When Esther and Eddie Brodoski moved to their quiet, tidy mobile home park in South Reno more than 25 years ago, they heard birds singing—robins, doves, blue jays. Esther points to a tree across the street.
“That tree used to be full of quail,” she says. “We used to have them up and down the street.” But over the years, and particularly this year, the Brodoskis haven’t seen many birds, bees or insects.
“In the spring, there seemed to be less and less,” says Esther. “Then it just dawned on me, there’s just none here. … We have flowers, but I don’t see any bees around them. I haven’t noticed any bugs. It’s just kind of a mystery.”
She says the sides of the streets are sprayed for weeds. And two jugs of Roundup and Seven pesticides sit at a neighbor’s patio table, ready to attack incoming black widows. Other than those signs, Esther is out of theories.
The park is tucked off South Virginia and is abutted by a field where cattle sometimes graze. Since the Brodoskis have lived here, they’ve seen what was mostly ranchland sprout shopping centers and strip malls.
Neighbor Larry Gilchrist tells Esther he sees quail along his fence and by the field all the time.
“Then I’m crazy,” says Esther, befuddled.
“But not bees,” he says. “I haven’t seen any bees.”
JoAnne Skelly, a University of Nevada Cooperative Extension educator, says several factors could play a role in Esther’s mystery. For one, there is a decline in pollinators like bees across the United States, with much news ink spilled over “colony collapse disorder” and disappearing bees. However, Renoites who’ve planted things bees love, like catmint, lavender and Russian sage, have likely seen bees this year. A factor in the bird decline could be neighborhood cats, for whom quail are easy prey.
Spraying could be at play, too. Most insecticide labels discourage spraying when bees and birds are most active, such as the morning. But that’s also when it’s less windy, so people sometimes spray then.
And while the Brodoski’s mobile home park hasn’t changed much itself—the same 200 units as ever, says Eddie—the area surrounding it has. Skelly points out nearby Bishop Manogue High School, and the shopping malls and housing developments of Damonte Ranch.
“There was nothing from Meadowood Mall to Mount Rose Highway,” says Skelly. “Over the years, the habitats have changed completely.”
Skelly says that if Esther misses the birds and bees, there are some things she can do: “Put plants in that attract birds and different pollinators. Provide water sources. Provide shelter.”
Skelly discourages using bird feeders during the summer, because more nutritious foods are available. If you feed them when it’s colder, feed them all winter, she says, “because they will have missed their migratory opportunity, and now there’s a whole group of birds who aren’t getting any food sources.”
As for Esther, all she knows is, “I miss my birds and my bees.”
And for good reason, says Skelly. They tend to make the world go round. “You’d have no food if you had no bees. Bees pollinate everything. … And birds eat insects in the yard that might be considered detrimental, like ants and aphids, so you don’t have to spray. And they’re fun to look at.”