Amanda McNulty

Host at Making It Grow

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Articles

If your yard's big enough, plant an oak tree.

5 days ago | southcarolinapublicradio.org | Amanda McNulty

Hello, I'm Amanda McNulty with Clemson Extension and Making It Grow. Thirty years ago, I got some small white oak seedlings, then planted them in my yard. Now I have five great big oak trees. And thank goodness, as oak trees serve as the larval food source for almost a thousand different caterpillars. And fortuitously, these trees are growing in a natural area. No fancy mondo grass or such under them, as most caterpillars drop from the trees and burrow into soil or leaf litter to pupate.
You are nature's best hope.

6 days ago | southcarolinapublicradio.org | Amanda McNulty

Hello, I'm Amanda McNulty with Clemson Extension and Making it Grow. You are nature's best hope. That's the good news from Professor Doug Tallamy, who's written a book by that same name. Although we've lost 3 billion nesting birds in the past 50 years, you, regardless of the size of your yard, can add plants that are the larval food sources for caterpillars.
Birds are having trouble finding enough caterpillars to raise their young.

1 week ago | southcarolinapublicradio.org | Amanda McNulty

Hello, I'm Amanda McNulty of Clemson Extension and Making It Grow. The late Rudy Manke, naturalist extraordinaire, often talked about how a certain animal or plant was recycled, that is, when it was eaten. Well, caterpillars are the best food to be recycled into baby birds, and caterpillars can only eat the leaves of certain native plants. Even birds that are seed eaters as adults have to search for caterpillars when feeding their young.
Larval food plants

1 week ago | southcarolinapublicradio.org | Amanda McNulty

Hello, I'm Amanda McNulty of Clemson Extension and Making It Grow. Entomologist Doug Tallamy's Homegrown National Park movement strives to put native plants that caterpillars eat back into suburban yards. All of us are horrified to hear that North America has lost 3 billion nesting birds in the last 30 years, mostly due to our planting non-native species in our yards. Boxwoods, azaleas, crepe myrtles…lovely to look at, but dead zones for caterpillars.
What does entomology have to do with bird decline?

1 week ago | southcarolinapublicradio.org | Amanda McNulty

Hello, I'm Amanda McNulty with Clemson Extension and Making it Grow. In North America, we've lost three billion (yes, billion with a "B") breeding birds in the past 50 years. Doug Tallamy, an entomologist, someone who specializes in the study of insects, recently spoke about this topic in Columbia. What does entomology have to do with bird decline? Well, 97% of land birds feed their young caterpillars. Even birds that are primarily seed eaters must feed their babies insects.
'Listen to the Mockingbird'

2 weeks ago | southcarolinapublicradio.org | Amanda McNulty

Hello, I’m Amanda McNulty with Clemson Extension and Making It Grow. I’d never looked up the song, “Listen to the Mockingbird,” before writing radio this week. Turns out, it’s a poignant tale written by Steve Forbert about someone whose beloved had died.
The significance of the mockingbird in American literature

2 weeks ago | southcarolinapublicradio.org | Amanda McNulty

Hello, I’m Amanda McNulty with Clemson Extension and Making It Grow. In the book To Kill a Mockingbird, Atticus Finch tells his children, “It’s a sin to kill a mockingbird." Puzzled, his daughter Scout asks their cook, Miss Maudie, what he means. “Your father’s right, Mockingbirds don’t do one thing but make music for us to enjoy... but sing their hearts out for us.
Why Texas chose the northern mockingbird as its state bird

3 weeks ago | southcarolinapublicradio.org | Amanda McNulty

Hello, I’m Amanda McNulty with Clemson Extension and Making It Grow. Texas chose the northern mockingbird as its state bird, with this legislation -- “a fighter for the protection of his home, falling, if need be, in its defense, like any true Texan." Like Texans, they are mostly meat eaters, insects instead of beef, but also fruits and berries.
Mocking birds: the many-tongued mimics

3 weeks ago | southcarolinapublicradio.org | Amanda McNulty

Hello, I’m Amanda McNulty with Clemson Extension and Making It Grow. Mocking birds get their name honestly – they can repeat all sorts of sounds, from creaking gates opening to dogs and sirens, my friend Ann Nolte heard one imitating a car horn. Their scientific name, Mimus polyglottos, means many-tongued mimic. They compose their own songs, repeating them over and over, singing songs from fifty other birds, and adding those mechanical sounds they hear from the environment.
The fiercely protective mockingbird

3 weeks ago | southcarolinapublicradio.org | Amanda McNulty

Hello, I’m Amanda McNulty with Clemson Extension and Making It Grow. When I was walking into work recently, a crow flew by being attacked by a mockingbird, who kept pursuing the apparently frantic bird. Mockingbirds are fiercely protective of their space and especially their nests. We couldn’t use our clothes line for several months in warm weather as one of those birds would dive bomb us.