BiodiverseCity St. Louis

American Goldfinch
(Spinus tristis)

© Matilda Adams/Missouri Botanical Garden
 

As we move into the twilight of summer, as the first cool breaths of autumn sigh through sunny blooms, I feel reinvigorated and excited to spend more time in my garden. Without the oppressive summer heat relegating me to bare minimum maintenance in still, gray hours, I’m delighted to move through my tasks at a gentler pace and spend more time watching the critters that call my garden home. I laugh as clumsy, chunky bumblebees attempt to forage in my hairy wild petunia (Ruellia humilis) only for the flimsy blooms to collapse around them. I watch milkweed beetles cuddle up among the aphids crowded atop my whorled milkweed (Asclepias verticillata). One of my all-time favorite sights this time of year is the American goldfinches flitting through my purple coneflowers (Echinacea purpurea) and prairie blazing star (Liatris pycnostachya).

The American goldfinch, Spinus tristis, is a familiar face in North American parks and backyards. Here in Missouri, these sweet birds are year-round residents. They may be a common sight, but I find they’re never boring! In late summer and early fall especially, they become one of my favorite birds to watch in my garden.

Many of us are familiar with the bird-attracting strategy of planting native plants at home. While we enjoy watching adult birds visit our backyard feeders, we know the best way to support healthy bird populations is to cultivate a variety of native perennials, shrubs, and trees that create a well-stocked baby bird pantry full of caterpillars. Almost all North American songbirds feed their nestlings protein-packed insects through spring and early summer. American goldfinches, however, are fairly unique in that adults and babies alike are strict vegetarians. American goldfinches also start their breeding season quite a bit later than most other songbirds, waiting to nest until thistle and milkweed down crop up in June and July.

Though we know we’re supporting healthy baby birds with insect-laden native plants, it’s often hard to see parents foraging for caterpillars high up in oak trees or in dense forb foliage. That’s what makes American goldfinches so rewarding – they perch in plain sight on the sturdy stalks of flower heads as they go to seed. Clad in their unmistakable and eye-catching black and yellow feathers, they’re a delight to watch as they bounce from flower to flower, gobbling up seeds or ripping up soft nesting material.

As we look forward to cooler days and autumn colors, I invite you to keep your ears and eyes open on walks through the park or while you’re tending your garden. Listen for a high-pitched call of “po-ta-to-chip!” or the sudden sway of a purple coneflower and you’ll know exactly where to look. Take some time to slow down, enjoy the weather, and watch these gregarious birds travel in little family flocks from one patch of flowers to the next.

For more information on American goldfinches, visit Cornell Lab’s All About Birds guide. To learn more about supporting songbirds with your garden, visit the Grow Native! page on how to Support Native Songbirds!

—Taylor Heuermann
Rainscaping Coordinator, Missouri Botanical Garden

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The Era of the American Lawn Is Over

Building on the momentum of last year’s inaugural event and the long-standing efforts across the region, join the Living Earth Collaborative at the second annual Making Saint Louis the Nature City of the 21st Century symposium—an urban biodiversity symposium. This event is free to attend with registration.

This year’s plenary speaker is Dr. Doug Tallamy, co-founder of Homegrown National Park.

The Living Earth Collaborative is a biodiversity partnership between Missouri Botanical Garden, the Saint Louis Zoo, and WashU. Our mission is to develop new approaches to biodiversity and conservation science that foster the next generation of scientists and provide tangible benefits for applying results to conserving biodiversity at local-to-global scales.

Be a scientist for a day! On September 20th, the Missouri Department of Conservation, Great Rivers Greenway, Outdoor Leadership Corps, and other community partners invite you to take part in an all-day BioBlitz!

Help us record as many species as possible within 24 hours, from birds and bugs to plants and pollinators, in a single area along the Gravois Greenway/Gravois Creek Conservation Area.

Learn more and register

Fletcher and the Falling Leaves by Julia Rawlinson

Inspired by my coworker Taylor’s species spotlight on the American goldfinch earlier in this newsletter and feeling the first crisp fall mornings of the year, I remembered a book I read as a child about the changing of the seasons. Fletcher and the Falling Leaves by Julia Rawlinson is a heartwarming children’s picture book that teaches the concept of seasonal change as part of nature.

The story follows a young fox, Fletcher, who notices the leaves on his favorite tree have turned brown and are beginning to fall. He becomes frantic and concerned, thinking the tree is sick or that something is wrong. Fletcher works to find a solution to his “problem,” trying to reattach the fallen leaves back to the tree and protecting it from the harsh winds and other animals. Eventually, all the leaves fall off the tree, and the young fox takes his last leaf home, defeated. The next morning, the tree is covered in icicles, as winter emerges, and Fletcher learns the tree is not sick, that it was preparing for winter.

Fletcher and the Falling Leaves is praised for its notes of young awe and awareness of the changing seasons, sharing a gentle introduction to the cycles of nature and the beauty of change. It is also known for its beautiful watercolor pages, showing the reader the changing colors of the fall-to-winter transition as you turn the page.

Although this book is meant for young children, it carries meaningful lessons that adults can appreciate as well. Fletcher the fox worries that the falling leaves means something bad is happening to his tree, because he is unfamiliar with the situation. Adults can relate to this instinct to fear change, especially something that appears to be a loss like falling leaves and bare branches. However, this story encourages a shift in perspective; that we can approach change with curiosity and find meaning in transitions.

As adults, choosing to leave fallen leaves in our gardens throughout the fall and winter can increase biodiversity and soil health. The fallen leaves break down naturally, recycling nutrients back into the ground and providing habitat to beneficial insects and pollinators. Fallen leaves are not a loss, for us or for Fletcher the fox, but rather part of the natural cycles of the environment. Learn more about leaving your fallen leaves on the Deer Creek Watershed Alliance webpage.

Both Fletcher and the Falling Leaves and the broader seasonal changes invite all of us, children and adults alike, to slow down and embrace the transition. This fall, I encourage us all to learn from Fletcher the fox and find comfort in the cycles of life and nature.

—Hannah Gibson
Community Conservation Coordinator, Missouri Botanical Garden