Nesting Habitat and Pollinators

Gone Catch'N

Gone Catch'N

New member
I'm looking for information on how to improving nesting habitat. The areas include mostly brome grass and/or switch grass. The area is located in the central pheasant belt of SD with annual precipitation of 21 inches. Helpful information would include personal experience, articles, or step by step visuals on the optimal process for success.


Biologists and the NRCS have been helpful but I feel I'm lacking specifics for success. There are a lot of details I have a hard time remembering. Based on my own experience, one planting of warm season grasses was a success the first year and on another planting I've struggled to control the weed for 5 years with very little success. So I realized there are many variables involved.

I'm not a farmer so I have limited access to equipement. One option I've considered, is trying a test plot on an area of brome grass cut last summer. In early May, when the brome grass turns green, I could apply 2 qt/acre of round-up. Then rent the local NRCS Traux seeder and try 3 different stripes with the following: plain alfalfa, PF pollinator mix, and plain pollinators. I'm not sure on specifics to accomplish a successful goal.

Any information or suggestions would be helpful.
 
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Welcome to the forum.

There are a number of people here that can give you direction. I do not have experience with brome here in SW Kansas, but can talk about grasses in general. The grass mix here that was planted for CRP back in the 80's, was just that a grass mix. What happens with grass is that it develops a dense understory of thatch and an open overstory. Just the opposite of what a game bird needs. We have made improvements to our habitat by grass disturbance by disk or fire then interseeding with forbs and legumes. I have not done any grass disturbance with herbicides, so can't talk to that. After we have burned, we find that the grass is really not that thick, but really clumps with lots of bare ground. This bare ground provides soil that can support forbs or legumes within the grass stand creating an open understory and a closed overstory. Another thing absent in grass stands is insects. On the other hand forbs, legumes and pollinators attract many insects needed to raise a brood of chicks.

Annual weeds are not bad and actually good. Just a strip disked across a stand of grass will allow weeds which will benefit the birds.

I am sure some of the great habitat minds of the forum will give you a better answer, but that is my two cents worth.
 
Your in an area that an alfalfa mix would work well.
Use Ranger or Vernal Alfalfa at 5 lbs per acre.
2 lbs Switch grass, 2lbs western Wheat Grass, 2lbs Little Blue Stem or Side Oats Gramma.
The Switch Grass is added, otherwise this was/is a common CRP mix for Western ND and Easter MT.
Pheasants do VERY well with this mix.
After the Round UP it would be normal to disk and work the soil. Tilling however will also get weeds growing. Weeds are not a bad thing as far as birds are concerned.
No till would suppress weed germination to a point. You'll still get weeds, especially foxtails.
 
You have some great ideas. I've planted the tall wheatgrass/common alfalfa/birdsfoot trefoil mix with great results in central S.D. This last fall I planted sixty more acres and changed the mix to include mammoth red clover to the above mix plus just two weeks ago frost seeded some sainfoin as well for the birds and the bees. Having a variety of legumes seems to work pretty well.

I hate to wish my life away but I am very anxious for this year to progress and see the results. The new planting of tall wheatgrass was already on it's way last fall but the soil temp was too cold for the alfalfa/birdsfoot trefoil/mammoth red clover to germinate so I think the frost seeding of the sainfoin should have a chance once the soil temps warm up with the wet soils conditions I currently have.

I'm thinking of planting a full qtr to the same this year as well as it has been crp for a long long time prior to me owning this property. It is infiltrated with brome which I don't care for at all as I didn't reup and have the freedom to manage it how I would like.
 
Bob, I can see where Birds foot Trefoil would be very pheasant friendly. :thumbsup:
I forgot to add a pound of Sweet Clover per acre too.
The common Alfalfa is so important as you know. Insects, canopy, heavy seeding, blooms from June until freeze, suppresses weed growth with shading. The shading very much will keep grasses from sodding near the plant. Common/Heirloom alfalfas are tall and stemmy and leafy and WON'T sod.
Winter cover except for extremes.
You have a huge advantage if you don't have to go with USDA guidelines. :cheers:
 
Gone CatchN, you have received several very good and plausible responses so far. There are any number of things that will meet the needs you list. I would ask you to consider what is over the fence so that you don't supply a habitat type that will be largely wasted as it might already be provided in abundance over the fence. Further, you didn't mention how large an area you're talking about. Many nests are located within 10 yards of the edge of the nesting cover so newly hatched chicks can move freely into brood-rearing cover. The larger your patch, the more plausible it is for you to mix nesting plants directly with brood-rearing cover or what you might be calling pollinator plantings. You can do this by direct mixing of the seed in the planter, or you could plant alternating stands of nesting and brood-rearing cover types. As Myron indicated, you will eventually be dealing with thatch buildup that inhibits chick mobility in the nesting cover and a prescribed burn or other disturbance may be needed to knock that back. The pollinator/brood habitat strips may well act as a fire break in such cases and can be designed to function as such in the planning of your plantings. Knowing you're in a cool-season part of the country, having the Western Wheatgrass component may well be a significant plus, taking advantage of no or slow growth of the warm-season components for a good part of the growing season. With the snow cover you can develop, I would recommend the little bluestem over the sideoats just for the added cover value. Locally adapted clovers or alfalfas could work well in the brood componenet and probably would be less expensive than native forb mixes.
 
A lot of great information here! I'm working some long hours this weekend and have not had time to analyze it all. Hope to have more time next week. Thanks for all the input.
 
Gone Catch'N said:
I'm looking for information on how to improving nesting habitat. The areas include mostly brome grass and/or switch grass. The area is located in the central pheasant belt of SD with annual precipitation of 21 inches. Helpful information would include personal experience, articles, or step by step visuals on the optimal process for success.


Biologists and the NRCS have been helpful but I feel I'm lacking specifics for success. There are a lot of details I have a hard time remembering. Based on my own experience, one planting of warm season grasses was a success the first year and on another planting I've struggled to control the weed for 5 years with very little success. So I realized there are many variables involved.

I'm not a farmer so I have limited access to equipement. One option I've considered, is trying a test plot on an area of brome grass cut last summer. In early May, when the brome grass turns green, I could apply 2 qt/acre of round-up. Then rent the local NRCS Traux seeder and try 3 different stripes with the following: plain alfalfa, PF pollinator mix, and plain pollinators. I'm not sure on specifics to accomplish a successful goal.

Any information or suggestions would be helpful.
Click to expand...

There are a few ways to get rid of brome for planting nesting cover. If you want to get alfalfa to grow in your brood mix killing the brome is important before you seed. I've had good luck tilling areas I want to reseed and planting a food plot like sorghum for a summer and then reseed the area the next spring with a brooding mix.
 
Native Asters provide a great benefit to wildlife.
I've seen fallow fields dominated by Asters that held song birds, pheasants and rabbits through to the end of a snowy February late season in N.W. Pa.
The woody stemmed 3' tall brushy plants hold up to wind and provide a canopy against snow cover. The plant is not so dense that it crowds out other low growing forbs. Birds feed on the Aster seed tufts and the flowers are beneficial to a wide range of insects.
I think it's a mistake not to include them in upland wildlife plantings.
 
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