Page 22 - Sonoma County Gazette Juy 2019

Honey of an Idea for Creating Great Cuttings!
Song Sparrows are Our Often
Overlooked Miniature Musicians
By Lisa Hug
This summer I would like to feature a common, yet often overlooked bird in our area—the Song Sparrow.
This bird does not get a lot of
attention. It is small and brown.
By Dr. Bill MacElroy
Early summer is a great time to propagate your favorite plants from cuttings.
While many plants are quite easy to root from a cutting, there are a couple of tips to give you the greatest chance of success.
First, make sure you are taking the cutting from a healthy plant.
If the plant is showing signs of disease
or stress, you’re probably going to be disappointed with the result. Second, making sure your tools, gloves and rooting medium (soil) are as clean and sterile as possible. In both cases, it is bacteria and/
or fungus that will thwart the production
of new roots. The most common cause of failure is that the portion of the plant cutting below the soil level rots.
I’ve already lost most of you with “small and brown.” But, wait! It also has streaks of various shades of sepia, cinnamon, sienna, umber, chocolate, slate, ebony, onyx and taupe. Okay, various shades of black and brown against an off-white background. Song sparrows often skulk in low bushes, so you have to be aware of them to notice them. Once you do, “they’re everywhere.”
The process of taking a cutting is very easy. First, find an area of new growth
on the plant you want to replicate. On a lavender, this will generally be on the lower 1/3 of the plant during high growth spurt seasons. In general, you want a four-inch portion of the plant that does not include a bud or bloom stalk. When a bloom bud is present, the plant will put all its energy into the flower, not the roots.
One of the most widespread, popular, and commonbirds in North America... it has its very own Facebook Page: facebook.com/ groups/489482811234717/.
Second, remove about 1/2 of the leaves from the lower half of the cutting. The tiny wounds where the leaves were attached
to the stem are where the new roots will emerge once put in the soil. Your local garden shop will have a mix of soil and amendments that are specifically designed for rooting.
Next, you want to help the cutting survive by protecting it from bacterial and fungal infection and to encourage rooting. In some cases, people dip the cutting stem into a synthetic rooting hormone powder. But if you want to have an organic and natural way to both protect and encourage rooting, try dipping the stem (where you removed the leaves) into raw, unprocessed honey.
It also contains several highly digestible sugars that help trigger the plant’s growth mechanism. Be sure that you are using raw honey, because a lot of the honey that is available at a local grocery store has been processed or pasteurized, killing off a lot of the natural benefits.
One month later, they should be ready to plant outdoors!
Dr. Bill MacElroy is a member of the Sonoma County Beekeepers’ Association and is the general manager of Monte-Bellaria, a West Sonoma County lavender farm. www.monte-bellaria.com. This is the season of FULL BLOOM at lavender farms so don’t miss this opportunity to see, smell, and purchase plants.
22 - www.sonomacountygazette.com - 7/19
This bird can really sing. If you have ever
been on any trail in Sonoma County, you
have heard song sparrows. Males sing year-
round. They have one of the most musical
songs of any local bird. It is quite ornate. It
only lasts a couple seconds, but it is repeated frequently. The first few notes are very clear, followed by a raspy trill and ending with a few more clear notes. Interestingly, ornithologists have recorded over 500 variations of this basic song structure – but it always somehow recognizable as “song sparrow.” An individual song sparrow can have up to 15 different variations on its own song.
Raw honey works because it is a natural anti-biotic and anti-fungal.
Song sparrows are so abundant in this area is because they can have three
or sometimes even more broods of young per season. That means that a pair of song sparrows will make 3 different nests and each nest may raise between one and five young.
Now, just carefully insert the cutting into your rooting medium in a small pot with holes in the bottom. If you poke the medium with a pencil to make a hole prior to inserting, it will help prevent bruising the stem. Place your pots in a shallow pan to allow for watering from beneath (allowing the moisture to wick up through the soil); that keeps the water from jostling the cutting. Keep the medium moist (not overly wet) and within a week, you should begin to have roots appearing.
A pair of song sparrows will start nest construction in this area in March. The female does most of the nest building, “often with intense interest of the male. The male devotes himself more to song than to labor (doi.org/10.2173/bna.704.)” The female will incubate the eggs for approximately 13 days. Once the eggs hatch and the nestlings appear, the male begins to help the female by bringing insect food to the young. After about 16 days, the nestlings leave the nest as short-winged, bob-tailed “fledglings.” These fledglings will often be cared for by the male, while the lays another clutch of eggs. While the male is feeding fledglings from the first nest, the female is incubating eggs in a second nest. This process can be repeated one or even two more times in a season.
Plants that are great for creating clones directly in potting medium (versus sitting in a glass of water) include:
Song sparrows actually have a sort of “language.“ The song described in the previous paragraph is generally used by the male to advertise a nesting territory that it has chosen. It also serves to announce to the female that he is available
to be a mate. Hence, the song is heard most often in the spring. Occasionally, females will sing to drive away competing females from their mate, but
• Fuchsia
• Geraniums • Lavender • Oregano
• Rosemary • Roses
• Sage
this is rare. Females more frequently use a descending gurgling warble to communicate that they are near a nest. Juveniles will use a high-pitched persistent “seep” to attract adults carrying food to them. Song sparrows can often be heard giving single loud “chump” calls. This is a danger warning. It is often used to communicate that humans or house cats (their number one threat) are nearby. They also have a separate “tsik” note to indicate that a predatory hawk is nearby.
What it lacks in bright colors,
it makes up for in song repertoire.
Young males begin practicing their songs when they are about 15 days old. They imitate their father and other males in the vicinity. At this stage, their song is malleable. Sometimes, they will lay low in a bush and experiment with different song variations quietly. But, by the time the bird is a year old; they have formed their adult songs and are no longer capable of learning any new notes to add to their repertoire.
Song sparrows are abundant in the area and can be observed by hiking in almost any local park. Good places to see them are on the Laguna de Santa Rosa Trail, Ellis Creek Recycling Facility, and Annadel-Trione State Park.