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Wild Food for Wildlife
Kate Guenther
Thursday July 3, 2020
Wild Food for Wildlife Kate Guenther Thursday July 3, 2020 Lydia - - PDF document
Wild Food for Wildlife Kate Guenther Thursday July 3, 2020 Lydia - - PDF document
Wild Food for Wildlife Kate Guenther Thursday July 3, 2020 Lydia Virginia 12:33 Hello everyone. This is a Message for Kates talk at 1 PM. Kate, I am so sorry I have to miss your talk live because I have a 1 oclock conflict. But want to
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Kate Guenther 1:03 I worked at the Wildlife Center from 2011- 2016 as a front desk coordinator. While I was there I developed an interest in the foods wildlife eat in the wild. I enjoy foraging for human wild edibles, so it was not a big leap for me to start collecting wild food for the patients. 1:04 I created a website to make it easier for rehabbers to incorporate wild food into their practices. That website is www.wildfoods4wildlife.com. Catherine 1:04 I don’t hear anything Amanda Nicholson, WCV 1:04 This is a text-based discussion, so nothing to hear! Just enjoy one of the Critter Cams - either bears or more bears or Buttercup our Black vulture and watch the chat. Kate Guenther 1:05 My goal was and is to inspire and empower people who want to help rehabbers by collecting food from their yards and delivering it to their community’s rehabilitators. Almost everyone with any kind of yard probably has stuff in it that could be eaten by some wild
- thing. It seems like everyone has something like dandelion, plantain, or acorns.
PaulaR 1:06 hi Kate, welcome back! i have lots of clover and dandelions....
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Kate Guenther 1:06 Hi Paula! Nice to "see" you! Guest 1:06 Oh, this is cool! I have extra room in my garden, I could do this for the rehabbers in my area. Kate Guenther 1:06 You betcha could! Kate Guenther 1:07 But today, Amanda and I thought it might be fun to focus on Wild Gardening for Wildlife. It’s an ironic topic choice for me because I do not consider myself much of a gardener. I know and like wild plants, but sweating over breaking my shovel into rock-hard ground is not my idea of quality time. Here’s a picture of my pretty messy and crappy garden. PaulaR 1:08 looks nice to me! although your soil looks like it needs some amendment!
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Guest 1:08 that website looks really useful! Kate Guenther 1:08 Hope so! Thanks! Kate Guenther 1:08 A couple of years ago, I decided help a rehabber friend of mine by providing her wild
- food. Linda McDaniels. Some of you remember her from her days at WCV, right?
Amanda Nicholson, WCV 1:08 Yes! And she was our guest last night on Untamed Unfiltered! SHe actually mentioned YOU! Kate Guenther 1:08
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Sharon Shneyer, Philadelphia 1:09 Do any foods for the wildlife do better in certain types of weather? I know there is limited space here. Kate Guenther 1:09 Mostly, Sharon, we are talking about wild native foods, so they can handle your "typical" weather patterns. Kate Guenther 1:10 Yeah, so Linda is running a cottontail rehab operation out of her house now and she ambitiously decided to feed ONLY wild foods to her patients. Most rehabbers would not even think of going 100% into wild foods because they could never get enough or they just don’t have the time to forage for that much. Most rehabbers strive to just supplement with wild foods, kind of like a garnish. Amanda Nicholson, WCV 1:11 Wow! PaulaR 1:11 my sister does that with her domestic rabbit...wild sources just aren't abundant or constant enough Kate Guenther 1:11 But when I learned Linda wanted to try for 100%, I thought it would be interesting to see just what it would take to pull that off. Thing Two 1:11 We collect Bunny Greens for Linda at Augusta Cottontails using Wild Foods 4 Wildlife. Right now it is pretty easy considering all the dandelions and plantain in our yard.
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Kate Guenther 1:11 :0) Thank you, Heather! Kate Guenther 1:11 This is Benedict, Linda’s non-releasable education adult cottontail. Anyone able to identify what Benedict is noshing on? It’s kinda hard to see. 1:12 Amanda Nicholson, WCV 1:12 a plant.
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Kate Guenther 1:13 Amanda, FAIL. Amanda Nicholson, WCV 1:13 it's not a plant???? Kate Guenther 1:13 Okay, it's a plant. But still FAIL. Guest 1:14
- h my i have no idea
PaulaR 1:14 looks like carrots, so maybe Queen Ann's lace? Kate Guenther 1:14 YOU GOT IT! Amanda Nicholson, WCV 1:14 Oooooh! Guest 1:14 is that grass growing in the cup?
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Kate Guenther 1:14 We'll come back to that! Kate Guenther 1:14 It takes a lot of effort. I collect foods out of my yard for about 2-3 hours a week from April to September and I am able to provide Linda about ½ of the total she needs to feed those hungry bunny mouths—once the babies are old enough for solid food. It takes a lot of time to poke around looking for food, and I decided it would be easier to grow some of the staples that Linda uses a lot of every week. So not only am I a bad gardener, but I may be the only gardener you know who intentionally plants dandelion seed in rows! Ha! Guest 1:15 wow that sounds like a lot of work for linda! but important. what does a plantain look like? Kate Guenther 1:15 remind me to come back to that, when I can grab a picture PaulaR 1:15 :) Kate Guenther 1:16
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Dandelion in the garden. Amanda Nicholson, WCV 1:16 I need to start doing this so my neighbors think that I'm even weirder. Kate Guenther 1:16 Okay, it’s your turn. Without cheating and looking on my website…let’s crowd-source a list of wild yard foods you think rabbits might eat. What plants do you think I have been collecting for Linda? I already told you one main one! PaulaR 1:17 that might push my neighbors over the edge, bad enough that i let them grow in my yard, but to cultivate dandelions...lol
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Kate Guenther 1:17 You can harvest them before they go to seed. JudyVA 1:18 Kate, I would like to start a garden with lots of dandelion and plantain. Any suggestions? Kate Guenther 1:18 Those are great ones to start with. And the plantain is not the kind of banana-like
- plantain. It is a common yard weed.
Sharon Shneyer, Philadelphia 1:18 Sort of like a banana Guest 1:18
- h, clover!!!
can you harvest grass? 33mama 1:18 Clover Guest 1:18 plantains! PaulaR 1:19 plantain, dock, chickweed, wild blackberries, clover Kate Guenther 1:19 Those are all great guesses. I think you all may be back-yard foragers experts already! The list of plant foods cottontails are better-known than for many wildlife. It is a l-o-n-g list. Greens nuts, seeds, browse, and fruits.
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1:20 Here is a list of what I have taken out of my yard for the buns: Amaranth greens Basswood browse Dandelion greens Chickweed greens Bidens greens Dock green Eastern hemlock browse Chestnut nuts Goldenrod greens Honeysuckle greens Hackberry berries Indian strawberry greens Wild lettuce greens Maple seeds Plantain greens White poplar browse Ragweed greens Spiderwort greens Smartweed greens Sow thistle greens Violets greens Virginia creeper browse Wood sorrel greens Willow browse Yarrow greens Grass greens Hickory nuts Bristlegrass seed Elm Seeds Bittersweet fruits Amanda Nicholson, WCV 1:20 Wow 33mama 1:21 Green beans? Someone ate all of mine.
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Kate Guenther 1:21 Hmmm, I am not sure who would eat those. Guest 1:21 Ohhh, what's dock? Kate Guenther 1:21 Dock is another common yard weed, you can see many pictures of it on my website in the left column of highlighted foods. PaulaR 1:22 wow! yes, i forgot about the violets...have seen the cottontails happily nibbling on them. what is Indian strawberry? the one i think of as barren strawberry? Sharon Shneyer, Philadelphia 1:22 Sounds like bear food. Kate Guenther 1:22 You can search for bear foods on the website and see which ones overlap with cottontail's foods. Kate Guenther 1:22 Indian Strawberry= barren strawberry. jakermo 🐼 ♪♫♪ 1:23 Sorry, Kate. Coming in late. what is your website?
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Kate Guenther 1:23 www.wildfoods4wildlife.com Hi Jakermo! Kate Guenther 1:23 Now of that list, I have only tried my hand at growing a couple of them from seed. I’ve collected the seed and grown dandelion, sow thistle, clover and plantain. And this year, Linda and I are doing some experiments with grasses. 1:24 So I took the list of grasses they eat , then I headed to my local farm seed store and bought a few handfuls of each seed they sell. I was able to get panicgrass, bluegrass, orchardgrass, timothy, rye, and fescue. Plus last fall I harvested the seed of bristlegrass and crabgrass out of my yard. I was surprised to read which grass the cottontails were “supposed” to like best…wanna guess? PaulaR 1:25 experimenting with grass(es)...uh huh! Kate Guenther 1:25 This year, Linda and I are doing our own little taste test with these 8 different grasses. I have been growing little dishes of grass sprouts for the bunbuns that can be put right in their enclosures for noshing. Amanda Nicholson, WCV 1:26 That's so cool! jakermo 🐼 ♪♫♪ 1:26 bluegrass?
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Kate Guenther 1:26 It turns out that Linda thinks this is actually their favorite from what we have offered them Kate Guenther 1:26 Amanda Nicholson, WCV 1:27 Crabgrass???? Kate Guenther
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1:27 1:28 That's it, Amanda! Crabgrass is supposedly cottontail's favorite grass.
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Little grass sprout dishes is a kind of gardening a volunteer could pretty easily do for a local rehabber who has animals that grass. Quiz time…Which animals in rehab might nibble at grass sprouts? Guest 1:29 that's so fun! jakermo 🐼 ♪♫♪ 1:29 We have lots of little bunnies in our neighborhood. Maybe I need to put out some of
- that. Wow! Crabgrass, ewww, really? I should invite some bunnies into my yard.
Guest 1:29 wow! i have so much crabgrass creeping into my flower beds PaulaR 1:29 the bluegrass seedling look very tender. I have plenty of crabgrass (also Japanese stilt grass...bad alien invasive) Sharon Shneyer, Philadelphia 1:30 Deer PaulaR 1:30 box turtles, Canada geese, opossums, deer.... Kate Guenther 1:30 Maybe, YES, maybe, maybe. jakermo 🐼 ♪♫♪ 1:31 hummmm...surely bunnies, and uh, squirrels? Kate Guenther 1:31 I do not think squirrels....
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jakermo 🐼 ♪♫♪ 1:31 I need to get up before dawn. Walkers in the neighborhood say our lawns are full of bunnies!! Guest 1:31 ducks and geese! Kate Guenther 1:31 YES! Canada geese, gadwalls, teals, widgeons, snowgeese! Kate Guenther 1:32 And chipmunks turkeys, voles and muskrats. So any rehabber that rehabs any of those might be able to use a grass pot planting. PaulaR 1:32 i wonder about little mammals like mice and voles? JudyVA 1:32 Groundhogs Kate Guenther 1:32 Yes, groundhogs. jakermo 🐼 ♪♫♪ 1:32 Gotta run, will check back and scroll. Sorry, Kate, I was just guessing. We have ducks and geese that come to our neighborhood as it is near a Big Lake, right sort of in the middle of Dallas. Kate Guenther
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1:32 Now, First, name your favorite seed-eating songbird, GO! 1:33 You can collect a custom bird-seed for your rehabilitator too. Not really gardening, more like foraging. jakermo 🐼 ♪♫♪ 1:34 I'll get some of those grasses. Do you buy seeds to plant them? Kate Guenther 1:34 Yes, I buy grass seed at the farm coop and I ask to buy a cup's worth and they usually just give it to me. I need very little for these pots. Kate Guenther 1:34 Wow, abuncha cardinal lovers! Then what you do is look them up on the website (www.wildfoods4wildlife). Put in their name such as Cardinal, Northern. Or just put “cardinal.” And see what seeds they eat. 1:35 You have between now and winter to see if you can collect seeds for them.. you can make a custom-designed mixed seed and gift it to your bird rehabber. And if you feel even more ambitious you can make your own suet loaded up with your custom blend of seeds. 33mama 1:35 Goldfinch Kate Guenther 1:35 There are a lot of seeds goldfinch eat that can be collected...like sow thistle. Mary E in NC 1:35 Cardinals jakermo 🐼 ♪♫♪
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1:35 Cardinals. PaulaR 1:35 tufted titmouse jakermo 🐼 ♪♫♪ 1:36 Thanks, Kate! I'll do that. Guest 1:36 cardinal! PaulaR 1:36 i have Jerusalem artichokes...cardinals and finches love the seeds 33mama 1:36 House finch Kate Guenther 1:36 I, for example, am pretty darn fond of juncos. When I looked up what they ate, I saw a lot of seeds I have in my yard. So I made a list of 5-10 plants I knew were out there. Next I go find the plants and I start to keep an eye on those plants for when their seed is ready for harvest…. My special junco blend could be ragweed+ bristlegrass+ amaranth+ goldenrod+ ironweed+ sycamore +sweetgum seeds, for
- example. If I work pretty hard to collect what I have of these seeds just from around my
property, I might be able to collect a total of about 4 cups of seed, I’d expect. 1:37 But watch out! This activity can become addictive and the next thing you know, you’ll be driving to friend’s houses to pick their seeds too and you’ll be raiding the public parks! Amanda Nicholson, WCV 1:37 Ha!
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Kate Guenther 1:37 Or rather than give seeds to your rehabber, maybe you want to collect seed so you can grow greens next year…plantain and dandelion are easy to collect and grow and are very useful in rehab diets. 1:38 The above picture is sow thistle I grew from collected seed. 33mama 1:38 Wait, you can't harvest both the greens and the seeds, can you? Kate Guenther 1:38 Nope you have to pick one or the other,usually. Guest 1:40 Kate what's your thought on harvesting wild seeds that wild birds might eat? Like is it bad to take the wild foods that wildlife depend on?
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Kate Guenther 1:40 Great question. I have a section on the website about ethics of foraging and one of the ethics is not to take more than a third of any given resource. Leave 2/3 alone for the wild animals that live there and also so the plant can propogate and regrow. PaulaR 1:40 i have dock with huge seedheads...have never actually seen anyone eating them, but obviously the birds are spreading them around my garden... Kate Guenther 1:40 Dock seeds are eaten...and you can look up who! 33mama 1:41 One patch for seeds and one patch for greens. Kate Guenther 1:41 there ya go! Kate Guenther 1:41 Sparrows love dock seeds. the list is long for dock seeds. Amanda Nicholson, WCV 1:42 It's very long!
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Kate Guenther 1:42 There are places, believe it or not, you can buy dandelion and other less typical wild seeds, too. I use a company out of Oregon called Strictly Medicinal Seeds. And I have made a couple of videos about dandelion and cleaning seeds. I'll stick those links in here, too. 1:43 Identifying Dandelion https://youtu.be/nl5Llbsk_P0 Collection Dandelion https://youtu.be/0APUclYG1lU Cleaning Sycamore Seed https://youtu.be/OJ0dy00oooI WCV's garden.
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1:44 Okay, so, that's about all I prepared....let me try to answer some questions if you have any. 1:46 This is plantain PaulaR 1:48 how do you feel about feeding alien plants that clearly wild birds like, like wineberries? Kate Guenther 1:48 Non-native invasive plants are a real problem for the environment. So native is better. BUT non-native foods are still more natural for the animal than grocery store foods. And rehabbers can control the effects of the non native seeds that come out in th e poop. So t is an individual ethical decision, but I think it is okay. I have a lot written on the website about this ethical choice. Kate Guenther 1:48 I am curious, are a lot of you gardeners? Guest 1:49 not a serious gardener, but a little bit!
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Kate Guenther 1:49 Same as me! PaulaR 1:50 I garden, but mostly just grow herbs anymore because all the herbivores make short shrift of any veggie plants. Kate Guenther 1:50 "Fences make for good neighbors" Amanda Nicholson, WCV 1:50 I feel like I'm sort of continually surprised to be a gardener. My husband used to do it all, but then he did less and I did a little ... until one day I just realized I'm doing it all and even have planted some (vegetables) from seed. Always surprised! Kate Guenther 1:50 I admire Jeff's skill in getting you to do the work! JudyVA 1:51 Used to be. To much work at my age now, Amanda Nicholson, WCV 1:51 Yes, that was tricky ... hmmmm ... 33mama 1:51
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Used to be a gardener. Not so much any more. Have some herbs and a tomato plant in the garden area right now. lol PaulaR 1:51 lol...true...but to protect against deer i'd have to build Fort Knox...easier to support the farmers at my local farmer's market. JudyVA 1:51 used to to be. To much work at my age! Kate Guenther 1:52 Well, I appreciate you guys sitting in today and letting me share my passion with you. You are always such a great bunch of folks. PaulaR 1:52 i look forward to checking out your website in depth, thanks Kate Guenther 1:52 Please do. It was great to have you here today, Paula. Amanda Nicholson, WCV 1:52 Thank you Kate!!! Ursa 1:52 I've got to be out early before it gets too hot and get my work done. Thanks, Kate, for a great presentation. Kate Guenther 1:52 Thank you!
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Amanda Nicholson, WCV 1:52 This was great. I like that dandelion ID Video. You're so fancy! JudyVA 1:53 Thank you, Kate. Lots of useful information! Kate Guenther 1:53 Have fun! PaulaR 1:53 thanks, Kate, great presentation. Lots of food for thought :) Kate Guenther 1:53 Har-har! 33mama 1:53 Really interesting stuff, Kate! I have things to harvest on my back hilly bank. Thanks! Kate Guenther 1:53 Sure thing, let me know how it goes! Thing Two 1:54 Thank you Kate! We are off for a hike now and hope you enjoy some outdoor time this weekend too. Kate Guenther
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1:54 Thanks, Thing. Have a great swim! Guest 1:54 thank you! this was so interesting! Kate Guenther 1:54 Terrific! Thanks! JudyVA 1:55 I know a small squirrel that appreciates you Wild Food 4 Wild Life. Kate Guenther 1:55 And I love him, too. Give him a scratch for me. Amanda Nicholson, WCV 1:55 Thanks for tuning in everyone. And THANK YOU KATE for spending your time teaching us! Kate Guenther 1:55 Thank YOU for lettin me come! Thanks everyone! May the 4th Be with You! PaulaR 1:56 thanks, Amanda, this was a great idea for a presentation. Amanda Nicholson, WCV 1:56
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We know Kate always has so many interesting/useful things to say! Sharon Shneyer, Philadelphia 1:57 Amanda can this be archived? Amanda Nicholson, WCV 1:57
- Sure. Here's my proposal - if one of y'all wants to copy/paste format on a word doc, I'll
turn to a PDF and will post on the website somewhere! JudyVA 1:57 Yes please! PaulaR 2:06 I copied and pasted...needs a bunch of clean up though, because your avatars come out as large
- images. Are you o.k. with doing the clean up?