If you followed the advice to forgo an annual autumn garden cleanup and instead left fallen leaves and dead plant stems in place to provide winter habitat for wildlife, your yard helped lots of local bugs and birds survive the winter and prepare for spring.
Wildlife Sanctuary Almanac: Winter Bird Feeders and Bird Baths
Wildlife Sanctuary Almanac: Sanctuary for Chickadees
Wildlife Sanctuary Almanac: Where Do They Go?
Wildlife Sanctuary Almanac: Grow your own bird feeder for migrating birds
Fall-fruiting native shrubs and trees not only provide nutritious, fatty berries for birds, but also display beautiful fall color. That’s not for our benefit: what’s called foliar fruit flagging is the way the plants signal to birds that fruits are ripe and ready for plucking—just in time for migration.