swim with speed and agility. Most eat nothing but algae and other small plants, but some may eat insects and their young. They hatch from soft, shell-less eggs that their mothers lay in ponds or in the quiet pools of streams. Mothers may lay their eggs at the end of winter, when the water is still cold and therefore holds more oxygen than it will later in the year when temperatures rise. Not all frogs lay eggs in water, though. Some frogs carry their eggs on their backs, or in their mouths, or even keep their babies in their stomachs until they are ready to enter the world. But most frogs start out as eggs in water and hatch into tadpoles. Then, in one 24-hour period, the tadpole changes into a frog—its eyes move to the top of its head, its gills disappear, its legs show up and its body shortens. If you look like a toad and have four legs, the hind ones designed for leaping, and you were once a tadpole, you are very likely to be a frog.
5. Do you eat mostly or entirely meat? Most adult frogs eat only insects, worms, and, sometimes—if the frog is large—small mammals and even baby water birds, such as ducklings. The biggest frog of all is West Africa’s Goliath frog, which can weigh more than 6 and1/2 pounds—the size of a small house cat. The largest U.S. frog is the bullfrog, which can reach a full pound. The important point here is, do you eat only or mostly other animals? If you look like a toad and have four legs, the hind ones designed for leaping, and you were once a tadpole, and you eat mostly or only other animals, you are almost certainly a frog.
6. Can you breathe through your skin? All but one of the 5,000 known frog species have lungs for breathing on land, but they also can breathe through their skin when in water. However, frogs don’t have the ribs and muscles that help birds and mammals to breathe. Frogs breathe by puffing out the throat and squeezing the floor of the mouth, so when you watch a frog breathe, you will see its throat moving. Do your chin and throat move when you breathe, and can you breathe through your skin? Then, if you also look like a toad and have four legs, the hind ones designed for leaping, and you were once a tadpole, and you eat mostly or only other animals, I would say, yes, you are a frog.

Finally, let’s look at some things that don’t rule out the possibility that you are a frog. If you live in trees, you may still be a frog, because many frogs, especially in the tropics, live and even breed in trees. If you are poisonous, like certain plants, you still may be a frog—many frog species secrete skin chemicals poisonous to mammals, birds and other creatures that may feed on them, including humans. Some South American Indian people use the skin secretions of certain frogs to poison the tips of hunting darts. You do not even have to be green to be a frog (though if you live in a pond full of green plants, being green may help you hide from prey and enemies).  Some frogs are bright red or blue or yellow—often these bright frogs are poisonous, and their color warns predators away from them. 

So that’s it.  If you do turn out to be a frog, have a happy National Frog Month and learn more about frogs at: 

Living  with Frogs

“Want to Host a Garden Party for Frogs?”

“How to Dote on Toads”

Attracting frogs 

Fun with Frogs

Tree frog game 

Frog Facts

About frogs

If your community gets consistently cold (below freezing) in the winter or has extended periods of snow and ice on the ground, you may be surprised to learn what a huge difference you can make by feeding wild birds right outside your own door or window.  A large-scale winter storm, with deep snow or ice cover, cuts off many birds from their natural food supplies and can actually cause them to starve by the thousands and even millions. Backyard bird feeding can make a real contribution to their survival and even thriving during the winter months.   Here are ten pointers for a successful winter bird feeding season:

1. Put out feeders with good size capacity:  And/or use multiple feeders to provide ample food especially during snow and ice storms.  There are many stores in your area that sell excellent bird feeders including bird-specific stores and most lawn and garden centers. You can also visit the National Wildlife Federation’s online backyard store to purchase feeders while also supporting the Federation’s conservation work:
2. Provide nutritious winter seed foods: For most birds theses often include seed mixes of: black oil sunflower seed, hulled peanuts, niger seed and white millet seed.  Mixed seed bags can be purchased at local bird and lawn and garden stores or you can go on line and visit the Scott’s Songbird Selections website for a store locator or to learn more about wild bird feeding:
3. Offer fatty food too:  Birds need to burn more calories in the winter just to stay warm.  Suet is considered a high energy food because it consists of fat that has 9 calories per gram compared to 4 calories per gram for carbohydrates or protein. Peanut Butter is also popular with our flying friends but is more expensive than suet. Suet feeders are a favorite of woodpeckers and other insect-eating birds
4. Keep your feeders full: Winter birds need to stock up on calories especially for those long, cold winter nights.
5. Be consistent and keep feeding through the winter: Birds grow accustomed to your feeders especially in severe weather when the snacks you offer may mean their very survival.  If you leave home for an extended period, try to have a neighbor or friend keep the feeders going.
6. Remember water: Birds can become dehydrated in winter even if surrounded by ice and snow.  Putting out a pan of water near the feeder on warmer days is a terrific idea.
7. Stamp down the snow below: Ground-feeding birds such as dark-eyed juncos, doves and many sparrows will be able to gather up the seed that drop from the feeders if they don’t have deep snow to try to manage.  
8. Hang feeders in cat-safe locations: Place bird feeders in locations that do not also offer hiding places for sneak-attacks by cats and other predators. Think of placing the feeders ten to twelve feet from shrubs or brush piles.  This gives the birds some time to react.
9. Remember feeder cleanliness: Your feeders can get a little grimy. Because natural food sources are scarcer in the winter, more birds may be attracted to backyard feeders and those feeders will need to be cleaned with some hot water and dried a few times during the season.
10. Save some money and stock up on seed: Bird feeding veterans say it is best to stock up on birdseed in the Fall when many lawn and garden centers are discounting it to make way for winter merchandise. Stored properly, (in cool dry places) seed can easily last for months, particularly seed mixes and sunflower seeds.

The first days or winter are a great time to start feeding birds.  Once you have bird feeders, some water sources, some shrubs and trees for habitat cover you are well on your way to qualifying for certification as a backyard habitat with 135,000 other U.S. residents.  Learn more about NWF’s Certified Wildlife Habitat™ program and see if you might like to join up.  The winter birds surely need you.