Nature Connection: Nature’s Cleanup Crew

As the light seeps under my window shades earlier each morning and lingers longer each evening, I have noticed that there’s a lot of cleanup activity going on quietly all around my yard as well as all the places I’ve been walking.

Much has been written about leaving the leaves and old grasses to allow our sleepy, dormant pollinators to wake up, and although nature leaves the leaves year round, I know many are antsy, wanting to clean up their yards and gardens as soon as possible. If you can clean up without bagging in plastic, burning or blowing it all away, go for it. Raking works. Leaving a pile for another week or so works. 

Making a pile in the back of your property to toss lawn and garden clippings all year long works best. There are many ways to make your own compost, and although a random pile in the back of your yard may not compost as quickly or as perfectly as some may want, it does create very usable compost over time. It also provides cover and homes for a lot of nature’s cleanup crew.

We have a number of birds in our yard that are actively building nests. I’m not sure where all the nests are yet because I work hard at not snooping and distracting them, but I see them working hard gathering materials. 

The song sparrows gather the old, faded grasses. The cardinals do, too. They march around the yard pulling out the old grasses until they have a bill full of them. Then they look around and fly to some random perches to make sure no one is watching before tucking into their nesting place.

The pair of blue jays that uses our yard has had a different approach. They have been looking for broken twigs on the lawn and in our deliberate “shrubby” area that we leave pretty wild year round. Apparently, we didn’t have an adequate number of old twigs on the ground, for they have been pulling at old twigs that are still attached, yanking them right off the bushes. I think some supple new twigs get pulled off as well.

Bird nests may appear randomly built, but the truth is they are carefully made. The outside is made of rough twigs, bark, long grasses and other things that help disguise the nest. The inside, however, is often much softer, lined with fine grasses, feathers and maybe even tufts of fur. Some birds, like titmice, use shed snake skins on occasion, while others, such as catbirds, often use things like plastic in theirs. My grandmother always put out snips of yarn that we would find in robin nests each spring, and my mother put out the cat fur after combing our long-haired cat. Even as a child I thought this was ironic as I watched chickadees in particular pick up bits of fur. Were they aware the fur came from one of their enemies? If so, were they mocking them? Inquiring minds wanted to know, but to this day I have no answers.

Birds aren’t the only ones using old grasses, twigs and things left on the ground or caught in branches. Insects use old leaves, bark and an assortment of other natural items to build nests or to hide in as they grow and develop. Salamanders love to find old rotting logs to hide under and in, often tunneling under bark that is damp with moss.

Mayflowers are in bloom, and if you look carefully, you will notice that last year’s leaves are fading into the earth as the new, strong leaves take their place. Ants are moving things around as they prepare for the next generation. Different kinds of ants do different things, but many use bits of old leaves and vegetation.

If you find a nice place to sit in the woods and just watch and listen for a bit, you may see a surprising amount of activity going on around you, much of it in miniature. Termites break down old wood, fungi work underground to break down the old leaves, bark and even old bones. Worms and centipedes, rolypolies and spiders all play important roles in the spring cleanup of our fields, woodlands, and yes, our gardens.

We call the animals and plants that break down dead things, animal or plant, decomposers, and there are a large number of them at work every hour of every day. Without them our whole world would look quite different, full of dead things.

When a deer or squirrel dies in the woods, it doesn’t last for long. If it has been killed by a predator, it will be at least half eaten on the spot, but not always. Some animals will return to a kill over days or weeks, but in the meantime, word spreads pretty quickly that food is available, and the scavengers show up. These include vultures, crows and ravens, but coyotes and foxes aren’t snobby when it comes to food choices. They prefer fresh food they’ve killed, but if hungry, theywill help themselves to any carcasses they come across.

Once only the bones are left, other animals step in. Rodents will gnaw on the bones, helping control the growth of their long teeth. Worms and other small invertebrates will slowly break these down as well. In a matter of months no sign will remain, the last of the bones either carried away or sunk into the ground.

In just a few weeks, everything will be lovely and green. We won’t see the old and scattered remains of winter, but they’ll still be there, feeding the future. Nature’s cleanup crew may not be speedy, but it is efficient. Nothing is wasted. We could take a lesson from them.