Nest

Male Cardinal

While the garden is sleeping, we're entertained by the birds. Betsy (my poodle) gets her share of thrills from the birdfeeder, too.  As soon as she sees me picking up my camera, she runs to the window, knowing that the action is picking up. Here are a few photos of this year's visitors.

Blue Jay

Looking for sunflower seeds.

I'm guessing this is a young Song Sparrow 

Female Cardinal

Downy Woodpecker

White-breasted Nuthatch

Watching for poodles on patrol.

European Starling

Male House Sparrow

I read this poem about birdwatching recently and just had to share it. I love what it says about grief, renewal, perseverance and faith.  The idea of being happy with what you have and keeping on when it seems like everyone else is much further along, even if you finish last.  I especially like the line "But when was there suddenly mass?" because it applies so nicely to gardening and seed starting.  Go away for a few days and forget, come back, and there is suddenly mass.  When did that happen?

Nest

A bird was making its nest.
In the dream, I watched it closely:
in my life, I was trying to be
a witness not a theorist

The place you begin doesn't determine
the place you end: the bird

took what it found in the yard,
its base materials, nervously
scanning the bare yard in early spring;
in debris by the south wall pushing
a few twigs with its beak.

Image
of loneliness: the small creature
coming up with nothing. Then
dry twigs. Carrying, one by one,
the twigs to the hideout.
Which is all it was then.

It took what there was:
the available material. Spirit
wasn't enough.

And then it wove like the first Penelope
but toward a different end.
How did it weave? It weaved,
carefully but hopelessly, the few twigs
with any suppleness, any flexibility,
choosing these over the brittle, the
recalcitrant.

Early spring, late desolation.
The bird circled the bare yard making
efforts to survive
on what remained to it.

It had its task:
to imagine the future. Steadily flying around,
patiently bearing small twigs to the solitude
of the exposed tree in the steady coldness
of the outside world.

I had nothing to build with.
It was winter: I couldn't imagine
anything but the past. I couldn't even
imagine the past, if it came to that.

And I didn't know how I came here.
Everyone else much farther along.
I was back at the beginning
at a time in life we can't remember
beginnings.

The bird
collected twigs in the apple tree, relating
each addition to existing mass.
But when was there suddenly mass?

It took what it found after the others
were finished.
The same materials--why should it matter
to be finished last? The same materials, the
same
limited brown. Brown twigs,
broken and fallen. And in one,
a length of yellow wool.

Then it was spring and I was inexplicably
happy.
I knew where I was: on Broadway with my
bag of groceries.
Spring fruit in the stores: first
cherries at Formaggio. Forsythia
beginning.

First I was at peace.
Then I was contented, satisfied.
And then flashes of joy.
And the season changed--for all of us,
of course.

And as I peered out my mind grew sharper.
And I remember accurately
the sequence of my responses,
my eyes fixing on each thing
from the shelter of the hidden self:

first I love it.
Then, I can use it.


Louise Gluck, Poetry, “Nest,” The New Yorker, February 8, 1999, p. 56

The Chickadee Brain

Are you also the type of person who, in this age of information overload, tucks tidbits of interest into the files of your brain, intending to follow up on them later?   Only to forget until something occurs to jostle the memory files?    Maybe I need a brain more like that of the chickadee, expanding and contracting and adapting as needed by the season. 

So the black-capped chickadees (Poecile atricapillus) are back at the feeders, and so is my memory of  reading something extraordinary about the chickadee brain last year  and wanting to investigate.  Of all the wild birds that visit,  the chickadees seem to be the most fearless and friendly.  In fact, they’re often the only ones that aren’t afraid to approach even after I’ve appeared on the deck, pointing a camera at them.   Frustratingly, they are also among the quickest and most reluctant to pose. 

Research done by Professor Colin Saldanha, now at American University, showed that the chickadee’s brain can grow up to 30% larger during times when they need to find food for storage.  The brain is expanding, adding new nerve cells,  in order to help them remember the hundreds of hiding places where they’ve stored the food.  Then, in the spring, the brain shrinks back to normal size, when their memories are needed less.

Another study, done by Vladamir Pradosudov at University of Nevada in Reno showed that when birds live in harsher conditions, such as Alaska, they not only find more food than those in milder climates, but they’re better at finding their caches, have better spatial memories, and have larger brains than the same species in Colorado. 

I would never say that I want my brain to shrink, but wouldn’t mind being able to shed some of the mental baggage and unproductive ways of thinking that marked the past year.  Out with the old, in with the new!  Make room for more meshugaas!  

Wishing you an open-minded, peaceful and rejuvenating New Year.

Fall Update: Hurricane, Harvest and Hen Hierarchy

Now that Hurricane Sandy has passed, life is finally getting back to normal.  Our area was hit hard, but we were lucky – just a few tree limbs down and power disrupted for 5 days.  School was cancelled all last week and again Monday  – this made my kids very happy until they were reminded that they may still be attending in July to make up the extra days.  We’re still waiting in line for gas, but it seems like a small thing to endure when others in the NYC area are contending with such major losses.  There are at least 30,000 newly homeless in NYC right now and people are still having trouble getting around. We count our blessings with every news bulletin.

This was the last weekend for the community garden – everything needed to be out of the plots Nov. 4. I harvested lots of fennel, savoy cabbage, beets, Brussels sprouts, radishes, kale, lettuce, parsley and dill.  Plus a nice bunch of very fragrant sage given to me by a neighbor.     

I’m hoping some it holds out til Thanksgiving. 

An experiment – I took the fennel roots, cut the stalks, and replanted them in my perennial bed.  Since it’s one of the hardier vegetables, I’m hoping to get a head start on some for next spring.  German hardneck garlic and tulip bulbs were also planted this weekend. 

I don’t believe I’ve introduced you to my three new white chickens.   I adopted them from a man who decided he didn’t want to keep them through the winter.  Since they were originally purchased to amuse his grandchildren, I thought it only appropriate to name them after the kids: Hayden, Allison and Kaitlynn.   

Don't ask me which is which!

I was a little anxious about how they’d get along with the four current residents, especially Harley, a bantam Silver Spangled Hamburg, whose head is often plucked bare of feathers by the bigger girls.  She tried so hard to assert herself.  She was the first to confront the new hens – she fluffed up her feathers and boldly attacked.  They weren’t afraid of her though, and she’s still the little picked-on, bullied runt around here. 

It’s especially sad that she seems to be exiled from the coop.  It's like she has cooties.  The six others will typically squeeze into one coop, leaving Harley alone in the other one – even though 4 is supposed to be the maximum in one coop.  Poor Harley.  (She’s named after Harley Quinn, of “Batman” fame.  Guess who named her!?)  I’m trying to think of ways to give her more status and some roommates.    

I was so happy about the election results!  But would love to know why Prop 37 was defeated in California!  I find it very surprising because I thought they would be more progressive.  I heard there were ads.  If anyone knows where I can see one of these opinion-swaying ads, please leave me a link.  To learn more about the campaign for GMO labeling, visit www.justlabelit.org.

Harley's Nest

Last year, my chickens that were hatched in April were laying by this time, so I’ve been on the lookout.  My older girls are molting, so it’s been a very dry egg season.  I’ve noticed that Harley, our Silver Spangled Wyandotte, has been separating herself from the group and wandering off, even flying over the fence at times.  She always returned by late afternoon, so I didn’t think too much of it.  Then, this morning, she exhibited some peculiar behavior. 

She was pacing back and forth in front of the fence, obviously looking for a place to escape.  Her pacing was of the urgent “I have an egg in me and am about to pop” kind. 

So I broke the rules.   I opened the gate and let her out.  Then I followed her.  

Sure enough, she bolted over to my neighbor’s driveway.  Behind a large bottle of windshield wiper fluid and a bunch of tools near the garage, Harley settled into a quiet settled activity. I tried not to disturb her.   Twenty minutes later I went back and sure enough, there were little white eggs in the corner behind the snow shovel.

Can Harley not see where the eggs belong?  I even put a “demo” egg in the nesting box in her coop so that she’d know where to put hers.  Would it be horrible of me not to let her out of the coop tomorrow until she figures out where to lay?  Once a nest is established, how hard is it to break the habit?

This is what passes for a cliff hanger around here!

Wakulla Springs

If you're lucky, you'll discover at least a couple of fine places in nature during your lifetime that speak to your soul.   Along with Arrow Park, that place for me is Wakulla Springs.  It’s a state park about 25 miles south of Tallahassee in the Florida panhandle, and it’s the largest, deepest fresh water spring in the US, putting out up to 210 million gallons of water a day at at constant 69 degrees.   They filmed “Tarzan” and “Creature From the Black Lagoon” here. 

Edward Ball, the millionaire owner of the St. Joe Paper Company, built the lodge there in the 1937.   

Edward Ball

“What can you say about Mr. Ball?  That he bought his clothes off the hanger, his eyeglasses from the dimestore, his shoes from whatever store he happened to be passing when he needed a pair… and he carried his own suitcases.  He didn’t believe in indulging himself, saying that those who did “cross the creek” at an early age.  And that he spent a lifetime building the largest empire in Florida during the 20th Century and by his death at age 93, he was making donations to charities at the rate of $27,000 a day or nearly $10 million a year. “   (from the lodge restaurant menu, which also includes an historic reproduction of a dinner menu from 1940 that offers kraut juice and buttermilk for just 10 cents each!)

Contributing to the unhurried vibe there is the lack of technology.  There’s one screen in the lobby, but there are no televisions in the rooms, internet café’s or computer terminals.  Instead there is an old-time elevator, 

checkers tables,

a handpainted ceiling,

and a soda fountain counter (with one of the largest marble slabs in the country). 

Something about handling and using these old fixtures gives me comfort.   I feel honored.  It’s as if the lodge is saying “We saved this for you.” 

The lodge is available for corporate retreats and other events.  We just held my mother’s 70th birthday party there.   Here she is… the Mermaid Queen of Wakulla Springs….

My summer vacations as a child were usually spent on camping trips.  We visited places like Manatee Springs, Homassassa Springs, and Weeki Watchee Springs.  These places were our summer retreats, and Wakulla brings back memories of these excursions. 

The Swimming Hole

The big attraction at Wakulla Springs, aside from the crystal clear swimming hole, is the boat ride.  Birds of all kinds, perched on 500-year-old cypress trees, gators, turtles and jumping mullet may appear.

Tri-color Heron

Anahinga, drying his wings

Purple Gallinule

Florida Alligator

Manatees aren’t uncommon.  Here, a glimpse of a manatee tail!

Old Joe was thought to be the most photographed alligator in the world.  He live at Wakulla Springs in the 1950s and 60s.  “He never harmed or molested any woman, child or pets.” 

In 1966 he was found killed at the bottom of the Springs.  They offered a $5,000 reward, but the killer was never found.  He now lives under glass in the lobby.  I bet he could tell some stories.

A New Fowl Friend

We woke up to this gorgeous face on our doorstep the other day.

It's a wild male turkey Meleagris gallopavo or "gobbler" that emerged from the woods all by himself, which is unusual.  They're usually in flocks when seen around here, but will separate from their flock during mating season to reduce competition.  Female turkeys are usually duller brown, and don't have beards (the protruding feather on the front of the breast). 

He seems to have adopted us -- at least for now.  I named him Jacques, after Jacques Pepin.   He makes noise too.  Could he be looking for a girlfriend?  Judging by the length of his snood and beard, I'm guessing this is a "jake," or yearling male.

He likes hanging out in front of my office window.  Sometimes he pecks at the window. 

There are about 5 million turkeys in the U.S.   They're found in every state except for Alaska.  Ever seen one in your yard?

Attracting Birds (and Keeping Them Happy)

It’s feeder filling time. How do I know? A couple of chickadees and a titmouse appeared at my feeder station to remind me. They were looking right at me through my kitchen window, chiding me, “Where’s my breakfast already? It’s November! Get a clue!”  (My little nieces and nephew who visited this past weekend wondered at the fact that I call them “my birds.” )
Mother Nature does need help – especially when there’s snow on the ground and food is harder to find. Aside from filling up your birdfeeders, here’s a list of some other things you can do to be nice to birds.

1) Make some homemade suet. Melt 2 cups of lard (get it from your butcher!) and 1 cup of peanut butter together, then add 2 cups of corn meal and cool. Choose your own add-ins. Try seeds, raisins, cereal or oats. What do your birds like best? You can serve it in an hanging cage (above), or spread it on dead sunflower heads.

2) Birds need to drink water every day, and that can be a challenge in the winter when the lakes and ponds begin to freeze. If you don’t want to invest in one of those expensive heated birdbaths, there are other ways to keep your water from freezing, although it’s probably not a 24 hour solution. During the morning hours when birds are feeding heavily, you can set up a watering station, too. Take a large coffee can and take off both ends with a can opener. Punch a few holes in the can a few inches from the top end. Place the can on a sturdy, flameproof level surface and place a pillar candle inside the can. Light the candle and place a metal dish or pie pan full of water on top. If you do this a few hours every day, you can make sure that your birds get a drink.

3) If you have a real Christmas tree, and little foliage or evergreens on your property, put your tree near your feeders when you take it down in January. The birds will have a place to hide and shelter themselves from the winter wind.

4) Tape some snowflakes or other opaque décor to the inside of your larger windows to prevent the birds from flying into them.

5) Drive a long (3” or longer) nail at least an inch into an old tree stump. Cut the top off with a bolt cutter. Stick your old corncobs on the nail- this is a real treat for chickens, too.

6) Stop using insecticide. Birds feed on insects, so using insecticides like Neem on your property can severely affect their food supply.  One type, neocontinoids, could be particularly toxic to pollinators.  Weedkillers like Round-Up and other herbicides can be dangerous too.

7) Give a bird a shower - cut the bottom off a 1 liter soda bottle. Push a pin through the bottle cap to create a tiny hole. Screw the cap onto the bottle and turn the bottle upside down. Create a hanger for the bottle by punching holes on two sides of the bottle and stringing a wire through the holes. Fill the bottle with water and hang it from a shepherd’s hook over your birdbath. The water will drip from the pierced bottle cap into the bath, giving the birds a little splash. In cold weather, water that’s moving is also slower to freeze.

8) Plant berry bushes. Spicebush (Lindera benzion) Highbush blueberry (Vaccinium corymbosum), Serviceberry (Amelanchier spp.), Elderberry (Sambucus canadensis) are a few that are native to the Northeast. Or maybe some fruit. Try putting out sliced grapes, kiwi, cranberries, apples, and oranges. Do any new birds show up?

9) Hang a house.  At Birdhouses101.com, you can search by species name for the kind of house preferred by that type of bird.  Some birds, such as the mourning dove, prefer nesting on a platform.

10) Baby birds are on the way. In late winter and early spring when the birds are making their nests, fill an old suet cage (see top photo) with coir, string, hair, and hay. Birds will use these materials to create their nests.

What else can we do to be nice to birds? Please add your suggestions in the comment section!