Providing Corridors for Wildlife
A homemade bird box stands over the garden, with the grape-vine tangle in the background. Hidden down a gravel drive off Alexander Road in south Charlotte are several acres of privately-owned wildlife habitat, many of which have been protected and cultivated for more than 35 years.
Former landscape designer Diana Travis along with her partner, MaryAnn Mueller oversee a 5 ½ acre woodland getaway they call “Big Cedars”, plus another 2 acres where their house sits. Certified with the National Wildlife Federation as official wildlife habitat back in 1990, the land, along with several neighbors’ lots, totals almost 23 wildlife-friendly acres, smack-dab in the middle of an otherwise urban/suburban landscape.
One of the first NWF certified habitats in Charlotte, this wildlife haven is now joined by more than 900 others leading to Charlotte’s recent recognition as a “Community Wildlife Habitat”, the largest city to obtain such certification east of the Mississippi River.
Blooming native dogwoods and redbuds light up Diana’s area in early April. These, combined with some unusual white pines (normally a mountain species), Arizona cypress, and huge Osmanthus bushes provide much cover for local songbirds.
“I’m a firm believer in planting native plants,” Diana emphasizes, “but some nice non-native species still provide good cover for wildlife.”
“I will never plant a kousa dogwood,” she counters. “Our native dogwoods can feed some 80 species of birds, while the other kind is only good for feeding yellow jackets.”
On one recent afternoon, a mallard duck waddles up to nibble on corn she put out beneath a sweetgum tree. Here, a good hundred feet out from her house, she stocks a squirrel feeder and scatters chopped apples for the deer. “One evening we saw five bucks standing out here,” she says, noting that the feeding station also keeps the squirrels away from the bird feeders she placed closer to the house.
A brown-headed nuthatch flies in and out of a bird-house oddly placed ON the house near the front door. Apparently the cute, little brown bird (a cavity-nester that also depends on pine tree habitat) had chipped a hole in the siding to nest there last year. Diana found a bird-house specifically designed for that species at Renfro Hardware in Matthews. She simply mounted the box over last year’s hole, and the birds came back to use it.
Several other sizes and styles of bird houses flank a large fenced vegetable/flower/herb garden near the house. Diana reports that they usually have at least 3 or 4 occupied with nests each season. One of her favorite “bird” places, however, is an overgrown grape vine that forms a huge brown tangle in early spring. Unkempt and untrimmed, the natural maze provides a popular wildlife hiding place.
A native yaupon holly at the back of the house also provides special bird entertainment. With its plentiful red berries, the tree is likely to host two to three dozen cedar waxwings in the winter months.
A winding creek runs through Diana’s back acreage where she sometimes camps out in her very own storage-shed-turned-wilderness-cabin with an added screened in porch. “We’ve seen fox, deer, opossum, owls, raccoons, and field mice,” she lists. Scattered persimmon trees add to the wildlife appeal along with the red cedars.
“Cedars provide a lot of berries in winter,” Diana explains, adding that birds also like to strip the flakey bark to add to their nests.
Lucky to have wildlife-loving neighbors, Diana and MaryAnn appreciate one adjacent property with a large pond and another where a lazy horse hangs out calmly in a green pasture. The total of 23 neighborhood acres joins several other acres of non-developed land behind the Oxford Hunt subdivision.
“Providing corridors for wildlife is important too, because wildlife needs to be able to move from place to place,” Diana explains. “If a fox has a litter of pups, they need a territory to grow in. They can’t all just stay on one small lot.
She insists that providing wildlife with food, water, cover, and places to raise young benefits her own peace of mind. “It’s nice to be able to get out apart from all the traffic, the buildings, and loud music,” she says. “It’s such a wonderful experience to sit and see something wild that’s not bound by our boundaries, that’s not part of our world.”
Former landscape designer Diana Travis along with her partner, MaryAnn Mueller oversee a 5 ½ acre woodland getaway they call “Big Cedars”, plus another 2 acres where their house sits. Certified with the National Wildlife Federation as official wildlife habitat back in 1990, the land, along with several neighbors’ lots, totals almost 23 wildlife-friendly acres, smack-dab in the middle of an otherwise urban/suburban landscape.
One of the first NWF certified habitats in Charlotte, this wildlife haven is now joined by more than 900 others leading to Charlotte’s recent recognition as a “Community Wildlife Habitat”, the largest city to obtain such certification east of the Mississippi River.
Blooming native dogwoods and redbuds light up Diana’s area in early April. These, combined with some unusual white pines (normally a mountain species), Arizona cypress, and huge Osmanthus bushes provide much cover for local songbirds.
“I’m a firm believer in planting native plants,” Diana emphasizes, “but some nice non-native species still provide good cover for wildlife.”
“I will never plant a kousa dogwood,” she counters. “Our native dogwoods can feed some 80 species of birds, while the other kind is only good for feeding yellow jackets.”
On one recent afternoon, a mallard duck waddles up to nibble on corn she put out beneath a sweetgum tree. Here, a good hundred feet out from her house, she stocks a squirrel feeder and scatters chopped apples for the deer. “One evening we saw five bucks standing out here,” she says, noting that the feeding station also keeps the squirrels away from the bird feeders she placed closer to the house.
A brown-headed nuthatch flies in and out of a bird-house oddly placed ON the house near the front door. Apparently the cute, little brown bird (a cavity-nester that also depends on pine tree habitat) had chipped a hole in the siding to nest there last year. Diana found a bird-house specifically designed for that species at Renfro Hardware in Matthews. She simply mounted the box over last year’s hole, and the birds came back to use it.
Several other sizes and styles of bird houses flank a large fenced vegetable/flower/herb garden near the house. Diana reports that they usually have at least 3 or 4 occupied with nests each season. One of her favorite “bird” places, however, is an overgrown grape vine that forms a huge brown tangle in early spring. Unkempt and untrimmed, the natural maze provides a popular wildlife hiding place.
A native yaupon holly at the back of the house also provides special bird entertainment. With its plentiful red berries, the tree is likely to host two to three dozen cedar waxwings in the winter months.
A winding creek runs through Diana’s back acreage where she sometimes camps out in her very own storage-shed-turned-wilderness-cabin with an added screened in porch. “We’ve seen fox, deer, opossum, owls, raccoons, and field mice,” she lists. Scattered persimmon trees add to the wildlife appeal along with the red cedars.
“Cedars provide a lot of berries in winter,” Diana explains, adding that birds also like to strip the flakey bark to add to their nests.
Lucky to have wildlife-loving neighbors, Diana and MaryAnn appreciate one adjacent property with a large pond and another where a lazy horse hangs out calmly in a green pasture. The total of 23 neighborhood acres joins several other acres of non-developed land behind the Oxford Hunt subdivision.
“Providing corridors for wildlife is important too, because wildlife needs to be able to move from place to place,” Diana explains. “If a fox has a litter of pups, they need a territory to grow in. They can’t all just stay on one small lot.
She insists that providing wildlife with food, water, cover, and places to raise young benefits her own peace of mind. “It’s nice to be able to get out apart from all the traffic, the buildings, and loud music,” she says. “It’s such a wonderful experience to sit and see something wild that’s not bound by our boundaries, that’s not part of our world.”
Diana Travis in front of a native dogwood on her wildlife-friendly property.
