Animal visitors Archives - Buffalo-NiagaraGardening.com

Sign up now for course from Pollinator Partnership

Get scientific know-how through the Pollinator Steward Certification from Pollinator.org. This course is ideal for home gardeners, land managers (large and small), farmers and anyone that wants to do more to support pollinators. Topics include an introduction to the world of pollinators, how they live and thrive, and how we all can help. Details will be provided on habitat creation for pollinators in many landscapes, including parks, rights-of-way, urban gardens and farms. Additional information on pollinator identification and how to…

Nov 19, 2024

swallowtail butterfly in Amherst NY copyright Stofko

Leaf litter isn’t trash—it’s gold!

by Connie Oswald Stofko “One of the craziest things people do is to rake up leaves and put them in a bag,” said Tom Kerr, senior naturalist at Buffalo Audubon Society. “Leaf litter is important, but some people scoop it up and throw it away!” Why you should leave the leaves Remember the food chain in science class? A plant is food for a certain insect, and that insect is food for a bird, and so on. If you took…

Oct 29, 2024

Plant garlic now, plus more from WNY Gardening Matters

It’s time to plant garlic. Find out about that and more in the newest edition of WNY Gardening Matters, produced by the Master Gardeners of Cornell Cooperative Extension in Erie County. See these articles:…

Oct 22, 2024

Bat Week! Why you should help

Bats are insect-eating machines, eating thousands of flying insects in a single night! That’s one reason why gardeners should help bats. And one way you can help bats is by planting a pollinator garden. The plants attract insects, and the insects pollinate the plants. Bats are a player in that, too, by keeping the insect population in check. We have nine species of bats in New York State and they all eat insects, according to the New York State Department…

Oct 22, 2024

goldenrod soldier beetle on goldenrod in Amherst NY

Pretty beetle helps gardeners, but can turn into a zombie

by Connie Oswald Stofko The goldenrod soldier beetle is a native insect that eats aphids and pollinates plants, which is good for our gardens. Yay! But if it comes into contact with a certain fungus, the unlucky beetle can die, become a zombie and help spread the fungus to other goldenrod soldier beetles. That’s sad for the individual beetles, but it’s not something gardeners need to worry about. Our garden helper The larvae of the beetle feed on soft-bodied insects…

Aug 27, 2024

Hippodamia convergens, commonly known as the convergent lady beetle

Learn about ladybugs in the newest issue of the Optimistic Gardener

Ladybugs aren’t bugs at all. They’re beetles. That’s just one thing you’ll learn in the newest edition of the Optimistic Gardener. The publication is produced by the Master Gardeners of Cornell Cooperative Extension in Chautauqua and Cattaraugus counties. Find the newsletter on the gardening page of Cornell Cooperative Extension in Chautauqua County (on the lefthand side) and in Cattaraugus County (on the righthand side)….

Jul 16, 2024

Nothing like an outdoor wedding to jumpstart a backyard makeover

by Connie Oswald Stofko Jen and Joe Weber moved their family into their new home three years ago. When they got there, they found that the previous owners had planted bishop’s weed (also called goutweed), a nasty, very aggressive plant that spreads easily and is hard to get rid of. The bishop’s weed is still there, stretching 66 feet along one side of the house. Other projects, such as fixing “the path to nowhere,” haven’t been started yet, either, and…

Jun 4, 2024

Is a plant from South America better than a cultivar in WNY?

by Connie Oswald Stofko A reader contacted me regarding a previous article on zinnias. The reader wanted native zinnias, and the zinnias described in the article were all cultivars, not native plants. No one around here sells native zinnias because zinnias aren’t native to Western New York. In the United States, zinnias are native only to the Southwest. Their range stretches all the way to South America. My reader replied: “I understand this, but they are at least native to…

May 28, 2024

Bear sighted in Batavia; what to do if you see one

by Connie Oswald Stofko A bear was spotted walking through a resident’s yard in Batavia last week. You can see the resident’s video here. This isn’t the first sighting of bears in populated areas of Western New York. I wrote about bears that were seen in Cheektowaga and Lancaster (suburbs of Buffalo) in 2020. The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) said then that they had begun to see a rise in reported sightings of black bears in…

May 14, 2024

Baby wildlife: If you care, leave them there

Every year, people scoop up young wild animals thinking the animals are orphaned or neglected. They take the young animals to a wildlife rehabilitator, or worse, attempt to raise the young animals themselves. In many cases, this is unnecessary or even harmful, according to this page from the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC). The most common young animals to be mistakenly “kidnapped” by humans are fawns, cottontail rabbits and fledgling birds. It’s important to understand the normal behavior for these…

Apr 23, 2024