Concerning Bradford Pears (and Cleveland Pears, same species): DO NOT plant
them for birds/wildlife. Waxwings, Starlings and Robins, among others, do
eat them and then spread the seeds everywhere. The offspring, callery pears,
are extremely invasive and are spreading at an alarming rate throughout the
area. They will likely become as uncontrollable as all the other invasives
(privet, mimosa, etc.). Unlike Bradford's, callery pears have large thorns,
making control a painful and sometimes expensive (flat tires on equipment)
endeavor. They can turn a nice grass field (Grasshopper/Henslow's sparrow,
quail habitat) into a thorn scrub thicket in less than five years. They also
tolerate fire well, so that is not a management option for grasslands. We (TVA)
fight them constantly on our grasslands and, unfortunately, may be losing the
war.
Damien Simbeck
Killen AL
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On Tuesday, August 30, 2016 Greg Tomerlin <cedarbees@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Just a note on attracting drupe- and fruit-loving birds. Keep your eyes on poke
sallet along the roadside and brush piles this time of year. Cedar waxwings
love those deep purple poke berries. Then long about November and December,
before any hard freezes, cedar waxwings will eat those tiny pears on Bradford
pear trees. I'm not sure if they like the pears or eat them out of necessity
because they leave way more hanging than they eat, but they do eat some of them.
And finally, our red mulberry tree attracts rose-breasted grosbeaks and cedar
waxwings every spring. It also attracts robins, starlings and mockingbirds. The
rose-breasted grosbeaks look like they've been in a fistfight after just a few
minutes chomping on those juicy blueberries. Their beaks and faces look
bloodied.
Best, Greg
cedarbees@xxxxxxxxx
On Mon, Aug 29, 2016 at 3:23 PM, <kde@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Just be sure to plant the native Red Mulberry and not the highly invasive,
non-native White Mulberry.
Dean Edwards
Knoxville, TN
On Mon, 29 Aug 2016, Jesse wrote:
If you have the room for it, I would like to suggest you plant a Mulberry
tree. We have two in our yard and they are full of birds when berries are
ripe. Only problem is that if allowed to, the trees will cover a pretty good
area and may need to be cut back every few years. Well worth the bother
though if you like birds to be happy in your yard. We planted the first one so
birds would eat the berries instead of our pie cherries. Works great as both
have fruit at same time.
Jesse Livingston,
North Old Troy Rd, Obion county
Troy, TN
