We are in the home stretch of Garden for Wildlife Month! This week, we are featuring backyard flora and fauna that are yellow–a happy and joyful color.  (Did you miss last week’s color? View the BLUE blog here.)  Does your backyard play host to any of these golden gems?

These photos were donated by past participants in the National Wildlife® Photo Contest. To enter your photos in this year’s contest, visit the contest site.

View the Special Anniversary Issue Slideshow: 50 Years of Incredible Images

Western Tanager

The red pigment in the face of the Western Tanager is rhodoxanthin, a pigment rare in birds. It is not manufactured by the bird, as are the pigments used by the other red tanagers. Instead, it must be acquired from the diet, presumably from insects that themselves acquire the pigment from plants. (Photo: Jim Brown)

Aspen

Aspen has been traditionally reputed in many countries to drive off evil spirits, hence it was often planted near dwellings. (Photo: Chad Martens)

Cape May Warbler

The average clutch size of the Cape May Warbler (six) is greater than that of other warblers. This large clutch size may allow Cape May Warbler populations to expand rapidly during outbreaks of their preferred prey, spruce budworms. (Photo: Michael Henry)

Jumping Spider

The jumping spider family contains more than 500 described genera and about 5,000 described species,making it the largest family of spiderswith about 13% of all species. (Photo: Jeffery Waldorff)

American Goldfinch

Goldfinches are among the strictest vegetarians in the bird world, selecting an entirely vegetable diet and only inadvertently swallowing an occasional insect. (Photo: Christine Adachi)

Monarch Caterpillar

A Monarch caterpillar can eat enough milkweed in one day to equal its own body weight. Just 9 to 14 days after hatching from its eggs, a caterpillar will grow to about 2 inches long. (Photo: Andrew Halverson)

Yellow Warbler

Life can be dangerous for a small bird. Yellow Warblers have occasionally been found caught in the strands of an orb weaver spider’s web. (Photo: Steven Manly)

Tiger Swallowtail

There are more than 550 species of swallowtail butterflies around the word. Altough the majority are tropical, members of the family are found on all continents except Antarctica. (Photo: Marty Bays)

Goldenrod

Goldenrod is often unfairly blamed for causing hay fever in humans. The pollen causing these allergies is mainly produced by ragweed which blooms at the same time as goldenrod but is wind-pollinated. Goldenrod pollen is too heavy and sticky to be blown far from the flowers, so is mainly pollinated by insects. (Photo: Weg Thomas)

Black-Eyed Susan

The Black-Eyed Susan has been the official flower of Maryland since 1918 when it was designated the "Floral Emblem" of Maryland by the General Assembly. (Photo: Marvin De Jong)

It’s not too late to make your yard wildlife-friendly during Garden for Wildlife Month! Create an official Certified Wildlife Habitat® site before the end of May and we’ll plant a tree in your honor!>>

Kirtland's warbler

Now is a perilous time for the Endangered Species Act.  Many members of Congress seem to have forgotten why this law was enacted in 1973 and why it remains the nation’s most important wildlife protection law.  Proposals to remove the safety net of protection for endangered species are flying around fast and furious.

Species Not Recovered in 15 Years? No More Protection Then

Last week Rep. Joe Baca (D-CA) introduced a bill (H.R. 1042) that would lift Endangered Species Act protections from virtually any endangered or threatened species that does not experience significant population increases within its first 15 years after listing.

Baca is upset that the Delhi Sands flower-loving fly, an endangered pollinator in his district, has not yet been declared recovered after 19 years on the Endangered Species Act list.

Rather than encouraging the constructive efforts underway in his district to strike a balance between developing real estate and protecting natural systems and the web of life, Baca would tip the balance entirely in favor of unfettered development.

Why the Delhi Sands Flower-Loving Fly Matters

I see several big problems with his thinking.  First, although pollinators are not always charismatic, they are essential to our health and well-being. According to a recent Senate resolution put forward by Sen. Saxby Chambliss (R-GA), pollinators help to produce roughly one-third of the food consumed in the United States and help to reproduce at least 80 percent of flowering plants.

If we decide we cannot afford to protect the Delhi Sands flower-loving fly when it starts plummeting to extinction, what makes us believe that we will have the will to protect the numerous other endangered pollinators that help maintain our food supply and our flowering gardens?

Recovery Takes Time. Ask the Bald Eagle and Kirtland’s Warbler

Second, the idea of throwing in the towel for any species that doesn’t show immediate signs of recovery after listing flies in the face of common sense and experience.

Many treasured wildlife species have benefitted from Endangered Species Act protections, but only after one or two decades of getting protection and recovery efforts kick-started.

For example, the bald eagle, our nation’s symbol, did not see a resurgence in its numbers until at least 15 years after it received the protection of the Endangered Species Act.  In Maine, for example, the number of eagles hovered around 30 to 50 for roughly two decades after listing, and then recovery efforts started bearing fruit and we now have more than 385 eagles gracing the skies there.

The number of Kirtland’s warbler males hovered around 200 for the first two decades after it was listed, then conservation efforts under the ESA finally paid off and now there are more than 1,700 across the bird’s range.

The Real Way to Deal With Concerns Of How Long It Takes to De-List Species

If members of Congress are truly concerned about the pace of endangered species recovery, there are plenty of ways to address this problem without resorting to the draconian step of pulling the plug and letting developers drive them to extinction.  Many species are listed only after their numbers have plummeted to dangerously low levels.  This delay in providing ESA protection makes recovery much more costly and difficult.  Congress could immediately reduce the cost and difficulty of recovery by helping conserve wildlife while populations are relatively abundant.

Unfortunately, the House of Representatives recently passed a bill that would do just the opposite – it would drastically cut many of the programs designed to conserve wildlife species before they become endangered.  This is a classic case of “penny wise and pound foolish” behavior – achieving small savings in the short term while setting us up for big costs over the long haul.

Take Action

Help us persuade Congress not to weaken endangered species protections and to restore funding for the Endangered Species Act and other crucial wildlife programs >>

In an effort to raise awareness for the decline in honeybee populations around the world, they are helping fund research for scientists to learn more about the problem and find solutions. Over the last three years, one in three honeybee colonies has died. Scientists are calling the phenomenon CCD for Colony Collapse Disorder. In CCD cases, all of the bees in a colony abruptly disappear, deserting the hive.

Fast Honeybee Facts:

• One of every three bites the average American eats is directly attributed to honey bee pollination.

• Honey bees are responsible for the pollination of more than 100 crops, including fruits, vegetables, nuts and seeds.

• They provide 80 percent of the country’s pollination services.

• Without honey bee pollination, one-third of our food supply would be in jeopardy.

How You Can Help Honeybees:

• Tweet using #helphoneybees: For every tweet between Nov. 5-11 that includes #HelpHoneyBees, Häagen-Dazs will donate $1 to the University of California at Davis, which is doing great research into Colony Collapse Disorder. The donations are capped at a maximum of $500 for each of the 7 days (a total of $3,500). Find out more…

  For easy copying and pasting:

  Häagen-Dazs to donate $1 for every #HelpHoneyBees tweet Nov. 5-11 to fund Colony Collapse Disorder research http://su.pr/5oMnCY (via @NWF)

  ** UPDATE FROM TWITCAUSE ** “Following our extremely successful first day of #HelpHoneyBees, Häagen-Dazs has generously decided to DOUBLE their maximum daily donation, from the initial $500 to a new maximum of $1,000 per day (for a new grand total of $7,000)! We’re super excited with the news and want to send a special thank you to all of you that have been tweeting! Keep it up!”
   

• Learn more about Häagen-Dazs’ efforts to “Help the Honeybees”: Not only can you spark donations through Twitter, but also with your “bee built” ice cream purchases. They even created a special flavor as a tribute: Vanilla Honey Bee.

• Turn your garden into a Certified Wildlife Habitat™: Provide habitat suitable for bees, birds, butterflies and other pollinators.

More Honeybee info:

“The Buzz on Native Pollinators” – National Wildlife® magazine: As European honeybees decline, indigenous bees and other pollinating animals can provide a backup–with a little help from their human friends.

“Busy with Bees” – National Wildlife® magazine: In Bavaria, a team of industrious scientists uses high-tech tools to study the secret lives of honeybees–work that could shed light on the pollinators’ mysterious disappearances.

Three Ways to Plant for Pollinators

Get more tips from this National Wildlife® magazine web exclusive.

1. Select plants that provide a lot of nectar and pollen. Many ornamentals have been specifically bred to produce little or none of these essential foods.

2. Plant a diversity of species so your yard will provide bees, butterflies and other animals with nectar and pollen from spring through fall. To attract bats and nocturnal moths, consider night-blooming plants in addition to day-bloomers.

3. Be a “messy” gardener: Leave some patches of unmulched soil and brush piles that bees, birds and other animals can use to construct nests. Consider building or purchasing a bee house for wood-nesting wasps and bees.

Bees and other pollinators are disappearing from our country due to a variety of threats to their habitat and climate. And while we depend on bees to pollinate more than two-thirds of our crops, we’re not the only ones who stand to lose. Think about grizzly bears–they’re counting on bees to pollinate the fruit, nuts, and plants that make up their diet.

We need bees; bears need bees; birds need bees… So in honor of National Pollinators Week, here are three things you can do to protect our nation’s bees, butterflies and bats:

ONE: Help protect bees from global warming.

Global warming has been playing havoc with nature’s timing. For the past thirty years or so, pollinators like the Milbert’s tortoiseshell butterfly have been showing up before the flowers are in bloom. According to biologist David Inouye, global warming is causing pollinators and plants to “lose the synchronicity they once had.”

Pollinators like bees, bats and butterflies are a crucial part of any ecosystem–not to mention a fascinating part of our natural world.

TWO: Share a photo of your favorite pollinators

Join us on Flickr, and check out all the great photos of bats, butterflies, and of course bumble bees.

THREE: Tell Your Friends

Bzzz. Thinking about the best way to help bees and bats thrive during #pollinate week: http://bit.ly/OFWzi

Let your friends and family know that you’re thinking about the bees and butterflies that keep our world going strong!

Sounds like the average bat if you ask me. We have thousands of little heroes saving us every night–it’s just a matter of knowing why bats are just as awesome (even more so) then Batman.

1. They take out thousands of pests

While Batman is tough on inner-city pests, a small brown bat can eat up to 1,000 mosquitoes in an hour. And bats don’t just stop at mosquitoes; they eat a large number of other insects like beetles and moths that are agricultural pests.

Species like the  big brown bat are known for being very helpful when it comes to bug control. The California leaf-nosed bat is so agile, it can swoop down and grab beetles, crickets and grasshoppers right off the ground.

So if you have a pest problem, put a little bat house on the side of your home and fight off the bugs the natural way!

2. They bring us awesome food like mangoes and tequila

Do you like tequila? How about mangoes? Both of these would suffer greatly if we didn’t have bats. Fruit bats make up about 30% of the bat population and play a huge role in pollinating essential crops like agave, from which tequila is made. Seeds dropped by bats can also account for up to 95 percent of forest regrowth on cleared land. In fact, it’s known that more than 300 plant species in the tropics alone rely on the pollinating and seed dispersal of bats.

3. They have an expansive range

While Batman’s range is fairly restricted to the city limits of Gotham, bats have a much more expansive range. Depending on the species, they can cover hundreds of miles in a single night, hunting for insects, drinking at water holes and pollinating plants. We certainly are being watched over!

4. They are the ONLY flying mammals

That’s right, while Bruce Wayne can glide, bats can really fly! While you may hear of “flying” animals like squirrels, bats are the only mammals that can truly fly. The others simply glide.

5. Echolocation…that says it all

In the most recent Batman movie, the Caped Crusader uses something resembling echolocation, but it’s nothing compared to the real thing. A number of bat species have this “feature” built in! Bats that use echolocation often have big ears and really funky looking faces. Those faces help capture sound waves bouncing off of prey and other objects and funnel those waves to the ears. Bats that don’t use echolocation, like fruit bats, actually have big eyes to see in the dark and long dog-like faces (some are called “flying foxes” because of this). Here’s a great shot of one.

6. Even their poo is helpful

To my knowledge, the Dark Knight has never developed a bowel-related superpower (thank goodness). Bat guano, however, not only makes a great fertilizer, it is the sole habitat for some animal species! That’s the making of a real hero–when even poo has helpful qualities.

7. They help the whole ecosystem, not just one city

Bats are key species to helping their habitats flourish. Not only do they eat insects and pollinate crops, but they also serve as prey for predators like hawks and owls.

I don’t know about you…but when I shine the bat symbol, I have a completely different idea of the response I want. I want more bats! Unfortunately, a number of bat species (both in and out of North America) are at risk. They are suffering from a White Nose epidemic and are also falling victim to habitat destruction. We can take a turn in doing the saving of these little heroes.

To see a list of bat superheroes–Read this excellent bat guide (pdf). And to help bats, find out how you can build your own bat box.

According too the Pollinator Partnership website, nearly 80% of our world’s crop plants require pollination. Bees as well as birds, butterflies, beetles, flies and bats transfer pollen between plants. Plant reproduction hinges on this vital task. With honey bees taking the center stage in the media recently we wanted to provide some information about the National Wildlife Federation’s role in protecting these pollinating power-houses.

NWF promotes pollinator friendly gardening and habitat management techniques by encouraging everyone to reduce their use of pesticides in addition to planting native wildflowers and other flowering plants in their yards and businesses. Native plants are especially important because they provide most of the foods that the vast majority of bee species need to survive. We also recommend that organic produce and other products should be bought whenever possible.

It is important to note that the majority of bees that have been in the media lately are the introduced honey bee. Most native bees are solitary and under-researched, so there wouldn’t be an easy way to know if their populations are being affected by the same problem as the honey bee. However, we do know that pollinators overall are being affected by very similar issues.

The latest news on pollinators can be found at http://www.pollinator.org (mentioned previously). This website is run by the North American Pollinator Protection Campaign, a network of pollinator enthusiasts of which the National Wildlife Federation is a partner. If you are a pollinator enthusiast like me, be sure to check out their information about National Pollinator Week in June!

For more information about NWF’s gardening and habitat management programs, please visit
http://www.nwf.org/gardenforwildlife/.

Also, please check out our newest report The Gardener’s Guide to Global Warming for information about how non-native plants negatively affect your backyard.