Site 10

A thicket is defined as a dense copse of small trees.  The American Wild Plum thicket before you is a cluster of fruit bearing trees that provides food, a windbreak, and shelter to birds and mammals.  It’s an extremely hardy little tree that withstands weather extremes and keeps soil from eroding by spreading its “sucker roots” underground.   Wild plum thickets are one of nature’s best ways to support the local wildlife in the area.

To begin, in the spring the plum tree blooms beautiful clusters of white flowers for pollinators to harvest nectar as well as to spread pollen to other nearby trees to create plums.  By late summer, fruit ripens in the sun and falls to the ground for birds and mammals to eat.  As the seasons change to colder temperatures, the tree bark can be gnawed by deer, raccoons, squirrels, and other small mammals in need of nutrients to sustain themselves when other food sources are scarce.  

The thicket itself is so dense with four-inch leaves and many compact, spreading branches with prickly thorns, that it makes a fabulous windbreak out in the open area for all kinds of birds to rest within the branches or hunker down low to the ground.  In fact, by being a year-round food source and a shelter from the elements and predators, wild plum thickets become permanent homes for turkeys, quail, and rabbits.  White-tail deer utilize thickets as a nursery for their fawns, as well as a safe place to bed in the winter.  

In this region of the O.W.L.S. park, one should hear and see more birds in the area. Below are the diverse birds you could find. 

• Kansas Bird Look-up 

• Northern Bobwhite

• Meadow Lark

• Cardinal

• Morning Dove

• American Robin

• Blue Jay

• Black-capped Chickadee

• American Goldfinch

• Carolina Wren

• House Finch