12
Wednesday, August 24, 2016 The Nugget Newspaper, Sisters, Oregon
Tales from a
Sisters
Naturalist
by Jim Anderson
The end of
poor Charlotte
Doug Beall’s fantastic
photo and blurb in last week’s
Nugget of his ambitious and
bold house wren opened the
door to a discussion about
“gleaners,” those little feath-
ered busy-bodies who never
stop looking for and eating
six- and eight-legged crea-
tures from dawn to dark.
That photo is superb, both
artistically and scientifically;
it shows without any doubt
why, for the past two years, I
have not seen any adult orb-
weavers outside my windows
or stretched cross the back
door in the morning. They
are gone!
Now as you can imagine,
that got to me somewhat —
as most everyone knows I
like spiders, those big orb-
weavers polish off lots of
insects that get into Sue’s
kitchen garden. But then, so
do the gleaners.
House wrens, chickadees,
bushtits and nuthatches are
“gleaners.” If you’re lucky
enough to have them and
have a few moments, do what
Doug did and watch them at
work. As he said, they’re at
it from dawn to dark, find-
ing and eating arthropods. (I
can’t say “bugs” as all bugs
are insects, but not all insects
are “bugs,” or spiders.)
If you live in the pines
you have woodpeckers, and
therefore you will have house
wrens, nuthatches and chick-
adees; they use old wood-
pecker cavities to nest in.
Or, if you put up bird nesting
boxes near your place you’ll
have them gleaning for food
all around your trees, shrubs,
gardens and house.
Forget spraying anything
for the control of insects, the
gleaners will do it for free,
saving you money—and the
chances of causing biologi-
cal problems with chemi-
cal spray. Using chemicals
would be like biting the hand
that feeds you.
Sue and I often eat our
lunch and supper on the back
deck. All during those meals
we watch gleaners poking
around under our eaves, hap-
pily doing insect control but
at the same time removing
“my” orb weavers as well.
Oh, yes, we can also add
one more bird to the glean-
ers: hummingbirds. The
other day I watched a rufous
going through a juniper with
a fine-tooth comb out at
Abbot Schindler’s place.
Baby orb weavers fly
around the countryside soon
after they’ve hatched from
that beautiful, big eggs mass
mom has been guarding at
the end of summer. Even
when she dies she’s still pro-
tecting them with her tired,
worn-out body resting on top
of the egg mass.
If young spiders don’t
leave their place of birth
quickly they’ll end up eat-
ing each other; so, to prevent
fratricide from taking place
they spread out. They climb
to the top of a twig, roof or
pole and begin letting out
very light strands of sticky
silk that forms a parachute,
or balloon if you like. The
warm breezes come wafting
by and lift the silken para-
chute into the air, with tiny
Charlotte attached to it, and
away she goes.
When she (or he) lands
on the side of a barn, your
house, shrub or tree, it
immediately builds a tiny
silken orb web trap that
will catch gnats, mosquitoes
and smaller insects. Tiny
Charlotte wraps them up,
gives them the coup-de-gras
and hangs them up in her lar-
der to liquify. When she has
enough to satiate herself she
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spreads a little
more venom
on them which
liquifies their
hard outer bod-
ies to the point
where she can
suck ’em into
her stomach.
Spiders do
not have jaws
or teeth with
which to eat.
At our place,
o rb weav ers
don’t stand a
chance. Our
house wrens
are quick to
find them, and
if they don’t
get ’em, the
nuthatches,
photo by JiM anDerson
hummers and
c h i c k a d e e s Pygmy nuthatch waiting for that white-headed
will. Normally woodpecker to pry out a beetle larva for him.
we wouldn’t
have nuthatches at our (expletive deleted) starlings.
place, as we don’t have any
Anyway, Doug’s beau-
big pine for woodpeck- tiful house wren photo —
ers to dig out cavities after with the juvenile Charlotte
which nuthatches will use going home to become food
them for nesting, etc., etc. for the kids — triggered this
But, I have a confession hasty tale of how much Old
to make: I have nest boxes Mother Nature is always
and a suet feeder up for my helping us get rid of things
flickers, and the nuthatches, we don’t want around our
bushtits and chickadees take house. Except in my case it
to that stuff like a duck to proved to me that all those
water. As do the goldfinches, gleaners Sue and I love to
wrens, bushtits, occa- watch are also gobbling up
sional house finch, and the our poor Charlottes.
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