Ten Things I Learned from Marie Winn

On Saturday a group of nature enthusiasts met at the 92nd St. Y to hear Marie Winn talk about animals and their nocturnal activity in Central Park. She's the author of the new book "Central Park in the Dark."Marie is a grand and gifted storyteller and has been following some of the creatures featured in her talk for many years - the most famous one being Pale Male, the red-tailed hawk who nested on a Fifth Avenue apartment building and had his romance with Lola chronicled in Winn's previous book "Redtails in Love," which was later made into a documentary film. Below are a few highlights of her talk.
"Pale Male" (c) D. Bruce Yolton

1)White Footed Mouse - This is probably the cutest rodent you'll ever see. Problem is, he's very hard to find. The only way they were discovered in Central Park was by analyzing owl pellets. Bone particles found in the owl droppings were taken to the Museum of Natural History to be identified.

2)Robins - Huge numbers of robins visit Central Park. In fact, Central Park has a higher density of robins per square mile than just about any place on earth. One of their favorite trees (at the north end of the Great Lawn) has been given the nickname "All Male Dormitory."

3)Common Grackle

As many as 1000 Common Grackles and starlings fly into 10 trees surrounding the Pulitzer Fountain near the Plaza Hotel (in front of Bergdorf Goodman) to roost overnight at dusk from summer to late fall. It's strange that so many birds arrive every evening with so few people noticing.

4) Owls

Some of the species of owls found in Central Park include Barn Owls, the Great Horned, Saw Whet, and Screech owls, which nest year round in the park's North End. Once, a Boreal Owl showed up near Tavern on the Green and and lots of birders made a pilgrimage to see him. (A "life bird" is a bird seen for the first time in one's life, and the Boreal was on many people's list of "life birds" still to be seen.) The love lives of these owls, their romances and fledgelings, are avidly monitored by the owl enthusiasts that frequent the park. (photo (c) D. Bruce Yolton)

5)Moths -
Many don't know that moths have two pairs of wings - the bright colors and eye-like markings on some of the underwings are used to scare birds away. The largest moth seen in Central Park was the rare Black Witch (shown at left) Others include the Small-Eyed Sphinx, the Plume, the Cabbage Looper, the Ilia, the Sweetheart, the Widow, the Wavy-Lined Emerald and Lobelia Dagger and many others. If you want to be a "Mother" (rhymes with author) don't wear "Off". You can attract moths to your yard with a special moth light.

6) Crickets & Cicadas
A snowy tree cricket is known as the weatherman of the bug world because you can find the approximate ambient Fahrenheit temperature by counting the number of his chirps in a 13 second interval, and then adding 40. These insects can sometimes be identified by their chirps. A cicada emerging from it's nymph shell is an amazing sight - you can actually see the fluid fill the wings.


7)Slugs - All slugs have both male and female organs. Watching them have sex is something everyone needs to do at least once in their life. They entwine around each other and their slime co-mingles to form a beautiful luminescent flower.

8)Stars - The Amatuer Astronomers Association gathers once a year for "Urban Starfest" on the Sheep Meadow. They bring their telescopes and invite the public to join them. Read more at on their website.

9)Bats - Bats find their prey by making high-pitched sounds and listening to the echos they produce when they bounce off their target - a process called echolocation. It's not easy to find bats at night, so people who want to see them often use a bat detector, a hand-held instrument that translates ultrasonic bat songs into frequencies people can hear. Bats typically emit sounds between 20 and 220 kilohertz.

10) A Coyote found in the Park was pursued by 25 people and had to be subdued with tranquilizers. The whole endeavor took close to 20 hours. The year-old coyote, nicknamed "Hal" died mysteriously after being held captive for a week. He stopped breathing while being tagged for release.


Marie speaks about many of these creatures as if they were her friends. Many of them have names and it's not unusual for their offspring can be doted upon as devotedly as grandchildren. People have set up websites and blogs devoted to following their favorites - Bruce Yolton's blog, http://www.urbanhawks.com/ is extraordinary and is updated regularly with bird video and photos.

Marie's website is at http://www.mariewinn.com/ -- find links there to lots more critter photos and resources.

Things That Make Me Sad at Garage Sales

The garage sale season is coming to a close - that makes me sad. They're a little harder to find now on the weekends. When I do visit them, though, it's not unusual for me to see something that makes me sad, nostalgic or regretful. It might be a longing for a tradition that seems to have fallen out of favor, or an article that was clearly of great value to someone at one time, now one step away from the trash can. Sometimes it's hard to resist buying these things, just to make sure they're still appreciated, at least on some level.

Records– I saw some vinyl records the other day that were melted and formed into bowls. I think it's great that they're being recycled, but there's a little pang of sadness at the fact that one small source of (usually rare and forgotten) music has died with each one.

Boy Scout Patches – somebody worked hard for these, but I guess the Eagle has flown the coop.


Weird Needlepoint – I actually "rescued" this one.
Need I explain?

Beatrix Potter Portraits - sad that there was no nursery to decorate when I came across these.

Fur Coat on the Driveway - if we’re going to kill animals to keep ourselves warm, shouldn’t we at least treat these articles fashioned from them with a little reverence and care?

Marriage plaque – does this mean it’s not that way anymore?

Trophies – some guy at our school tag sale actually bought this. That’s almost even sadder.

Handwritten Heirloom Flan Recipe – this turned out to be my friend's recipe from her grandmother – luckily, it was rescued.


Pinto – a classic teenmobile, gone the way of the Edsel, the Valiant and the Yugo....
Tragic!

Embroidered Napkins - people don't seem to do this much anymore. And if they do, it's not with the expectation that it will end up at a garage sale for 50 cents.


Many, many screwdrivers - These were at my own garage sale a few weeks ago, but we were not allowed to sell any.
How many screwdrivers does a man need? More than I thought I guess!

What's the saddest thing you've seen at a tag sale lately?

It's Official: We're Gleeks

Why? Football players dancing to "All the Single Ladies." Matthew Morrison (we LOVE him!) A gay character came out to his father in the fourth episode. It allows me to re-live my former high school drama thespian competion years. It prompts me to have discussions with my daughter about how likely it is to get pregnant when making out in a hot tub (well maybe that's a not-so-fun part). Kristen Chenoweth next week!

Anybody else watching?

Milkweed and Monarchs

Do you have one plant that almost didn't make it? That had a tough start, a near-death experience or serious injury? A plant that you started from seed and thought might never bloom? This year it was my milkweed. It took a long time to germinate. Then half of the seeds died in my closet under a flourescent light, so I tried again in the school greenhouse. They were tiny, tiny, tiny for so long. You can barely see them in this photo in the lower left foreground.

I'm glad I persevered.

This variety is Tropical Milkweed (Asclepias curassavica) and it's an annual. I'm hoping I'll be able to save some seeds and try it again next year, but am looking for some native varieties too. There are over 100 varieties of milkweed that grow in the US. Common milkweed is Asclepias syriaca.

Why grow milkweed? Milkweed is the only plant where a Monarch butterfly will lay her eggs. When they hatch, the caterpillar's favorite food (milkweed leaves) is there in abundance --

(the above photo is courtesy of New York City Parks.)

Turns out milkweed is the only plant that wee Monarch caterpillars can eat.

Milkweed also produces a nectar that butterflies love and a when the pods open, an abundance of seeds, each with it's own silky little parachute that carries it away.

Long ago naturalists discovered that birds would sicken, vomit and even die after eating certain butterflies. The reason the birds got sick is because they were eating Monarchs that were loaded with a cardenolides (cardiac-active steroids) that were still concentrated in their bodies from eating milkweed when they were caterpillars. So the milkweed's even keeping them from getting eaten themselves!

Milkweed is used medicinally to treat bowel and kidney disorders and hemp from it's stems can be twisted into spring or rope.

Sadly, Monarchs are having a tough time finding milkweed. As land is developed in Mexico where they overwinter, and strange weather patterns increase, native milkweed habitats are disappearing. So plant some milkweed, whydontcha? Read more about the milkweed growing campaign and get seeds here.

Late Summer Harvest 2009

With our events starting up this month, school, baseball, and piano lessons underway, and the spring catalog copy deadline looming, it's a safe bet that I won't be spending as much time in the garden or in blogland. Still, we can't let the season pass without a harvest update. My last veggie garden update was way back in July when everything was still green.

I can't say that I really had an abundance of anything but cucumber and zucchini (I was even able to share a few with friends), but I doubt I spent more than $20 on non-fruit produce these past few months.

When I returned from vacation, the Kentucky Wonder pole beans had grown up, and the tomatoes continue to ripen steadily.You can see the pole bean teepee on the right in this photo.


The Purple Rain carrots ( or should I call them Purple RainBOW) were small, but gorgeous.
Look at them sliced. They retain their purple color when cooked, too, unlike some of the other purple veggies.The purple peppers are "Lilac" and the red/green ones are "Carmen." Neither produced as well as I'd hoped - maybe the location was too shady. Check out the canteloupe - this variety is Minnesota Midget. I got three of them about the size of a grapefruit.

My theory about why the carrots are stubby: The bed was very shallow and the soil underneath was dense and clay-like. Next year the beds will be deeper and hopefully that will encourage the carrots to be a little longer!

The zucchini varieties included "Cashflow" and "Jackpot". A couple of them petered out in late August, but two of the vines may have a few more fruits coming! The cucumbers seem to be getting a second wind, too.

Here are my first figs. There are about 8 more still to ripen.

In this photo, from mid-August, I was still harvesting lettuce. It got pretty bitter toward the end of the summer. I tried different methods and discovered that by soaking the lettuce in cold water in the fridge overnight, some of the bitterness could be reduced. I should have sowed continuously throughout the summer, to keep the plants young.

Other things I'll do differently next year: plant the broccoli and tomatoes in a sunnier place, put the lettuce in part shade and sow continuously, find another staking system for my tomatoes (everything keeled over!), stick with the standard (not burpless) cucumbers, grow Swiss Chard, start arugula earlier, order kale and collard seeds, put in more onions, keep the dog away from the snap peas, no more morning glory teepees. I plan to get me some San Marzano tomatoes, Brandywine and Sungold. I won't be growing Jet Star, Ponderosa, or large red cherry - they didn't have good yields here.

Purple Cherokee and Celebrity here, my two star producers.

To be honest, I don't find the Purples as appetizing looking. There's something about a deep red color in midsummer..... these didn't quite cut it.

Some things I'll repeat: red lettuce, surrounding beds to prevent slugs, Midget varieties of pumpkins and melon, herbs in the bottle bed, more edamame, For tomatoes, repeat Vintage Wine, Italian Tree, Super 100, Celebrity and Purple Cherokee, all good varieties.

A Purple Hyacinth Bean pod.

Tricolor beans and edamame.

In the raised bottle herb bed, clockwise from noon: Italian oregano, Vietnames cilantro, Anise Hyssop, Purple Opal Basil, Genovese Basil, Giant Leaf Parsley, Lovage, Sage (purple and green), Lemon thyme, lemon verbena, Catmint, and in the center chocolate mint and spearmint in a container. Since this photo was taken I've added marjoram and garlic chives.

A long shot of the yard. In the foreground you can see the raised bed with the red lettuce, the raised bottle herb bed and then the cuke trellis.

Here's my deck at the end of August, waiting for the sunflowers to bloom.

Time to hang the birdfeeders back up!

Dancing Snake Gourd

The most unusual plant in my garden this year has got to be the Dancing Snake Gourd. (Trichdsanthes cucumerina) I chose this in honor of his majesty, Prince, who inspired my garden this year. (Have a look at the dance sequence in the "Little Red Corvette" video if you're wondering where this reference came from.)

This plant was weird from the beginning. Look at the bug-like seeds:

They were slow to germinate, and I planted them late, but when I got home from vacation I was so excited to see that the vines (which were planted in an Earthbox) had pretty much taken over a whole corner of my deck, and they were in full bloom.
The flowers are white and about 3-4 inches across with hairy white tendrils on the edge of the petals.
How can I describe the smell? They smell wonderful -- like lilacs!

They're natives of Malaysia. So far the largest fruit I have is about 7", but these gourds have been known to grow as big as 5 feet! Only two have shown up on my vines so far. They can be peeled, cooked and eaten and have also been known to be used as a soap substitute.

Any strange characters in your garden this year?

Highlights of Fort DeSoto Park

Fort DeSoto was built in 1898 in St. Petersburg, Florida, for use during the Spanish-American War. The beach there is always rated among the best in the country and they have a beautiful campground, where we spent the second week of our vacation in a (thank god!) air-conditioned trailer. We had a Winnebago when I was growing up, and just about every vacation I remember taking as a child was a camping trip, but this was our first time camping with our kids. Our site was on a beautiful waterfront lagoon.

Poor Betsy was constantly tormented by the superbold squirrels.


Fort DeSoto Park is full of migratory birds. It wasn't unusual to come across sites like this during a stroll to the restroom or laundry. Those below are Eudocimus albus, or American White Ibis. Documented bird sightings have been recorded here for over 60 years and 328 species have been sighted as of last year, with new species being added every year. If you're a bird watcher, the best time to go is during spring migration - early April through mid-May.

A great Blue Heron. (Ardea herodias)

There are lots of nature trails, with common plant species identified.

You can fish from the piers and explore the forts.

There's a ferry that goes from mainland to Egmont Key, where there's a lighthouse and more forts to explore.


Here we are getting ready to go snorkeling at some sunken ruins not far from there.





Captain Jeff and Stephanie were our hosts on the ferry. They helped us with everything we needed. E. even got to drive the boat.



We saw some dolphin trying to mooch some fish from a fisherwoman on this pier.

Egmont Key has some of the best shelling in the area.

Both dog and kids had fun at the dog beach a.k.a "Paw Playground." Sand dollars and sea urchins were everywhere.

Around the campground, different varities of hibiscus were planted, and most were in bloom at the time of our visit.

(Hibiscus schizopetalus)

Hibiscus rosa-sinensis

Maybe it's all the mosquito bites, but I'm itching to get back into my garden at home.

Fort DeSoto Park

3500 Pinellas Bayway S.

Tierra Verde, FL 33715

Park Office- 727-893-9185

Campground Office- 727-893-9185