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Decorah Envirothon - Shrubs for birds and wildlife
- 1. Shrubs for birds and wildlife
- 2. Gooseberry grows on disturbed ground, in partial sun.
- 3. Gooseberry has thorny branches and grows up about chest high.
- 4. Gooseberry flowers about the time little gray morels are out.
- 5. Green globe-like fruits form by early June.
- 6. Green gooseberries make a classic pioneer pie.
- 7. Gooseberry pie for dessert.
- 8. Gooseberry fruits sweeten up purple by July.
- 9. Birds, animals and people take advantage.
- 10. Black currant looks like a goose- berry bush, but without the thorns.
- 11. Black currants are tasty summertime treats for any woodland visitors.
- 12. White-crowned sparrow sitting in black currant.
- 13. Coralberry likes to grow in full sun. This compact bush flowers in mid-May.
- 14. Coralberry ripens in September.
- 15. Snowberry, or buckbrush, is a similar white-flowered form that attracts hungry honeybees .
- 16. Snowberries are snow-white deer & bird treats.
- 17. Ninebark makes nice dense nesting habitat. A popular choice for windbreak hedgerows.
- 18. Ninebark blooms in June and resembles a domesticated spirea shrub.
- 19. Mourning cloaks like the taste of ninebark nectar.
- 20. Ninebark grows into thick cover.
- 21. This American goldfinch is likely to nest in this dense ninebark shrub.
- 22. Viceroy on a ninebark shrub beside ripening seeds
- 23. Ninebark seeds are nutritious for birds and animals going into winter.
- 24. Black haw is a good choice for saturated soils.
- 25. Black haw is a thicket-forming plant
- 26. Black haw has pleasing plum color in autumn.
- 27. Black haw berries are a first-rate wildlife food!
- 28. Black haw berries ripen in late September.
- 29. Black haw berries are also called wild raisins.
- 30. Elderberries are another good wildlife shrub choice for wet-soil areas.
- 31. Elderberry’s white flower platters are prominent on the Fourth of July.
- 32. Elderberries turn purple in September.
- 33. Ripe elderberries are another key wildlife fruit in the fall, especially for departing birds like robins and catbirds.
- 34. People often steal a few of these tasty berries too.
- 35. Elderberry pie
- 36. Buttonbush is a novel wetland shrub
- 37. Buttonbush flowers appear in mid-summer.
- 38. This red admiral butterfly is getting a sweet sip.
- 39. Buttonbush gets decorative red “buttons” in September.
- 40. These savannah sparrows are dining on buttonbush seeds.
- 41. Highbush cranberry is another good option for a modest 8-10’ tall bush, blooming in late May.
- 42. Highbush cranberries turn red, but not necessarily ripe, in September.
- 43. Birds will often wait until late winter before eating them.
- 44. Highbush cranberry forms a solid windbreak.
- 45. Redosier dogwood is one of the most popular wildlife shrubs.
- 46. Redosier dogwood stems are very decorative.
- 47. Redosier dogwood & white-tailed deer.
- 48. Redosier dogwood berries are a dynamite wildlife food.
- 49. All dogwood berries are full of fat, and a key food source for birds going south or into winter.
- 50. Gray dogwood suckers to form dense clumps.
- 51. Gray dogwood berries are ripe later in August.
- 52. Gray comma resting on gray dogwood.
- 53. Gray dogwood gets purple leaves in autumn. Those white berries help distinguish it from silky dogwood.
- 54. Silky dogwood prefers partial shade near water.
- 55. Silky dogwood gets compact flower clusters late in June.
- 56. Silky dogwood berries are gun-metal blue.
- 57. Pagoda dogwood flowers around Mid-summer’s Eve.
- 59. Pagoda dogwood leaves look nice in September
- 60. Pagoda dogwood berries are a great woodland bird food.
- 61. Pagoda dogwood has a very unique shape, with branches that form segmented whorls around the stem and give the tall shrub (or small tree) a definite tiered- tower look.
- 62. Sumac, smooth here, has rather dull flowers.
- 63. Notice the velvety stem on this staghorn sumac.
- 64. Sumac is a good choice in places where it can spread unchecked.
- 65. Sumac leaves are stunning scarlet in September
- 66. Sumac provides color in the countryside as well as food and tenacious cover.
- 67. Sumac seed heads are food beacons for birds.
- 68. Robins are one among many sumac shoppers.
- 70. Northern cardinal - female.
- 71. Brown thrasher.
- 72. Gray catbird.
- 73. Yellow-rumped or myrtle warbler.
- 77. We can pick a few surplus seedheads in August and brew a tasty natural pink lemonade.
- 78. Chokecherry is a tough bushy little tree.
- 79. Look for chokecherry’s flower plumes in June.
- 80. Chokecherries turn purple in August and are bird candy.
- 82. Serviceberry blossoms brighten up spring days in early May.
- 83. Serviceberry is also called Juneberry, for those delicious fruits get ripe then.
- 84. Serviceberry fruits are long gone by the time those leaves turn orange in autumn.
- 85. Crabapples are stubby trees that are hard to beat for a beneficial wildlife shrub.
- 86. Crabapples are not easy trees to climb.
- 87. Crabapples offer birds free nest protection from climbing predators.
- 88. Crabapples put on a real cheery springtime show.
- 89. Crabapples are attractive to pollinating bees.
- 90. Fertilized flowers develop into stunted apples
- 91. Many crabapples are prolific fruit producers.
- 92. American robins remember where crabapples are
- 94. American goldfinches, Iowa’s state bird, turn to crabapples in winter
- 97. This white-breasted nuthatch is stealing a quick crabapple snack.
- 99. Dark-eyed juncos eye charming crabapples too.
- 100. Gray squirrel getting in on the crabapple craze.
- 101. Crabapple jelly
- 102. Hawthorn is another workhorse wildlife shrub.
- 103. Hawthorn is a bigger barrier than crabapples for climbing or flying predators.
- 104. Hawthorn is also called thornapple
- 105. What a wonderful secure place for this song sparrow to rest and relax.
- 106. Canada warblers also seek refuge in a budding hawthorn tree.
- 107. Hawthorns bloom in late spring.
- 108. Hawthorn pomes ripen up in September and October. Like most shrubs, there are many kinds
- 109. This cedar waxwing is swallowing a freeze-dried hawthorn pome.
- 110. Wild plums dot ditches with white about May 1
- 111. Wild plum freely suckers and develops into dense thickets.
- 112. Wild plums are a real treat for raccoons and any other hungry furry critters or birds.
- 113. Raccoon reaching for a sweet ripe fruit.
- 114. People love wild plums too, right off the tree or turned into preserves or pie.
- 115. American hazel is an old wildlife shrub standard- bearer
- 116. Gray catbirds nest in American hazel bushes
- 117. Gray catbirds are sound like a lost kitten.
- 118. American hazel catkins are fine winter bird food for American goldfinches and pine siskins.
- 119. Pine siskins look like streaked goldfinches.
- 120. American hazel catkins form caterpilla like flowers in April.
- 121. American hazel nuts ripen inside papery husks.
- 122. Good luck finding a fully-mature hazel nut, also called a filbert, for yourself.
- 123. Eastern chipmunks chow down on ripe hazelnuts
- 124. A red-winged blackbird nest is silhouetted by the winter sunset in a leafless hazel copse.
- 125. Bladdernut is a native novelty shrub, sometimes seen in fencerows or sunny woods.
- 126. Bladdernut flowers brighten up the area in June
- 127. Bladdernut is named for those strange seed- bearing bladders.
- 128. Bladdernut seeds are fully ripe by late October when those papery bladders turn brown
- 129. Bladdernut seeds are edible for animals and us.
- 130. Redbud is a striking wildlife shrub.
- 131. Redbud blooms are pure pink color bursts in early May.
- 132. Common yellowthroats like to sing from redbud branches.
- 133. Redbud leaves add a littl color to the fall landscap too.
- 134. Redbud seeds are stolen by birds from their paper pods.
- 135. For some real eye-catching power, plant our native wahoo, but not the foreign burning bush.
- 136. Even wahoo’s flowers are fancy in early summer.
- 137. Beautiful berries form on wahoo’s branches late
- 138. Cardinals relish these beckoning wahoo berries
- 139. Wahoo has also been called the strawberry bush
- 140. Wahoo is the last berry to ripen out in the woods, adding a splash of color there well into November.
- 141. Shrubby willows, like the pussy willow, are wonderful wildlife shrubs.
- 142. Pussy willow and prairie willow are among the first plants to flower in the spring.
- 143. Pine cone galls, made by a tiny midge, are neat to see before the wispy willows leaf out.
- 144. Willows sucker into wildlife-shielding thickets.
- 145. Willow bats break up strong winter winds.
- 146. American goldfinch nest in a willow bat.
- 147. Red cedar is technically a tree, but so what.
- 148. Red cedar trees are great wildlife food and cover if you don’t have any prairie around.
- 149. Red cedar would not be a good idea around apples either – red cedar apple rust seen here.
- 150. Red cedar apple rust blemishes apple skins.
- 151. Otherwise, red cedar is hard to beat for cover.
- 152. Red cedar berries turn blue when ripe in autumn
- 153. Cedar waxwings are named for their
- 154. American robins are fond of red cedar berries too.
- 155. Ditto for gray catbirds.
- 156. Northern cardinals
- 158. American goldfinches
- 160. Raccoons!? – maybe waiting for a songbird.
- 161. Gray squirrels have a red cedar tooth too.
- 162. Need we see any more examples of red cedar fans.
- 163. Birds, animals & people all benefit from shrubs.
Editor's Notes
- Gooseberry bushes do very well in cow pastures; they are too spiny for cows, but goats will eat them up.
- They look a bit like a shooting star!
- My family likes to harvest them around the 4th of July.
- Domesticated varieties of gooseberries can be grown in your garden in you like. The berries are much larger and some ripen into a pretty pink color. There are plenty of bushes growing out in the wild though.
- Except for me. I think they taste a bit icky—bitter, I suppose. I like red and white currants, but those don’t grow wild. Currants are very popular in the United Kingdom, but for some reason they aren’t common in Iowa.
- White crowned sparrows are normally migratory, but I had one overwinter and feed at my family’s birdfeeder last year.
- It is called ninebark because its bark peels in strips…as though it has 9 layers to it or something.
- If you have a grape vine or black haw plant, try letting a few of your berries shrivel and start to dry on the stem. Partially dried grapes straight from the plant taste WAY BETTER than any sun-kissed raisins from California.
- Pemmican was basically an early form of energy bar! They often contained dried meat, berries, and ground acorns.
- They are invasive in many prairies, and they shade out the rare plants. Many steep, south-facing slopes in our area have become covered in red cedars. It is probably that those hillsides were once open prairie or savannah habitats.