tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10021567587945719932024-03-10T15:13:28.841-04:00Backyard Birding...And BeyondA site about birds and other natural phenomena, by MARGO D. BELLER.Margo D. Beller http://www.blogger.com/profile/11132733081191328601noreply@blogger.comBlogger395125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1002156758794571993.post-69078023821278304262024-03-09T09:00:00.001-05:002024-03-09T09:00:00.134-05:00March Madness (Margo's Version)<p><span style="font-size: medium;">March Madness means different things to different people. For most, it means <a href="https://www.ncaa.com/news/basketball-men/article/2024-02-07/2024-march-madness-mens-ncaa-tournament-schedule-dates" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">collegiate basketball</a>. For me, it is the start of the <a href="https://backyardbirdingandbeyond.blogspot.com/2018/04/signs-of-destruction-signs-of-life.html" target="_blank">spring cleaning</a> period when I must get my garden cleared of leaves, <a href="https://backyardbirdingandbeyond.blogspot.com/2019/10/nuts-and-pods-to-you.html" target="_blank">pod</a>s and other winter debris before the bulk of the flowers start blooming.</span></p><span style="font-size: medium;"> This year, however, was especially mad because instead of mid-month the unusual <a href="http://backyardbirdingandbeyond.blogspot.com/2024/02/leap-day-thoughts.html" target="_blank">February warmth</a> started the daffodils in my front yard blooming two weeks early and the plants were surrounded by, or growing through, leaves. Another problem: Periods of rain expected in the coming days meant I had only two consecutive dry days to get as much done as I could.</span><p></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">And so it began:</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><b>Day 1</b></span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">I got out later than I should've to cut back the ornamental grasses on what turned out to be a sunny, April-like March morning. These grasses, maiden grass as I recall, I planted at the same time the garden center guys planted <a href="https://backyardbirdingandbeyond.blogspot.com/2017/05/the-world-according-to-spruce.html" target="_blank">Spruce</a>. They are in a plot not protected by deer netting because deer don't eat these grasses with their knife-like foliage. Ornamental grasses come in various colors and grow to various heights. Mine are somewhat stunted because of the network of roots the <a href="https://backyardbirdingandbeyond.blogspot.com/2023/01/an-inconvenient-tree.html" target="_blank">now-departed ash tree</a> put under them. </span></p><p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg__OK3YtHid0S1AhLjos9acXCRlVKrRovB1VSA1aaFcR9zdprYDfTvuG-NOGGcnksnKAIK6MjAwWeVhNs0zaOlUTSzWdWJ4HwxSPm8M_aQon4sXHuzHHieJXliieZU5joWWouJK3kR7wI4Ch-SnCmpB94tyWZs5OCpdFfWdgquwbZHWmlorDJsCk1U/s2048/grass.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1536" data-original-width="2048" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg__OK3YtHid0S1AhLjos9acXCRlVKrRovB1VSA1aaFcR9zdprYDfTvuG-NOGGcnksnKAIK6MjAwWeVhNs0zaOlUTSzWdWJ4HwxSPm8M_aQon4sXHuzHHieJXliieZU5joWWouJK3kR7wI4Ch-SnCmpB94tyWZs5OCpdFfWdgquwbZHWmlorDJsCk1U/w400-h300/grass.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">One of the ornamental grasses flowering last year, at its peak.<br />(Margo D. Beller)</td></tr></tbody></table></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">In late summer these grasses throw up plumes of reddish seed heads; in autumn, if conditions are right, the leaves go from green to gold (last autumn was one such year because of all the rain we got, and maybe because those ash roots are no longer growing).</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">About the only problem with these grasses is they eventually become piles of dry straw and have to be cut back in the spring so the new shoots can come up and allow the process to begin again.</span></p><p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhoam7e5DXFC2w5bzbyMVEFowxg4eA9KlkvKEqVqpT2pbWxdX4xXWDq8WUCBpWebnLALTUjH1shuFD9cOUR-CGqG9w5nClCVNunagKzF9cW-0L8147M6AQe_jNaI0H7W3u_fsEWiwxvVvNfuO-Rm4qscocIAllEXxYhlemdDa1eibNrguUG8Ajpbx8s/s3264/grass%20before%20cut.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3264" data-original-width="2448" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhoam7e5DXFC2w5bzbyMVEFowxg4eA9KlkvKEqVqpT2pbWxdX4xXWDq8WUCBpWebnLALTUjH1shuFD9cOUR-CGqG9w5nClCVNunagKzF9cW-0L8147M6AQe_jNaI0H7W3u_fsEWiwxvVvNfuO-Rm4qscocIAllEXxYhlemdDa1eibNrguUG8Ajpbx8s/w300-h400/grass%20before%20cut.jpg" width="300" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The same grass, far from its peak,<br />before its haircut. (Margo D. Beller)</td></tr></tbody></table></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">I started with the smallest of the grasses, the one closest to the edge of the property and which takes the brunt of the cold northwest winds each winter. Lawn services have the tools to cut a nice even edge. I use my long-handled lopper. The results are not the neatest but it gets the job done. As I worked I had to make sure my bench was not resting on one of the daffodils or other plants just starting to come up. (The daffodils in this area always bloom later than the ones in front, which get more of the sun.) </span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">The next two grasses were progressively larger and thus took longer to cut, but eventually it all got done with a minimum of damage to the green shoots coming up or the flowers growing near them as I moved my work bench or my feet around to get at the straw.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">The day ended with my cutting back the butterfly bush in the front yard, which had already started leafing out. My upper back needed a good rest.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><b>Day 2</b></span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">Day 1 was a Sunday - sunny and warm, bringing out a host of neighbors, their kids and, unfortunately, their barking dogs. Usually I go inside when it gets too noisy but I had a time constraint and work to do Sunday, so I ignored them and hoped to outlast them.</span></p><p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDm0iSkJUBmJO2-SuZHa6VPsPGGElUbSlh-wZu6l54HmDe9w3eIPFZBeLB1C-tp90a0UCta579sMLO6_sr7P2fhbDuBpURkgaAcWjN1nlcIbrxaxwm8kcsVUB-R-nD8bxk4tBZpNHJaVi839jsPRGTZ6pPYFdiA2zym5Ow_hUSF_yIOt374tJKWMJ4/s320/pinks.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="240" data-original-width="320" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDm0iSkJUBmJO2-SuZHa6VPsPGGElUbSlh-wZu6l54HmDe9w3eIPFZBeLB1C-tp90a0UCta579sMLO6_sr7P2fhbDuBpURkgaAcWjN1nlcIbrxaxwm8kcsVUB-R-nD8bxk4tBZpNHJaVi839jsPRGTZ6pPYFdiA2zym5Ow_hUSF_yIOt374tJKWMJ4/w400-h300/pinks.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Leafy liriope and the pink flowers of sedum.<br />(Margo D. Beller)</td></tr></tbody></table></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><span>By contrast Day 2 was a Monday - cloudy, cooler and a work/school day. I got out by 6:20 a.m. to start raking leaves out of one of the front garden plots where there were spent liriope and sedum foliage to cut back. Both plants flower in autumn. </span>Bees love the sedum. Unfortunately, <a href="https://backyardbirdingandbeyond.blogspot.com/2024/03/oh-deer.html" target="_blank">so do the deer.</a> That's why I had to pull down the netting as far as I could without ripping it or breaking the support poles and lean over it to do my work. As usual there is always one pole where the netting won't move smoothly either up or down. Also as usual, I wished I didn't have to do my gardening this way.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">Monday turned out to be a busy day after all, but with a particular type of bird.</span></p><p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4nTXuXUxbZhHkmJouKYxz_6NM5iDErgfsQkgArobcaHsarleJKjbRPSnlwxKJY1hOpM_bQeVO-XR0fkghKEJdkL72wc5otZzmVjerogREbDYMDjZpK4JS_NuaHkFplDmmmJN3xllZecfS1MfW6xAVaGCtxycM4ZWm2kFQnzZiaz-mXY2EsDOFuz5S/s3264/bay%20plot%20done%20for%20now.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2448" data-original-width="3264" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4nTXuXUxbZhHkmJouKYxz_6NM5iDErgfsQkgArobcaHsarleJKjbRPSnlwxKJY1hOpM_bQeVO-XR0fkghKEJdkL72wc5otZzmVjerogREbDYMDjZpK4JS_NuaHkFplDmmmJN3xllZecfS1MfW6xAVaGCtxycM4ZWm2kFQnzZiaz-mXY2EsDOFuz5S/w400-h300/bay%20plot%20done%20for%20now.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Cleared front area, allowing the daffodils to be seen. There<br />will be many more types of flowers blooming here<br />as the season goes on.<br />(Margo D. Beller)</td></tr></tbody></table></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">The singing birds I expected - robins, cardinal, Carolina wren, among others. What I didn't expect were the waves of migrant <a href="https://backyardbirdingandbeyond.blogspot.com/2012/02/geese-on-grass-alas.html" target="_blank">Canada geese</a> taking off from ponds or fields and heading north over my yard to their breeding grounds. They were so loud I could hear them coming long before I saw the skeins, some of which had <a href="https://backyardbirdingandbeyond.blogspot.com/2023/10/wild-goose-watching.html" target="_blank">hundreds of birds.</a> I always stop to watch for them because the large, uneven Vs look so impressive as these families make their way, calling constantly and shifting positions every so often so a different bird could lead from the V's point. The last skein I saw must've had at least 300 birds.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">(One woman coming along my street as the geese flew over was doing what must've been her morning power walk. She was talking on the phone as she walked. That must've been an important conversation for so early in the morning. She missed a fine show.) </span></p><p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjR9TNMpFsZ_wGWkGfWi2i3k0S7VX1FPczbsGNDJwXAO6tdRomaWw6WfV274iTEq_eGip28pv7kkJUQJm4hNM1LgBN7Bg3s5oQxWhtqtFNp_mMJV4GMALYK-GajNBL32l2fvMzLpCeI57gzaHm9ihgx_NAem8R3cL_55hl2z2oAmeHjX4A3IOXG5y5u/s3264/two-thirds%20done.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2448" data-original-width="3264" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjR9TNMpFsZ_wGWkGfWi2i3k0S7VX1FPczbsGNDJwXAO6tdRomaWw6WfV274iTEq_eGip28pv7kkJUQJm4hNM1LgBN7Bg3s5oQxWhtqtFNp_mMJV4GMALYK-GajNBL32l2fvMzLpCeI57gzaHm9ihgx_NAem8R3cL_55hl2z2oAmeHjX4A3IOXG5y5u/w400-h300/two-thirds%20done.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">My work station as I cut back the grasses.<br />(Margo D. Beller)</td></tr></tbody></table></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">I finished my chores by <a href="https://backyardbirdingandbeyond.blogspot.com/2021/04/putting-things-in-order.html" target="_blank">removing burlap and clearing debris</a> in the backyard plot where yews are protected by netting. The geese must've known something because the first of several expected rainy days began Tuesday.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">As you might expect, this annual madness took a toll on my body, but it couldn't be helped. Too-early-blooming flowers and an expected week of rain were beyond my control, so I had to work within the time I had. My reward, once this long and tedious job is done, is being able to enjoy the flowers in my garden without leaves or overgrown old foliage getting in the way.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">Which reminds me, I need a haircut.</span></p>Margo D. Beller http://www.blogger.com/profile/11132733081191328601noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1002156758794571993.post-16926183449020815192024-03-02T09:00:00.001-05:002024-03-02T09:00:00.130-05:00Oh, Deer!<p><span style="font-size: medium;">My brother-in-law lives in a rural part of New Hampshire. When we visit in winter his feeders draw a number of birds. Winter can be harsh up there, <a href="https://www.unh.edu/unhtoday/news/release/2022/06/29/unh-research-warns-new-hampshires-climate-already-changing" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">climate change notwithstanding</a>. Sometimes the feeders draw something unusual - <a href="https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Common_Redpoll" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">common redpolls</a> or a flock of wild turkeys, for instance.</span></p><p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjzH7eiPE5AjpSQjKba-XhUoS_Au_H3CC0-GiZ1IdMaJo6kPD5JAMGlzxxS5jaYj3fBqsK-NIz7nXDWAwst-yLOyMLk7LJG9wr4TnwP0kkjJu5nITKtX4xNXnKfjt4-2sOhA0PUfDzBqZdm-_VT_gmLLTH3vBc4vHIinPEGbj59BD9VK6WATnDemQ0r/s219/backyard%20buck.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="199" data-original-width="219" height="363" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjzH7eiPE5AjpSQjKba-XhUoS_Au_H3CC0-GiZ1IdMaJo6kPD5JAMGlzxxS5jaYj3fBqsK-NIz7nXDWAwst-yLOyMLk7LJG9wr4TnwP0kkjJu5nITKtX4xNXnKfjt4-2sOhA0PUfDzBqZdm-_VT_gmLLTH3vBc4vHIinPEGbj59BD9VK6WATnDemQ0r/w400-h363/backyard%20buck.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">(Margo D. Beller)</td></tr></tbody></table></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">Recently he announced the feeders had drawn something really unusual, at least to his yard - deer.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">Welcome to my world.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">In the past, hunting or natural predators have been very efficient in keeping down the deer population in his area. But now there are more homes being built on his road, and those neat parcels of lawn are very enticing for deer. Hunting season is apparently no longer enough up there.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">All this, including hunting in restricted areas, has been going on in my suburban New Jersey neighborhood for decades. I've learned the hard way <a href="https://backyardbirdingandbeyond.blogspot.com/2017/06/living-with-wildlife.html" target="_blank">what happens</a> when you grow plants that are not only attractive to you but to wildlife.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">First it was the rabbits that nibbled at the asters. I put in a small fence that discouraged them. But it did nothing to stop the deer eating the asters or the euonymous shrubs or the lilies or the sedums. So I put in metal fence posts and hung deer netting. The fence posts would not stay in the ground so eventually they were replaced by thin, plastic-coated metal posts I could more easily hammer in, and on which I tied the netting. </span></p><p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4yYO-DDpHtdrC0vB1JkgNHcD3xIlZh5ueiOyXbMFurSz1pqkvmxImXXzOuhmGiJlKzTP_wNZxDYY7lZ2KKB3_tqh0mMzNf-kMyi4zp9BX1K3LZRP1EigBNvbjceZTy3Y9EBwKR1dciSBBuv1RPcH9heKwD37fN-IQohB-DgVzwn6RhuV2eDngi889/s3264/fence%203.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2448" data-original-width="3264" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4yYO-DDpHtdrC0vB1JkgNHcD3xIlZh5ueiOyXbMFurSz1pqkvmxImXXzOuhmGiJlKzTP_wNZxDYY7lZ2KKB3_tqh0mMzNf-kMyi4zp9BX1K3LZRP1EigBNvbjceZTy3Y9EBwKR1dciSBBuv1RPcH9heKwD37fN-IQohB-DgVzwn6RhuV2eDngi889/w400-h300/fence%203.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Protecting the evergreen euonymous<br />(Margo D. Beller)</td></tr></tbody></table></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">Then I learned a hungry deer that was desperate enough would grab the netting with its teeth or use the strength of its hoof to rip a big hole. At first I used burlap to cover the netting on two front plots in winter, but the flapping and tearing caused by the wind had a neighbor complaining. Now I double a piece of netting to make it that much thicker, and I cut back the evergreen euonymous plants as winter approaches to make them harder to reach.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">Like my brother-in-law I learned a deer will knock feeders around and eat the spilled seeds. One morning I saw an 8-point buck eating from the house feeder. Not wanting to be gored I banged on the enclosed porch's glass. It looked at me and ambled away. Another reason to take in the feeders at night. (I'd been taking the feeders in at night ever since <a href="http://backyardbirdingandbeyond.blogspot.com/2015/03/bearing-with-it.html" target="_blank">the first bear attack</a>, except when we've had <a href="https://backyardbirdingandbeyond.blogspot.com/2015/01/first-snow-2015.html" target="_blank">heavy snow</a>.) </span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">I learned a <a href="https://backyardbirdingandbeyond.blogspot.com/2013/06/the-fawn-on-lawn.html" target="_blank">fawn</a> could get behind the netting from around the corner if I didn't block the space with folded metal fencing. I learned there are plants deer are less likely to eat, though a hungry deer will always <a href="https://backyardbirdingandbeyond.blogspot.com/2018/10/the-danger-time.html" target="_blank">take a bite out of something</a> (such as a canna leaf or a hot pepper) and then learn not to eat it again. (Of course, if enough deer take a bite, you have a dead plant.)</span><span style="font-size: large;"> </span></p><p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgy1pGlA87C_HDUFCqPABhQueZZLoS1GcrTHPFBDxVNq1TBlzhSQY0cJ2I5DpWO9O2brQSwahDSWfo3gb2DDoLY1zMPh2XqbIzPpU2GHwgZef8DQaOvOe2G9MeUGL-5wItfyA53ADjTBEDJkL9yZoPixnXpF7GP-Yx9AR9-0_b7peHy_-Q5RxjeYulZ/s3264/fence%204.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2448" data-original-width="3264" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgy1pGlA87C_HDUFCqPABhQueZZLoS1GcrTHPFBDxVNq1TBlzhSQY0cJ2I5DpWO9O2brQSwahDSWfo3gb2DDoLY1zMPh2XqbIzPpU2GHwgZef8DQaOvOe2G9MeUGL-5wItfyA53ADjTBEDJkL9yZoPixnXpF7GP-Yx9AR9-0_b7peHy_-Q5RxjeYulZ/w400-h300/fence%204.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">(Margo D. Beller)</td></tr></tbody></table></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">If I had known about deer over 25 years ago when I put in the plants what I have since learned, my garden would look very different. No azaleas and more daffodils, for instance. More ornamental grasses, fewer sedum. </span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">With Spring coming on I am already dreading the<a href="https://backyardbirdingandbeyond.blogspot.com/2012/03/early-spring-cleaning.html" target="_blank"> annual hassle</a> of pulling the netting down so I can position myself as close as possible and then lean over the net to remove leaves or stray locust pods and get the beds ready for the season. Every few years I have to pull out the posts and replace the netting. (Last year I did this with the two front beds in a marathon session. Once netting comes down it can't be left that way because of the deer threat.)</span></p><p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgsJ-U54Nj4i967RQ3EmHRqDWeGJ1ifZe5ClNeliFtdpnjH7IjUKdc8tvXLMvvLG685uZcnqwbZgCJtSUVzpDOm7_t1tjbp7SWJTPhkJqr7NOVKzxu8MyM2o6FFGn0Dwe9oBDf4wx8Txp9utjgNNke7oWO8bJaA3JTxfhW_JGmvtwzbcHuF_CzPzZtF/s3264/fence%201.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2448" data-original-width="3264" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgsJ-U54Nj4i967RQ3EmHRqDWeGJ1ifZe5ClNeliFtdpnjH7IjUKdc8tvXLMvvLG685uZcnqwbZgCJtSUVzpDOm7_t1tjbp7SWJTPhkJqr7NOVKzxu8MyM2o6FFGn0Dwe9oBDf4wx8Txp9utjgNNke7oWO8bJaA3JTxfhW_JGmvtwzbcHuF_CzPzZtF/w400-h300/fence%201.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Backyard burlap protecting yew plants I learned are<br />particularly attractive to deer. The backyard<br />neighbor doesn't seem bothered by the burlap. (Margo D. Beller)</td></tr></tbody></table></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">Every year I say to hell with it, I'm taking down all this damned fencing. Then a herd of two to eight deer passes through and I remember why I struggle with this damned fencing.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">My brother-in-law doesn't have to worry about this in his rural Eden, at least not yet. For now he'll be taking the feeders in at night, until the bears come out of their dens and he stops feeding the birds for the season anyway. </span></p>Margo D. Beller http://www.blogger.com/profile/11132733081191328601noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1002156758794571993.post-12722966823728944062024-02-29T10:50:00.000-05:002024-02-29T10:50:31.538-05:00Leap Day Thoughts<p><span style="font-size: medium;">One year ago, on February 28, 2023, the last day of <a href="https://www.wunderground.com/article/science/weather-explainers/news/2023-11-30-meteorological-winter-starts-december-1" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">meteorological winter</a>, my area of New Jersey got <a href="https://backyardbirdingandbeyond.blogspot.com/2023/03/spruce-bringsgreen-speaks.html" target="_blank">significant snow</a> for the first time all season, so much snow that <a href="https://backyardbirdingandbeyond.blogspot.com/2023/08/spruce-has-question.html" target="_blank">Spruce Bringsgreen</a> got a thick white coat.</span></p><p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjfE-LRxp07KU64mbuUF7Wktbbu9LGLC436eEzX3tM0apIF0H84JOS8p8WD3Tj2D17qpydF_UBNe8minMWmxeNxci0nYlxCJUp-_sNl5rgtymk2qeech_UcWJV0Uo9q-FxRFSmucT8NG5Ap9VgVLkRVpvhbxOF8tFHm5dpVHJjRkIEveWwJkovf3u1T/s1895/Daffodils,%20Feb.%2029,%202024.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1895" data-original-width="1532" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjfE-LRxp07KU64mbuUF7Wktbbu9LGLC436eEzX3tM0apIF0H84JOS8p8WD3Tj2D17qpydF_UBNe8minMWmxeNxci0nYlxCJUp-_sNl5rgtymk2qeech_UcWJV0Uo9q-FxRFSmucT8NG5Ap9VgVLkRVpvhbxOF8tFHm5dpVHJjRkIEveWwJkovf3u1T/w324-h400/Daffodils,%20Feb.%2029,%202024.jpg" width="324" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">First daffodils, Feb. 29, 2024<br />(Margo D. Beller)</td></tr></tbody></table><span style="font-size: medium;">Yesterday, February 28, 2024, the temperature in my area came close to 60 degrees Fahrenheit for <a href="https://www.usnews.com/news/world/articles/2024-02-29/spring-came-early-february-likely-warmest-on-record-amid-climate-change" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">the second time this month</a>. February is usually the coldest month of the winter. After the first very warm day a few weeks before, the early flowers - snowdrops and crocus - in my yard came up and the flowers were close to opening. So were the daffodils. The next day we had cold and snow. The daffodils stopped growing but the crocus and snowdrop flowers continued to form, because this is their usual growing time.</span></p><p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhhXJA1ynzBOdwYahj821x6jn5FopW5PJK5o-Pd5ulBFndnFEONzo8Kf4fZ1SCGTFS15T7OvaCJLCXs5zgEtLo2riuIA5TeXGBqueiw6VVwVMJIosXcKAOHgBpvKF0vHhgX5VFqPemKRkEr8HdcOmU99aTBELFlOiTe-gzp_NJE1uOHmx3mx44NkE53/s3264/winter%20spruce%202024.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3264" data-original-width="2448" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhhXJA1ynzBOdwYahj821x6jn5FopW5PJK5o-Pd5ulBFndnFEONzo8Kf4fZ1SCGTFS15T7OvaCJLCXs5zgEtLo2riuIA5TeXGBqueiw6VVwVMJIosXcKAOHgBpvKF0vHhgX5VFqPemKRkEr8HdcOmU99aTBELFlOiTe-gzp_NJE1uOHmx3mx44NkE53/w300-h400/winter%20spruce%202024.jpg" width="300" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Spruce (at right), Feb. 13, 2024 <br />(Margo D. Beller)</td></tr></tbody></table><span style="font-size: medium;">Now that snow is gone and those flowers are open. That is not unusual. What was unusual was the daffodils that had been rising from the cold ground, then forming flowers when the temperature warmed and then, yesterday, those flowers starting to open at least two weeks early.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">More unusual: Today is February 29, known as Leap Day. This occurs once every four years. If today had been March 1 the old saying of March coming in like a lion and leaving like a lamb would've been true. Early this Feb. 29 morning the wind was howling, bringing down many dead tree limbs all over my yard. The temperature is not expected above 40 degrees F, a drop of nearly 20 degrees from yesterday.</span></p><p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjfL8fuGMmffvucriTFhhX4rdkt6piseo1SCANH2WseXt6y9U-6WKPCo8JLKsm_H4z8IWVm-nRr7C1Jwl9FJgOZlhhgaRFQa7IAZYLzoT6I4HREQVsc7c3uYLL_4IMdDCs4zi8D7I8cPuOXsBLDrp49uQ8M36hHpzOqUd0nx1YWs_weN98gGxO8c6TM/s3264/snowdrops%202024.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2448" data-original-width="3264" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjfL8fuGMmffvucriTFhhX4rdkt6piseo1SCANH2WseXt6y9U-6WKPCo8JLKsm_H4z8IWVm-nRr7C1Jwl9FJgOZlhhgaRFQa7IAZYLzoT6I4HREQVsc7c3uYLL_4IMdDCs4zi8D7I8cPuOXsBLDrp49uQ8M36hHpzOqUd0nx1YWs_weN98gGxO8c6TM/w400-h300/snowdrops%202024.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Snowdrops, February 2024<br />(Margo D. Beller)</td></tr></tbody></table><span style="font-size: medium;">For weeks I have heard territorial birdsong in the early morning. I have heard <a href="https://backyardbirdingandbeyond.blogspot.com/2017/09/cardinal-rules.html" target="_blank">cardinal</a>, <a href="https://backyardbirdingandbeyond.blogspot.com/2013/09/in-praise-of-carolina-wrens.html" target="_blank">Carolina wren</a> and <a href="https://backyardbirdingandbeyond.blogspot.com/2018/11/the-upside-down-bird-and-creeper.html" target="_blank">white-breasted nuthatch</a>. Canada geese in the nearby community garden have been fighting each other for breeding space. Geese and flocks of <a href="https://backyardbirdingandbeyond.blogspot.com/2018/02/the-robin.html">robins</a> have been feeding on <a href="https://backyardbirdingandbeyond.blogspot.com/2012/02/geese-on-grass-alas.html" target="_blank">any large area of green</a>, be it house yard, office park or farm field. The days are now noticeably longer and that longer light is triggering the beginning of mating season.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">This morning a flock of <a href="https://backyardbirdingandbeyond.blogspot.com/2020/02/a-plague-of-grackles-on-my-lawn.html" target="_blank">grackles</a> flew to the trees over my yard soon after I put out feeders. I went out and stood by the feeders. After communication of some sort (I heard nothing, of course) they all flew off. Yesterday they had soft, wet ground to pick at for food. Today the ground is frozen, and sunflower seeds would be better than nothing. But not in my yard today.</span></p><p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEii7uxHs3fZuU14ruCSymhCZuIqAcCRjziEmADQmXBBSm9BSYq2bvGe26sCe79VqARyTRwB0_mcz-dseut_ZXXkhuf-PTYK-IXlgVk32fK17unmJgsWKOVKi-dEy0K02ufzDV-JkEhVzPh6PyNNk4F1YRLDC42KxEinJJ4gTbt2gEYtBUoadTZJD9-o/s629/grackles2%20-%20Edited%20(1).jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="374" data-original-width="629" height="238" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEii7uxHs3fZuU14ruCSymhCZuIqAcCRjziEmADQmXBBSm9BSYq2bvGe26sCe79VqARyTRwB0_mcz-dseut_ZXXkhuf-PTYK-IXlgVk32fK17unmJgsWKOVKi-dEy0K02ufzDV-JkEhVzPh6PyNNk4F1YRLDC42KxEinJJ4gTbt2gEYtBUoadTZJD9-o/w400-h238/grackles2%20-%20Edited%20(1).jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Grackles, from February 2020. The flock today was<br />not nearly this big. (Margo D. Beller)</td></tr></tbody></table><span style="font-size: medium;">Back to Leap Day. By coincidence I am reading a book by Rebecca Boyle, "<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/128175763-our-moon" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Our Moon</a>." It explains, in highly readable style, how the Moon (and Earth) was created, its influence on tides and crops, and how it was used to create calendars, among many other things. But due to a <a href="https://www.npr.org/2024/02/26/1232986212/leap-day-explained" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">difference between</a> the calendar we now use thanks to Julius Caesar and Pope Gregory based on the sun, and the lunar calendar, a day is added every four years to February, the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/story/why-are-there-only-28-days-in-february" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">shortest month of the year</a>. (Boyle's book has a very clear explanation of why the leap day and the short month happened.)</span></p><p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg8KioDjXU5NOnbrV8H29tIITdP1VOSwHAtu95PxUawo-7mTBiTBoh5wX6HpeiSCpS81pTK05-Jr16gwXTq5FaPkQqZQxmB0emQ83izh4FkF9fboN9pD3eUKRVLAqufdtqampgmj0nsb61Hil77ry6CkjGIb98jP_b0r_ECHL2aJhy16cpFtnQvxfwX/s533/moon%20shot%20-%20Edited.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="533" data-original-width="528" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg8KioDjXU5NOnbrV8H29tIITdP1VOSwHAtu95PxUawo-7mTBiTBoh5wX6HpeiSCpS81pTK05-Jr16gwXTq5FaPkQqZQxmB0emQ83izh4FkF9fboN9pD3eUKRVLAqufdtqampgmj0nsb61Hil77ry6CkjGIb98jP_b0r_ECHL2aJhy16cpFtnQvxfwX/w396-h400/moon%20shot%20-%20Edited.jpg" width="396" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">(Margo D. Beller)</td></tr></tbody></table><span style="font-size: medium;">The Moon has been known to do funny things <a href="https://www.npr.org/2021/07/14/1015800103/a-study-predicts-record-flooding-in-the-2030s-and-its-partly-because-of-the-moon" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">when it comes to weather</a> and <a href="https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20190731-is-the-moon-impacting-your-mood-and-wellbeing" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">the human mind</a> (and not just for "lunatics"). So I guess I should not be surprised that one year after a snowstorm it should be 60 degrees, and one day after it feels like Spring it should feel like Winter again.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">At least the sun is shining, and tomorrow the temperature will rebound for the start of meteorological Spring.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p><br /></p>Margo D. Beller http://www.blogger.com/profile/11132733081191328601noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1002156758794571993.post-17785762217577035662024-01-07T14:34:00.000-05:002024-01-07T14:34:42.644-05:00The Study of Nature<p><span style="font-size: medium;">Do schools teach earth science anymore? Is there discussion in the classroom about nature and all the things one sees when outdoors?</span></p><p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjmYusk-7VMIyAgb57Y5Zc6-tMaOYHUq77G7BOkmK1FkF2D-lMAeX1av8T-1Rt2TFAPwIJ0jx6-Oc6D8twWqku3ZOTSpscPcipnduy_E5UxzqVeJykMRj3TwXdj7sZv34oCj5S0JzTn778Lxs0L8R48Rm5jNWcv_vaVNHdaRgmV2uvlnPNyrAUjZAcK/s500/Anna%20Comstock.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="500" data-original-width="354" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjmYusk-7VMIyAgb57Y5Zc6-tMaOYHUq77G7BOkmK1FkF2D-lMAeX1av8T-1Rt2TFAPwIJ0jx6-Oc6D8twWqku3ZOTSpscPcipnduy_E5UxzqVeJykMRj3TwXdj7sZv34oCj5S0JzTn778Lxs0L8R48Rm5jNWcv_vaVNHdaRgmV2uvlnPNyrAUjZAcK/w284-h400/Anna%20Comstock.jpg" width="284" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span face="Inter, ui-sans-serif, system-ui, -apple-system, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Ubuntu, Cantarell, "Noto Sans", sans-serif, BlinkMacSystemFont, "Segoe UI", "Helvetica Neue", Arial, "Noto Sans", "Apple Color Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Symbol", "Noto Color Emoji"" style="background-color: white; color: #30272e; font-size: 14px; text-align: start;">"</span><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/41284017@N08/8592122515" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="--tw-border-spacing-x: 0; --tw-border-spacing-y: 0; --tw-ring-color: rgba(59,130,246,0.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 transparent; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 transparent; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 transparent; --tw-shadow: 0 0 transparent; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-text-opacity: 1; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; background-color: white; border: 0px solid; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Inter, ui-sans-serif, system-ui, -apple-system, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Ubuntu, Cantarell, "Noto Sans", sans-serif, BlinkMacSystemFont, "Segoe UI", "Helvetica Neue", Arial, "Noto Sans", "Apple Color Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Symbol", "Noto Color Emoji"; font-size: 14px; text-align: start; text-decoration: inherit;" target="_blank">Anna Botsford Comstock 1854-1930</a><span face="Inter, ui-sans-serif, system-ui, -apple-system, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Ubuntu, Cantarell, "Noto Sans", sans-serif, BlinkMacSystemFont, "Segoe UI", "Helvetica Neue", Arial, "Noto Sans", "Apple Color Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Symbol", "Noto Color Emoji"" style="background-color: white; color: #30272e; font-size: 14px; text-align: start;">" by </span><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/41284017@N08" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="--tw-border-spacing-x: 0; --tw-border-spacing-y: 0; --tw-ring-color: rgba(59,130,246,0.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 transparent; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 transparent; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 transparent; --tw-shadow: 0 0 transparent; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-text-opacity: 1; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; background-color: white; border: 0px solid; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Inter, ui-sans-serif, system-ui, -apple-system, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Ubuntu, Cantarell, "Noto Sans", sans-serif, BlinkMacSystemFont, "Segoe UI", "Helvetica Neue", Arial, "Noto Sans", "Apple Color Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Symbol", "Noto Color Emoji"; font-size: 14px; text-align: start; text-decoration: inherit;" target="_blank">USDAgov</a><span face="Inter, ui-sans-serif, system-ui, -apple-system, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Ubuntu, Cantarell, "Noto Sans", sans-serif, BlinkMacSystemFont, "Segoe UI", "Helvetica Neue", Arial, "Noto Sans", "Apple Color Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Symbol", "Noto Color Emoji"" style="background-color: white; color: #30272e; font-size: 14px; text-align: start;"> is licensed under </span><a href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/?ref=openverse" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="--tw-border-spacing-x: 0; --tw-border-spacing-y: 0; --tw-ring-color: rgba(59,130,246,0.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 transparent; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 transparent; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 transparent; --tw-shadow: 0 0 transparent; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-text-opacity: 1; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; background-color: white; border: 0px solid; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Inter, ui-sans-serif, system-ui, -apple-system, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Ubuntu, Cantarell, "Noto Sans", sans-serif, BlinkMacSystemFont, "Segoe UI", "Helvetica Neue", Arial, "Noto Sans", "Apple Color Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Symbol", "Noto Color Emoji"; font-size: 14px; text-align: start; text-decoration: inherit;" target="_blank">CC BY 2.0</a><span face="Inter, ui-sans-serif, system-ui, -apple-system, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Ubuntu, Cantarell, "Noto Sans", sans-serif, BlinkMacSystemFont, "Segoe UI", "Helvetica Neue", Arial, "Noto Sans", "Apple Color Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Symbol", "Noto Color Emoji"" style="background-color: white; color: #30272e; font-size: 14px; text-align: start;">.<br /><br /></span></td></tr></tbody></table><span style="font-size: medium;">Nowadays, it seems we hear more about what <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/florida-teachers-start-school-year-uncertainty-new-policies-take-effec-rcna99243" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">CAN'T be taught</a> in schools or what <a href="https://www.npr.org/2022/02/02/1077065644/abortion-critical-race-theory--banned-books-jon-ronson-podcast" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">should not be allowed to be taught</a> in schools than about <a href="https://world-schools.com/american-curriculum/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">what IS taught</a> in schools. (I am not a teacher and do not have children, so I don't know.)</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">During the administration of George W. Bush, in 2002, the U.S. enacted the "No Child Left Behind" law. At that time <a href="https://www.npr.org/sections/ed/2015/10/27/443110755/no-child-left-behind-what-worked-what-didnt" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Bush was quoted </a>as saying:</span></p><span style="font-size: medium;">"We're gonna spend more money, more resources, but they'll be directed at methods that work.<i> Not feel-good methods. Not sound-good methods. But methods that actually work</i>.<i>" (emphasis mine)</i></span><div><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-size: medium;"><a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/No-Child-Left-Behind-Act" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">According to Brittanica</a>, that meant "states were required to administer yearly tests of the reading and mathematics skills of public school students and to demonstrate adequate progress toward raising the scores of all students to a level defined as 'proficient' or higher by 2014. Teachers were also required to meet higher standards for certification. Schools that failed to meet their goals would be subject to gradually increasing sanctions, eventually including replacement of staff or closure."</span></div><div><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-size: medium;">Rather than helping students, the rules forced teachers to concentrate more on offering enough learning to live up to the testing standards than to actually educate the primary and secondary school kids. (Earth science was not considered worthy of mention.) The rules were eventually eased during the Obama administration.</span></div><div><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-size: medium;">Back around the turn of the last century, the concerns were different. There was no TV or internet to distract children and keep them indoors. The people at Cornell University's agricultural college thought teachers should have a guide to explain how children should see the <i>outdoors</i> - basically everything animal, vegetable or mineral except humans. </span></div><div><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-size: medium;">Another difference: Back then it was much more common to see farms, and agriculture was a major part of the U.S. economy. According to <a href="https://www.statista.com/statistics/196104/total-area-of-land-in-farms-in-the-us-since-2000/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Statistica</a>, in 2022 there were just over 2 million farms in the U.S., compared with 2.2 million in 2007, and the average size has been steadily decreasing. </span></div><div><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-size: medium;">But farmland was decreasing long before 2007 as <a href="https://www.history.com/news/post-world-war-ii-boom-economy" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">post-World War II population increases</a> prompted an explosion in housing on what used to be crop-growing fields, such as the famous<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2015/apr/28/levittown-america-prototypical-suburb-history-cities" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"> Levittown development </a>in Garden City, Long Island, NY.</span></div><div><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-size: medium;">Back before suburbs took over farmland, Cornell wanted a "Handbook of Nature Study" to be available for teachers. To write it, the university turned to the <a href="https://www.cornell.edu/video/carol-annelli-anna-botsford-comstock-educational-trailblazer-author-scientific-illustrator" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">only woman on staff</a>, <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Out-School-Into-Nature-Comstock/dp/1585369861" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Anna Botsford Comstock</a>. She had been a student at Cornell - <a href="https://www.encyclopedia.com/women/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/comstock-anna-botsford-1854-1930" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">one of the first</a> - and met her husband, John Henry Comstock, there. She eventually made engravings for illustrative plates for her husband's books on insects and butterflies, as well as for her own books on nature studies, including bees.</span></div><div><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><span style="font-size: medium;">It was when she was appointed to the New York State Committee for the Promotion of Agriculture in 1895 that she planned and conducted an experimental course of nature study for public schools, which resulted in her "Handbook."</span><div><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-size: medium;">The book has never gone out of print. The used copy my husband recently bought was the 22nd edition of the 1974 printing, with a new introduction written in 1986. It is even <a href="https://archive.org/details/handbookofnature002506mbp" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">available for download</a>.</span></div><div><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-size: medium;">You could say Anna Botsford Comstock was the original ecologist, though the word was not in existence in 1911. </span></div><div><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-size: medium;">The first part of her guide explains teaching nature study, why such learning is important and what to do (and not do) to get a child interested. The next sections cover animals (including mammals, fishes and birds), plants (including wildflowers and <a href="https://backyardbirdingandbeyond.blogspot.com/2018/08/in-weeds.html" target="_blank">weeds</a>) and earth and sky (including soil, rocks, water and, most interesting to me, <a href="https://backyardbirdingandbeyond.blogspot.com/2013/01/on-record.html" target="_blank">climate and weather</a>).</span></div><div><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyyT5XOmIGlVky6cOnt_XTIf8gGHTCB3z418gm7WyUc0OEcWgsAa5qRECKRJKDukaAkT-rJJF-9l9wAiFeDzzG5feQLBUMuXXQfU1sDcI1wTuWRNlJA_YE2lJrwA7JWGTkrTxn1bNxQvbO4QLcuMDL01kn2enlZIe0NhnAv3m9DIRV-vhBgDSnlMWo/s456/Sunset,%20Cape%20May%202011.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="342" data-original-width="456" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyyT5XOmIGlVky6cOnt_XTIf8gGHTCB3z418gm7WyUc0OEcWgsAa5qRECKRJKDukaAkT-rJJF-9l9wAiFeDzzG5feQLBUMuXXQfU1sDcI1wTuWRNlJA_YE2lJrwA7JWGTkrTxn1bNxQvbO4QLcuMDL01kn2enlZIe0NhnAv3m9DIRV-vhBgDSnlMWo/w400-h300/Sunset,%20Cape%20May%202011.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">(Margo D. Beller)</td></tr></tbody></table></div><div><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-size: medium;">Nature study gives a child "practical and helpful knowledge. It makes him familiar with nature's ways and forces, so that he is not so helpless in the presence of natural misfortune and disasters," she writes. "Nature-study cultivates the child's imagination, since there are so many wonderful and true stories that he may read with his own eyes, which affects his imagination as much as does fairy lore..."</span></div><div><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-size: medium;">And here's something to consider in these days of social media, <a href="https://www.mckinsey.com/featured-insights/mckinsey-explainers/what-is-ai" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">artificial intelligence</a> and not being able to tell <a href="https://www.npr.org/sections/alltechconsidered/2016/12/05/503581220/fake-or-real-how-to-self-check-the-news-and-get-the-facts" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">what is true from what isn't:</a> "Perhaps half the falsehood in the world is due to lack of power to detect the truth and to express it. Nature-study aids both in discernment and in expression of things as they are."</span></div><div><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-size: medium;">Think about that the next time you <a href="https://www.edweek.org/technology/big-numbers-of-teens-are-on-tiktok-almost-constantly-what-should-teachers-do/2022/08" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">read an article</a> about how children are spending more time inside on TikTok than they are on their studies.</span></div><div><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-size: medium;">Within each section are lessons for teachers, and sometimes interesting quotations. For instance, in the section on the woodchuck, the teacher is encouraged to take students outside to find a woodchuck burrow and, if the animal appears, study it. The teacher can discuss such things as when young woodchucks are born, how many can live in the same burrow and the animal's physical characteristics.</span></div><div><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-size: medium;">At the end of that section was a long excerpt from <a href="https://backyardbirdingandbeyond.blogspot.com/2018/11/i-am-thoreau.html" target="_blank">Henry David Thoreau's</a> Journal, including: "I think I might learn some wisdom of him," he says of a woodchuck he encountered during a walk and stayed to study. "His ancestors have lived here longer than mine. He is more thoroughly acclimated and naturalized than I."</span></div><div><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-size: medium;">Thoreau spent his life being outside as much as he could, observing nature and writing down his findings. He did not need a handbook to tell him what he could see around him, but not everyone is a Thoreau.</span></div><div><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-size: medium;">In the urbanized, suburbanized, commercialized, technology-driven world we now live in, where climate change is altering the way we interact with the world, it is heartening when we read of young people <a href="https://www.unicef.org/environment-and-climate-change/youth-action" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">who are angry</a> about what is happening in the world they've inherited, and are <a href="https://www.newsday.com/opinion/commentary/guest-essays/climate-change-younger-generation-gwk1leoa" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">trying to do something about it.</a></span></div><div><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-size: medium;">But they may be the exception. You have to have an interest in the outside world to care anything about it. Which brings me back to my original question: Is earth science (or ecology or whatever you want to call it) taught in school anymore?</span></div><div><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-size: medium;">Anna Comstock gets the last word: <i>"When it is properly taught, the child is unconscious of mental effort or that he is suffering the act of teaching. As soon as nature-study becomes a task, it should be dropped; but how could it ever be a task to see that the sky is blue, or the dandelion golden or to listen to the oriole in the elm!"</i><br /></span><div><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEijzsGOzt_g4K8jUwF8BlbNlRAdQYHtMvVS0qFiVG2TteOLE7LrMhjWEbAzqBaKXGVWuyFoxTyfaWUfcmEMfG4wdaqUQUvyUvAQwCz-ksZ505TDGx33bemHP8F7YMV4G-j8KsUo4U6yMQx-Xvh_w-atKmXtv3X6eq8c_wUGXCUPNra-cDQcC-cqbcUt/s391/B%20oriole.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="341" data-original-width="391" height="349" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEijzsGOzt_g4K8jUwF8BlbNlRAdQYHtMvVS0qFiVG2TteOLE7LrMhjWEbAzqBaKXGVWuyFoxTyfaWUfcmEMfG4wdaqUQUvyUvAQwCz-ksZ505TDGx33bemHP8F7YMV4G-j8KsUo4U6yMQx-Xvh_w-atKmXtv3X6eq8c_wUGXCUPNra-cDQcC-cqbcUt/w400-h349/B%20oriole.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Baltimore oriole (Margo D. Beller)</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div></div>Margo D. Beller http://www.blogger.com/profile/11132733081191328601noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1002156758794571993.post-60161422503995633102024-01-01T15:38:00.000-05:002024-01-01T15:38:32.993-05:00Once Around the White Oak<p><span style="font-size: medium;"><a href="http://backyardbirdingandbeyond.blogspot.com/2023/11/when-too-much-of-good-thing-can-be-bad.html" target="_blank">Back in November</a> I wrote a post about my dismay at finding another trail at the Great Swamp, the 7800-square-foot <a href="https://www.fws.gov/refuge/great-swamp" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">national wildlife refuge</a>, was being boardwalked so that more people can walk through a variety of habitats without the danger of slipping on icy or muddy ground.</span></p><p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQO-bGOCSKSJi9p7JPcaSpTZRIKKKZtZzm1MiPRRvEILJsQ027QxPxvlFfUGrfS3W48Hke84fRemhVmhoILrb7CUdUW_C8RYjX0bmdfuDktgFi1sMiZV1ehqjAuWs4zOBebwE4_ifpInxpjgj-287SLEqlPwMTGpZANpYZN5AUAee-VRKyXBy9-Jxy/s922/Margo%20at%20Tree%202016.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="922" data-original-width="922" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQO-bGOCSKSJi9p7JPcaSpTZRIKKKZtZzm1MiPRRvEILJsQ027QxPxvlFfUGrfS3W48Hke84fRemhVmhoILrb7CUdUW_C8RYjX0bmdfuDktgFi1sMiZV1ehqjAuWs4zOBebwE4_ifpInxpjgj-287SLEqlPwMTGpZANpYZN5AUAee-VRKyXBy9-Jxy/w400-h400/Margo%20at%20Tree%202016.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">That was then. (RE Berg-Andersson)</td></tr></tbody></table></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">This "managed" part of the Swamp has been slowly but surely planking paths to get more people walking, and perhaps limit where they walk. Too many people have a habit of walking wherever they feel like, with or without dogs and children, thus disturbing wildlife and eroding sensitive areas.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">My husband (MH) and I need our exercise and I wanted to get us out of the house. So on the last Saturday of 2023 we decided to check out the finished pathway and compare it to when we last walked the 1-mile White Oak Trail, as it is called, in January 2016. At that time it was cold and the path was icy. We wore boots and carried our walking sticks. </span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">The path is a loop. You walk a bit and then can either go to the left into the woods, or to the right toward the many old white oaks. At that time there were more things growing in the area of the path, including trees, which is why we were surprised when we suddenly came upon the large trees.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">THE White Oak, the one for which the trail is named, is a massive tree reckoned to be several centuries old. The tree was around when the road we drove up had a neighborhood along it. The tree was around when the federal government planned an airport on the property, and it was around when <a href="https://www.newjerseyhills.com/helen-fenske-lioness-of-new-jerseys-environmental-movement-dies-at-84/article_71cdd832-4efa-5096-8f8b-cc55bde55734.html" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Helen Fenske</a> and other activists got that plan blocked. The trail begins across the road from the education center named for her. </span></p><p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEia1N8r2PA6LUlTLp51sYFfKV-Fs09qC5WLND93a3ywRww0WqGiMFpclEKIxQyBd427gk4uI5EsIB7QFpnQRh-63ZJeT-4EzKkAmIbh_5zshhHvJRXoQploP0sktVWQBMd_TEu7ZldbpUMXLNVnBi2au2Dgun_f2P5wGw7g9BMJgmb0maoVJS13DfEU/s3264/Margo%20and%20White%20Oak%202023.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2448" data-original-width="3264" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEia1N8r2PA6LUlTLp51sYFfKV-Fs09qC5WLND93a3ywRww0WqGiMFpclEKIxQyBd427gk4uI5EsIB7QFpnQRh-63ZJeT-4EzKkAmIbh_5zshhHvJRXoQploP0sktVWQBMd_TEu7ZldbpUMXLNVnBi2au2Dgun_f2P5wGw7g9BMJgmb0maoVJS13DfEU/w400-h300/Margo%20and%20White%20Oak%202023.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">This is now. THE White Oak is<br />to the left. (Berg-Andersson)<br /><br /></td></tr></tbody></table><span style="font-size: medium;">I have stood at the base of the redwoods in California's <a href="https://www.nps.gov/muwo/index.htm" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Muir Woods</a> north of San Francisco and been impressed by the sheer size and majesty of the trees. I was similarly impressed by the White Oak, though it is not nearly as tall. </span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">I walked over to the tree and MH took my picture. I look puny, but I like the picture because it reminds me of my - and humankind's - place in the general sphere of things. Stand next to a mighty tree and you will gain some perspective. (At least I hope so.)</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">We continued on the trail, entered woods, walked through and around and eventually came back to the road and our car.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">Fast forward eight years.</span></p><p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgbgj6Vjnz2tuyABN3FJTSV6UXMPS79mko5qJO7APGUMQXkKmhspVQ3eIK-BMEc45-bglOfk4iK-Ya2kpxbuJ6_XLqjDOUWF_eBbdCgWOinOOUiFzfCIPpWzqUA74DHCV_iPqahtso7ylQH5tycLzXh2PuknF4KTmBUShYZ3uz2GubW4f7ukdzVHilI/s2287/White%20Oak%20Trail%202%20(Rich).jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2287" data-original-width="2287" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgbgj6Vjnz2tuyABN3FJTSV6UXMPS79mko5qJO7APGUMQXkKmhspVQ3eIK-BMEc45-bglOfk4iK-Ya2kpxbuJ6_XLqjDOUWF_eBbdCgWOinOOUiFzfCIPpWzqUA74DHCV_iPqahtso7ylQH5tycLzXh2PuknF4KTmBUShYZ3uz2GubW4f7ukdzVHilI/w400-h400/White%20Oak%20Trail%202%20(Rich).jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">View from the boardwalk back towards the<br />Fenske center. (RE Berg-Andersson)</td></tr></tbody></table></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">The boardwalking certainly kept our feet safe from the cold mud of the old trail, which we could see as we walked. I wore sneakers. MH used his cane for his balky knees. It was chilly from a breeze but in the 40s, normal for the time. However, for the previous two weeks temperatures had been above normal and it was very wet for December, so it felt colder by comparison. (Of course, had the temperature been normal all month we would've been walking in several inches of snow.)</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">We forked right, heading to the oak. Unlike last time we could see it quite clearly because where we were walking had had a controlled burn a few years ago to make a habitat conducive to <a href="https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/American_Woodcock/id" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">woodcock</a>. (This was before the boardwalk went in, of course.) The wide openness unnerved me, for some reason.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">Another difference: When you stay on the boardwalk you can't get close to the White Oak. Perhaps that was by design. Weeds and other plants have grown in the area where I stood next to the tree. I suppose this was just as well because the old tree was showing signs of damage, either from age or from this autumn's major wind and rain storms. (I have a sizable brush pile at home thanks to those storms.) </span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">As MH took pictures I wondered how much longer the tree would last. </span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">We pushed on into the woods, where I felt more comfortable. By now the boardwalk gave over to cinders. Here were the birds, starting with a calling redshouldered hawk. The trees blocked much of the wind and we could see water everywhere from the last major storm less than a week before. This is what a swamp does - it collects water. However, on paved areas water runs off, flooding streets and backing up sewers, damaging the many residential areas now built on former barrier islands or meadowlands. (Ironically, the paved road in the Swamp where there were once houses was closed this day to car traffic because of flooding.)</span></p><p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhA20HMmDQBoo0rTDrnodqQrdrP3NKsM1H3D0dJ9BwJKtVwdxqjTfeW6qcz0y00EjAJ56XOhXx9hgeKNdWDAg6KDI32C7a009W2c3XwpJo72hI2lI9R87ShYFeRSBuSwZX7iRw-kRZve0a8O2wo8bQfcIoQJlRkE1h29Lc1c34y3B5aQeuOKmksK1e7/s720/vernal%20pool.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="523" data-original-width="720" height="290" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhA20HMmDQBoo0rTDrnodqQrdrP3NKsM1H3D0dJ9BwJKtVwdxqjTfeW6qcz0y00EjAJ56XOhXx9hgeKNdWDAg6KDI32C7a009W2c3XwpJo72hI2lI9R87ShYFeRSBuSwZX7iRw-kRZve0a8O2wo8bQfcIoQJlRkE1h29Lc1c34y3B5aQeuOKmksK1e7/w400-h290/vernal%20pool.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Vernal pool (RE Berg-Andersson)</td></tr></tbody></table></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">We then entered another cleared area I didn't remember being so clear, but this one was smaller and led back to woods that were again boardwalked and featured some benches. One bench was near a <a href="https://www.maine.gov/dep/land/nrpa/vernalpools/fs-vernal_pools_intro.html" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">vernal pool</a>. Vernal pools fill with spring rains and are essential to the lives of salamanders and wood frogs. What should've been empty was filled to overflowing from all the rain. I wondered if this would have an effect next spring but I leave the explanations <a href="https://forestsociety.org/something-wild/salamander-plant-or-animal-yes" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">to the experts</a>. </span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">A woman at the Fenske center said that while many areas had been cleared for the boardwalk, the route of the trail had not been changed and it was still a mile long. It had seemed much longer.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">We were lucky there had not been many people walking this trail when we were, either because of the cold or because they were doing other things in other places in the week between Christmas and New Year's, when schools are closed. I do not like noise when I am trying to look at a bird. Nor do I like having to get out of the way of a large group of people approaching. But MH, who has become very careful about where he hikes, said he'd be willing to walk this trail again in the spring when the migrating birds pass through. I hope my luck will hold at that time.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">So maybe I was too hard on the boardwalking of this trail. However, I still believe my concern to be valid that too many natural areas "opened up" to all are being overrun by people who learned during the Covid pandemic that being outside can be therapeutic for them, if not for the land they walk upon.</span></p>Margo D. Beller http://www.blogger.com/profile/11132733081191328601noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1002156758794571993.post-69622102976802360562023-12-03T10:41:00.006-05:002023-12-04T09:38:27.067-05:00Canary In A Coal Mine<p><span style="font-size: medium;">There are things we see every day and take for granted. Birds, for instance. </span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">When I was growing up not far from <a href="https://backyardbirdingandbeyond.blogspot.com/2015/08/you-can-go-home-again.html" target="_blank">the southern Brooklyn shore</a>, I did not pay much attention to the birds. There were "sparrows," "pigeons" and "seagulls." In my immediate area the "park" was a large, concrete area with swings, basketball hoops, benches and a wall for playing handball. There was no greenery beyond some trees. My house had a postage stamp-sized backyard just big enough for some rose bushes, hydrangeas and small bit of grass.</span></p><p></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4alPh7f_j5-eKe7mOa-KIIzBZdXZZXuo39lavsdqSuyq3AKjj63eS9ApoS9JtagQyQ5g05Hh9u0gEiEHtHhMFFNypetsn2x3YxGTXUFiJeHf87LHP4Gy_cfRE9AhGIBfxcwbF-oC1j4095fj14RGpVPixHxpYAP-TmV7zZurzqcZQQCwTa8Ric5L2/s400/Marine%20Park%20salt%20marsh.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="300" data-original-width="400" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4alPh7f_j5-eKe7mOa-KIIzBZdXZZXuo39lavsdqSuyq3AKjj63eS9ApoS9JtagQyQ5g05Hh9u0gEiEHtHhMFFNypetsn2x3YxGTXUFiJeHf87LHP4Gy_cfRE9AhGIBfxcwbF-oC1j4095fj14RGpVPixHxpYAP-TmV7zZurzqcZQQCwTa8Ric5L2/w400-h300/Marine%20Park%20salt%20marsh.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A part of the Brooklyn shore I didn't appreciate when<br />I was growing up in the area. (RE Berg-Andersson)</td></tr></tbody></table><p></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">Luckily for me, I could walk the quarter-mile or so under a highway underpass to the bay. If I wanted to walk farther, I'd go to <a href="https://npplan.com/parks-by-state/new-york-national-parks/gateway-national-recreation-area-park-at-a-glance/gateway-national-recreation-area-jamaica-bay-unit-overview/gateway-national-recreation-area-plumb-beach-at-jamaica-bay/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Plumb Beach</a> and look at the Atlantic Ocean. At the time this beach was dirty and not really a place to go alone, especially at night. (Now it is part of the <a href="https://www.nps.gov/gate/index.htm" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Gateway National Park</a> system.) At the time I lived here <a href="https://backyardbirdingandbeyond.blogspot.com/2012/08/if-only.html" target="_blank">I did not appreciate</a> the variety of habitats and birds available to me, if only my second-generation American parents had had more of an interest in things beyond making a living to raise their family.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">I now know the presence of birds can tell you a lot about an area. So can their absence.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">At the time I grew up there my neighborhood was mainly white. Several miles down Nostrand Ave. an apartment complex was decidedly not mainly white. I don't know if it had a park, concrete or otherwise.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">What prompts these thoughts is an article the New York Times reported in November about a study by<a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41562-023-01688-5.epdf?sharing_token=SCM4qsgFVvhBHiRPo4dMNtRgN0jAjWel9jnR3ZoTv0MgeNm_CzNtpoLOy1oyMRd0mDrBM4-JrdZFms-VY1B9zVSxrIcZjZfKAo1bLrG1MRbp1OiOTE-mMN_nV2KcZI1EeL8cuOKFbXHpUbGdgWPrkiOZciHh9F6jGPSV6d_6fMyoYGgXFVqyi1rs63cqZ_ytzBj9jBEvzRDgD5__IXYeUQcU7Vv3BlnoXW8dT2WrQbcFGeILaJpvW8FcsrUiXp3B5MsaY2LrpMwI4WDba9aCqj2cSTLS-4WcHXTr9VVodReN2Cb8_V0zfUEfCJkH89BIIDvQWcad_i6ZL-vbHMDgeQ%3D%3D&tracking_referrer=news.mongabay.com" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"> Nature Human Behavior</a>, published online in September. The Times put on a headline that seems rather silly considering the content of the report, but it would be the type of thing to appeal to its upscale (or wannabe upscale) audience: "Why Warblers Flock To Tonier Neighborhoods."</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><span>I don't know why there was a two-month lag between study and article, and I did not care to set up an account to read the full Times article. But I did read a similar article in </span><a href="http://Mongabay.com.">Mongabay.com</a>, </span><span style="font-size: medium;">where the headline took the report much more seriously:</span></p><span style="font-size: medium;">Discriminatory U.S. housing policies still affect bird sightings 90 years later</span><div><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-size: medium;">In a way, this should be obvious. In the areas where nonwhite people had to live because of the institutionalized banking process known as <a href="https://www.federalreservehistory.org/essays/redlining" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">redlining</a>, parks were not a high priority. </span></div><div><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-size: medium;">From the report:</span></div><div><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><span style="font-size: medium;"><i>Historic segregation and inequality are critical to understanding modern environmental conditions. Race-based zoning policies, such as redlining in the United States during the 1930s, are associated with racial inequity and adverse multigenerational socioeconomic levels in income and education, and disparate environmental characteristics including tree canopy cover across urban neighbourhoods. </i></span><div><span style="font-size: medium;"><i><br /></i></span></div><div><span style="font-size: medium;"><i>Here we quantify the association between redlining and bird biodiversity sampling density and completeness—two critical metrics of biodiversity knowledge—across 195 cities in the United States. We show that historically redlined neighbourhoods remain the most undersampled urban areas for bird biodiversity today, potentially impacting conservation priorities and propagating urban environmental inequities. </i></span></div><div><span style="font-size: medium;"><i><br /></i></span></div><div><span style="font-size: medium;"><i>The disparity in sampling across redlined neighbourhood grades increased by 35.6% over the past 20 years. We identify specific urban areas in need of increased bird biodiversity sampling and discuss possible strategies for reducing uncertainty and increasing equity of sampling of biodiversity in urban areas. Our findings highlight how human behaviour and past social, economic and political conditions not just segregate our built environment but may also leave a lasting mark on the digital information we have about urban biodiversity.</i></span></div><div><span style="font-size: medium;"><i><br /></i></span></div><div><span style="font-size: medium;">Here's another reason this should be obvious. When the Cornell Ornithology Lab and the Audubon Society urge <a href="https://www.birds.cornell.edu/home/get-involved/citizen-science/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">"citizen scientists"</a> to report what they are seeing in their hikes and at their feeders, either through the eBird database or for the annual Christmas Bird Count (which has a fee) or the Presidents Day weekend <a href="https://backyardbirdingandbeyond.blogspot.com/2013/02/i-was-walking-in-my-town-one-mild.html" target="_blank">Great Backyard Bird Count </a>(which doesn't), the majority of participants are people who live near parks or have backyards where they can hang feeders. In a gritty urban neighborhood, feeding birds may not be the highest priority when there are so many other things you must do to survive when money is tight. </span></div><div><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-size: medium;">The people who DO report are generally people like me: white, older, with enough money to buy a house with some land in an area near a variety of habitats suitable for hiking, fishing and, if we have an interest in it, looking for birds. To draw these birds to us, we hang feeders filled with various types of seed or suet. It has only been in recent years that a <a href="https://www.audubon.org/news/black-birders-week-promotes-diversity-and-takes-racism-outdoors" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">serious effort has been made </a>to encourage <a href="https://www.npr.org/2023/06/12/1181314626/central-park-birder-christian-cooper-on-being-a-black-man-in-the-natural-world" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">nonwhite people </a>to get involved with birding specifically and nature in general.</span></div><div><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-size: medium;">From the Mongabay article:</span></div><span style="font-size: medium;"><i><br />“We’re starting to untangle the environmental effects, because segregation did not just shape where highways and wastewater facilities were built,” said [study] lead author Diego Ellis-Soto, an ecologist at Yale University, “but also where national parks and urban recreation areas were built.” Those green spaces, he noted, attract wildlife.</i></span><div><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-size: medium;">Is it any wonder historic birding references are written by mainly wealthy white men and lack data from redlined neighborhoods? In a way it is similar to why <a href="https://www.health.harvard.edu/newsletter_article/mars-vs-venus-the-gender-gap-in-health" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">women have suffered </a>because research into such things as <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2015/apr/30/fda-clinical-trials-gender-gap-epa-nih-institute-of-medicine-cardiovascular-disease" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">cardiovascular disease </a>has centered on men, thus ignoring how women react in similar circumstances.</span></div><div><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-size: medium;">Redlining was officially outlawed in 1968, although some would say <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/wealth-gap-black-americans-redlining/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">the practice continues</a> in a less obvious way.</span></div><div><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-size: medium;">As I said, in many urban neighborhoods I know a "park" is a concrete playground with basketball courts, maybe a few benches and a swing or slide for the smaller children. There are exceptions, of course. In the planned neighborhood of Sunnyside Gardens, the small houses were built in the English style, with a common, shared backyard that provides some needed space and a chance for neighbors to get together. (This area has become a <a href="https://sunnysidegardens.us/preservation/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">preserved neighborhood</a> to save it from being razed for more high-rise buildings.)</span></div><div><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-size: medium;">Most of New York is considered a concrete jungle, even though it contains Central [Manhattan], Prospect [Brooklyn] and Van Cortlandt [Bronx] parks, among others. </span></div><div><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-size: medium;">But the majority of my home borough hasn't had farms or other large swaths of open space for centuries, not since Brooklyn was "developed" to handle the Manhattanites and others seeking to escape for more space. The people living near Prospect Park in Park Slope, along the near parts of Eastern Parkway and in Windsor Terrace spend a lot of money to live near this park, considered by landlords an offered "amenity." Maybe that will change in more of the nonwhite neighborhoods as they become "gentrified" by an influx of younger, richer, whiter people who demand more parks (and whose higher rents force out others, perpetuating the cycle).</span></div><div><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-size: medium;">You could say the absence of birds - whether through climate change or redlining - is like the <a href="https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/story-real-canary-coal-mine-180961570/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">canary in a coal mine</a>, telling us things we might not want to know but ignore at our peril.</span></div><div><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></div><div><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div>Margo D. Beller http://www.blogger.com/profile/11132733081191328601noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1002156758794571993.post-17871475558903321472023-11-19T16:08:00.000-05:002023-11-19T16:08:53.483-05:00Odds And Ends<p><span style="font-size: medium;">Most of the <a href="https://backyardbirdingandbeyond.blogspot.com/2020/11/when-timing-is-everything.html" target="_blank">leaves have come down</a>, except for those of the white oaks in back and the walnut in front between my property and the neighbor's. The <a href="https://backyardbirdingandbeyond.blogspot.com/2023/10/cleaning-up-after-trees.html" target="_blank">acorns finished coming down</a>, at least on my porch roof and patio, weeks ago but there are still <a href="https://backyardbirdingandbeyond.blogspot.com/2019/10/nuts-and-pods-to-you.html" target="_blank">plenty of pods</a> left in the locust tree. </span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">All the important plant work is done, the pots stowed away. With the exception of a couple of small jobs, I can rest for the winter. </span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">So now I'm looking through the pictures I took that didn't get used in a blog post. </span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">For instance, here is Speedwell Lake, located not far from where I live. It is stocked with trout, drawing fishermen and fishing birds, including <a href="https://backyardbirdingandbeyond.blogspot.com/2018/05/gone-birding.html" target="_blank">great blue herons</a>, double-crested cormorants and the occasional <a href="https://backyardbirdingandbeyond.blogspot.com/2019/04/the-fish-hawk.html">osprey.</a> I liked the mirror effect in this picture taken in August.</span></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjoxpQMfJxI0se7MJ0kXMvIvj971hfTZj67nHZPzq1ai-ByNiHrVtFNwC9cfR-yQ2PV7CFsqKA-yyo9Jm4UhdyzTk2GheszHXi1t_E5t7oBk8ng-mFWzpcShayUz9DF8L8lCN04FDiNlPC88jpD0Mvj4QFRvM4UHYkF23u69be3A_uHfSbLxh9b7-jb/s3264/Speedwell%20Lake.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2448" data-original-width="3264" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjoxpQMfJxI0se7MJ0kXMvIvj971hfTZj67nHZPzq1ai-ByNiHrVtFNwC9cfR-yQ2PV7CFsqKA-yyo9Jm4UhdyzTk2GheszHXi1t_E5t7oBk8ng-mFWzpcShayUz9DF8L8lCN04FDiNlPC88jpD0Mvj4QFRvM4UHYkF23u69be3A_uHfSbLxh9b7-jb/w400-h300/Speedwell%20Lake.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">(Margo D. Beller)</td></tr></tbody></table><p><span style="font-size: medium;">This next picture, meanwhile, was taken in October. I was walking along <a href="https://morrisparks.net/index.php/parks/patriots-path" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Patriots Path</a>, a Morris County park near me I've <a href="https://backyardbirdingandbeyond.blogspot.com/2018/06/taking-different-path.html" target="_blank">written about</a> many times. I was in an area where once <a href="https://backyardbirdingandbeyond.blogspot.com/2018/12/when-cure-is-worse-than-disease.html" target="_blank">heavy rains would create a lake</a>. When many of the trees were removed because of emerald ash borer infestation, there was more light and so more grasses and weeds started filling in the space. On this day I noticed stands of cattails had suddenly (to me) appeared. Unlike <a href="https://www.usgs.gov/programs/biological-threats-and-invasive-species-research-program/science/invasive-plants-we-study" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">phragmites</a>, which are invasive and considered a biological threat, <a href="https://www.usgs.gov/media/videos/importance-cattails-wetlands" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">cattails</a> are important for preserving wetlands. Finding these shows the environment is never static. </span></p><p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZXgZ8dsZ8WPlJ9NajEGpt5cKZFu33Vmkpo1qbvpnSTB2Pa9_Bw2dXtkKKd7OQij-aLi9AmI8bx6RzF4xa-HfSr1MIwp-RRbn9LLFkExeH1zBwntLJEz4Gnlpa5lSi0btwCWH2f2nK5088dTEIsdGCGinIeir7F0HI35IuTBbOSQ1f-LKmR-fNpwP3/s2174/cattails.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1632" data-original-width="2174" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZXgZ8dsZ8WPlJ9NajEGpt5cKZFu33Vmkpo1qbvpnSTB2Pa9_Bw2dXtkKKd7OQij-aLi9AmI8bx6RzF4xa-HfSr1MIwp-RRbn9LLFkExeH1zBwntLJEz4Gnlpa5lSi0btwCWH2f2nK5088dTEIsdGCGinIeir7F0HI35IuTBbOSQ1f-LKmR-fNpwP3/w400-h300/cattails.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">(Margo D. Beller)</td></tr></tbody></table><span style="font-size: medium;">Sometimes I find things I can't identify, such as this flowering vine. </span></p><p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiYggRrhuxjbBpDhK48SZA-SOhqdXM7eTX0iR7t2R-lCZdkIV51bukG9_TViOrsH1MOBngU7cpjUlxXX4BCpJo-n_jscH2BzTHmfBjqCKkZSsFICoz49m3Xm5yaOukVAqhD6v_r48Kqb95CviMfEgMMtPimJNhDkE5peRG2E89OHKpOU3K0UQ_dIp_s/s3264/strange%20weed.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3264" data-original-width="2448" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiYggRrhuxjbBpDhK48SZA-SOhqdXM7eTX0iR7t2R-lCZdkIV51bukG9_TViOrsH1MOBngU7cpjUlxXX4BCpJo-n_jscH2BzTHmfBjqCKkZSsFICoz49m3Xm5yaOukVAqhD6v_r48Kqb95CviMfEgMMtPimJNhDkE5peRG2E89OHKpOU3K0UQ_dIp_s/w300-h400/strange%20weed.jpg" width="300" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">(Margo D. Beller)</td></tr></tbody></table><span style="font-size: medium;">In October we had several mornings when I woke up to thick fog. This was the view out my front door one such morning.</span></p><p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhwkIl8IzJ1HFzrYDV-h3CkKf7Xt4Kfq4EIgWXk5cdJuTKRh-AlzTXBlEbPZQCsSzTjMGtIyorp3Zc2leIkhREiRvLEY67wDKMZDQ_2d7lIeH2v0KFiThQas__wD5NjnAhp_vJX0IPm5VQ7JCInQrP8z5Ip4WLJtGm3fZO7209xpkZQ7u8FBOyFfoEY/s2174/foggy%20morning%20-%20Edited.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1632" data-original-width="2174" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhwkIl8IzJ1HFzrYDV-h3CkKf7Xt4Kfq4EIgWXk5cdJuTKRh-AlzTXBlEbPZQCsSzTjMGtIyorp3Zc2leIkhREiRvLEY67wDKMZDQ_2d7lIeH2v0KFiThQas__wD5NjnAhp_vJX0IPm5VQ7JCInQrP8z5Ip4WLJtGm3fZO7209xpkZQ7u8FBOyFfoEY/w400-h300/foggy%20morning%20-%20Edited.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">(Margo D. Beller)</td></tr></tbody></table><span style="font-size: medium;">I enjoy the colorful autumn leaves, especially if I <a href="https://backyardbirdingandbeyond.blogspot.com/2013/10/good-bad-and-raking.html" target="_blank">don't have to rake them</a>. The camera does not do the scene justice, unfortunately.</span></p><p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiTkpR48H8sQjvkx4bTzNAoU47GhdrM5WrBlkbr_UXI4EjUO33RRTIO0ntdxymbWLaM2Zq3XsTon4FOcpyccq55U5oa3mMcADOTvcdI_44WDwj5ff73GLwvNnI2zBUElrt0du6uhil5tqMVi24UTZQmOLZmmIS_I4YU_xoYG5CmgVfYggRitUbfA_CZ/s3264/autumn%202023%201.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3264" data-original-width="2448" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiTkpR48H8sQjvkx4bTzNAoU47GhdrM5WrBlkbr_UXI4EjUO33RRTIO0ntdxymbWLaM2Zq3XsTon4FOcpyccq55U5oa3mMcADOTvcdI_44WDwj5ff73GLwvNnI2zBUElrt0du6uhil5tqMVi24UTZQmOLZmmIS_I4YU_xoYG5CmgVfYggRitUbfA_CZ/w300-h400/autumn%202023%201.jpg" width="300" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Oct. 28, 2023, Patriots Path<br />(Margo D. Beller)</td></tr></tbody></table><span style="font-size: medium;">I like pathway pictures. This is another section of Patriots Path that, unlike the area where I took the picture of the leaves, is paved. It is popular with walkers, bikers and runners. It can also be very good for finding birds if you get there early, before it gets too crowded, but late enough for the sun to hit the tree tops and attract birds looking for food.</span></p><p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhnxT5BJQ-3ZO_8JivGBejm0-JHeVQuyCFXw5xbcee5vCrOBK3hlwguY_JeHjTHg250QuFZrkemBsj5NkSrRboc65BjpWgket8QditPAYWwjcdPDajaoj5aQ6nDvG3ugRv7H9yqq94TYIv_gzT3NFBCeVCelco9vVVcLAOaj-eNXhAIBg1mYYB9VxhY/s3264/pathway.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2448" data-original-width="3264" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhnxT5BJQ-3ZO_8JivGBejm0-JHeVQuyCFXw5xbcee5vCrOBK3hlwguY_JeHjTHg250QuFZrkemBsj5NkSrRboc65BjpWgket8QditPAYWwjcdPDajaoj5aQ6nDvG3ugRv7H9yqq94TYIv_gzT3NFBCeVCelco9vVVcLAOaj-eNXhAIBg1mYYB9VxhY/w400-h300/pathway.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">(Margo D. Beller)<br /><br /></td></tr></tbody></table><span style="font-size: medium;">Once in a while, you find a surprise. One area of Patriots Path I like to hike is along the <a href="https://backyardbirdingandbeyond.blogspot.com/2023/01/winter-starkness.html" target="_blank">Whippany River</a>, which will eventually flow into Speedwell Lake. I have found many birds along this path including warblers in season, different types of ducks, great blue herons and <a href="https://backyardbirdingandbeyond.blogspot.com/2023/10/wild-goose-watching.html" target="_blank">Canada geese</a>. But there have been oddities too, including over 20 <a href="https://backyardbirdingandbeyond.blogspot.com/2013/02/ugly-beauty-part-2.html" target="_blank">turkey vultures</a> roosting in a tree (with several black vultures below them on the ground) waiting for the sun to warm them. This time, in late October, my husband and I were walking along here when something noisily took off from a branch high above us. As it flew off I could see it was a mature bald eagle. But then it flew to a tree on the other side of the recycling center across the river. It stayed long enough for both of us to take some pictures. This picture is edited.</span></p><p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgdKM9mM-oMyvaUccjEu5l7C4C0lyhQlu3IXOrk0rUUUMAlFEjRa4bTOeF5CmKITHusCzdFv8bckcL5Uh5F1kpthINj0bvlLwmUpoV6Wcb_RwAfB-Jymv2d3gJqr0xgUk2FsfoIO97rWQVYjZthcjpa_fsZU7AKMF0MWUMGz3UT6cgPCHtYkZiLkGbA/s1135/Lake%20Valley%20bald%20eagle%20Oct.%202023.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1135" data-original-width="1071" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgdKM9mM-oMyvaUccjEu5l7C4C0lyhQlu3IXOrk0rUUUMAlFEjRa4bTOeF5CmKITHusCzdFv8bckcL5Uh5F1kpthINj0bvlLwmUpoV6Wcb_RwAfB-Jymv2d3gJqr0xgUk2FsfoIO97rWQVYjZthcjpa_fsZU7AKMF0MWUMGz3UT6cgPCHtYkZiLkGbA/w378-h400/Lake%20Valley%20bald%20eagle%20Oct.%202023.jpg" width="378" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">(Margo D. Beller)</td></tr></tbody></table><span style="font-size: medium;">Finally, here's a long view of the tow path along the Delaware & Raritan Canal, a <a href="https://nj.gov/dep/parksandforests/parks/drcanalstatepark.html" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">state park</a>. Canals were how you shipped goods, at least before the railroads came along and made canals obsolete. The two main New Jersey canals were <a href="https://www.nj.gov/dep/drcc/about-canal/history/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">the D&R</a>, much of which remains as a linear park, and the <a href="https://canalsocietynj.org/canal-history/morris-canal/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Morris Canal</a>, much of which was filled in for residential and commercial "development" throughout its route. (One of the exceptions is the <a href="https://everythingjerseycity.com/places/morris-canal-park/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Morris Canal Park</a> in Jersey City, where the canal emptied into the Hudson River. I frequently visited this park when I worked in the area and, yes, found lots of interesting birds.)</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgaZjtE4LCB8hyphenhyphenAbDWRZdL5khrF_WG9bdaadLX1ygqCNk0fz0EqGjN3uTussngVo5lulVo69CLpc1fWSMZRRyVlSlru83WOcKWayZ-XOVFdOJSgMs1_VAlCjNyEE8F7aYYOFzMb26nZ3rO5e2kORr9281VM2pgureqS-wu2oOlDBIZUYU7C8i0lZBG-/s3264/D&R%20canal%20path.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3264" data-original-width="2448" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgaZjtE4LCB8hyphenhyphenAbDWRZdL5khrF_WG9bdaadLX1ygqCNk0fz0EqGjN3uTussngVo5lulVo69CLpc1fWSMZRRyVlSlru83WOcKWayZ-XOVFdOJSgMs1_VAlCjNyEE8F7aYYOFzMb26nZ3rO5e2kORr9281VM2pgureqS-wu2oOlDBIZUYU7C8i0lZBG-/w300-h400/D&R%20canal%20path.jpg" width="300" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">D&R Canal Park, Kingston, NJ, November 2023<br />(Margo D. Beller)</td></tr></tbody></table></span></p>Margo D. Beller http://www.blogger.com/profile/11132733081191328601noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1002156758794571993.post-48549920141895090312023-11-13T13:01:00.002-05:002023-11-13T13:01:53.372-05:00When Too Much of a Good Thing Can Be Bad<p><span style="font-size: medium;"><i>Nobody goes there anymore, it's too crowded.</i></span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><i>-- Y<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yogi_Berra" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">ogi Berra</a></i></span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">As more trees are cut down and more buildings are put up in urban and suburban areas, I've noticed it is rare to have a static piece of open space. It has to feature more things for people to do rather than boring stuff like walking, listening to the birds or sitting quietly on a bench.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">These pieces of open land have to include soccer fields, playgrounds, areas for "special needs" people, cross-country running tracks and the occasional field hockey rink. This is known as "<a href="https://www.buildingenclosureonline.com/blogs/14-the-be-blog/post/90597-the-future-is-mixed-use-urban-development-in-2022-and-beyond?v=preview" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">mixed use</a>."</span></p><p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPiV-zHFEm2feaTQnXT2kfahFylC1nDhFNA6K9tlt1QqRqJGqT1Ot7UrL_UuaBp2eT2Bl-ZkI3x4sBchrV299XlQ0Uw6r-OFuPtH6nunSqc65PjR4ANKmwMHkSAw20s357qroMrtMmRmJXmzelRxQpm7d9qIYIMfuiVfmJUh2BAHd3HBBYC41wvvxv/s482/Swamp%20boardwalk.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="482" data-original-width="408" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPiV-zHFEm2feaTQnXT2kfahFylC1nDhFNA6K9tlt1QqRqJGqT1Ot7UrL_UuaBp2eT2Bl-ZkI3x4sBchrV299XlQ0Uw6r-OFuPtH6nunSqc65PjR4ANKmwMHkSAw20s357qroMrtMmRmJXmzelRxQpm7d9qIYIMfuiVfmJUh2BAHd3HBBYC41wvvxv/w339-h400/Swamp%20boardwalk.jpg" width="339" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Boardwalk under construction at Great Swamp<br />(Margo D. Beller)<br /><br /></td></tr></tbody></table><span style="font-size: medium;">I can understand the need for such facilities. As there is less open land and more people living in new developments, those creating a park know residents need a place to run the dogs or get the kids outside to play in a supervised environment. It adds to the "quality of life," and is an attractive incentive to move to that development.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">What I don't like is the effect of such thinking at federal "refuge" areas. </span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">There is a school of thought that if land is opened to more people, they will want to protect it. Or people who approve the construction of a park want to justify the cost because you can't collect <a href="https://www.housingwire.com/articles/property-taxes-have-been-rising-heres-what-it-means-for-housing/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">property taxes</a> on land where no one lives or works. In a state like New Jersey, where property taxes are the highest in the U.S. because they are used to <a href="https://www.njspotlightnews.org/2023/05/budget-time-for-local-officials-in-nj-see-where-the-money-goes/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">pay for so many services</a>, the latter is no small thing.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">So, for instance, you have the Central Park of Morris County, created out of the old <a href="https://backyardbirdingandbeyond.blogspot.com/2012/06/ghosts-and-greystone.html" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Greystone Hospital </a>that was closed because of horrendous conditions. Empty stone buildings were taken down, including the historic <a href="https://backyardbirdingandbeyond.blogspot.com/2015/07/farewell-kirkbride.html" target="_blank">Kirkbride Building</a>, and the fields opened for soccer, cross-country running, even <a href="https://backyardbirdingandbeyond.blogspot.com/2014/08/leave-woods-hell-alone.html" target="_blank">disc golf</a>. The state had sold the land to the county for $1 at a time when people were yelling for affordable housing to be put on this huge piece of property. The park people won out, thankfully for me and my small town abutting the land, and the park is usually filled with people. If I go there birding, it is early in the morning and never on a weekend during school months.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"></span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">Here's another example of how the law of unintended consequences could come into play.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">In the central part of northern New Jersey lies a 12-square-mile piece of open land that is known as the <a href="https://www.greatswamp.org/history-great-swamp/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Great Swamp</a>. Most of it is overseen by the <a href="https://www.fws.gov/refuge/great-swamp" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">U.S. government</a> through the National Park Service, with sections that became county parks run by adjacent <a href="https://www.morrisparks.net/index.php/parks/great-swamp-outdoor-education-center" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Morris</a> and <a href="https://www.somersetcountyparks.org/environmental-education-center" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Somerset</a> counties. Private groups, such as the Great Swamp Watershed Association, also have a hand in making sure people are enjoying themselves responsibly, although park rangers do the enforcing.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjKPu9hgp3qEdQmAx3c5nyFKnk60o2E6bLP8k7f5FGHdijumzMAt2RLGKavT_f0uRdYRsq4bYWIGlEFlvNbKgPzhD8hd2arlvbIQLwPRks4wqNBkCf965QDXoasM_Odm0fjKuSVpLPJjiMURuOIhMEM7KE1nuvOL5HgBTIRIVN2qAPtwkT1QWinZreS/s400/Swamp%20vista.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="300" data-original-width="400" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjKPu9hgp3qEdQmAx3c5nyFKnk60o2E6bLP8k7f5FGHdijumzMAt2RLGKavT_f0uRdYRsq4bYWIGlEFlvNbKgPzhD8hd2arlvbIQLwPRks4wqNBkCf965QDXoasM_Odm0fjKuSVpLPJjiMURuOIhMEM7KE1nuvOL5HgBTIRIVN2qAPtwkT1QWinZreS/w400-h300/Swamp%20vista.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Great Swamp entrance, not far from a network of boardwalked<br />trails (Margo D. Beller)</td></tr></tbody></table></span></p><span style="font-size: medium;">Half of the property is maintained as "wilderness" where the land is left alone for the most part - mud, overgrowth and all. There are no cinders on the trail, no boardwalks, very few signs. <a href="https://backyardbirdingandbeyond.blogspot.com/2018/10/the-meadow-and-swamp.html" target="_blank">There are birds</a> - wonderful birds - in season as well as deer, fox, possum and sometimes bear, among others.</span><p></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">The other half of the swamp is "managed." Fields are periodically burned to get rid of invasive plants or to open an area to a field bird like the woodcock.The main road through this part was once a real residential street. Little by little the federal government bought up the land. As people moved out the houses were knocked down. That empty road has become a tour road, allowing cars to drive through the sanctuary. Half the road's stretch is paved, the rest unpaved. In another part of the managed area trails are boardwalked to allow people to get to blinds or, in one case I'll get to, an "observation" area. One particular trail in this part of the Swamp tends to get a lot more people who "find nature" while wearing sneakers or other footwear not suited for mud. On weekends and holidays they bring their kids, who usually rush ahead of them shouting.</span></p><p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7_e77lX3qmNcYyIhsg1lFrV0RmKwDJZaY6zti3tqNU4Kza36zsf_Cw-VlqZkDi4RLjpFXz7xaFQRvFmfLaPKi2PW1xcIb66bedko8ij34crco9NsE1mcVja3vfmS8n8Wfj-8aYtU-I3QdiqD-Z8_d1INrQlhkzTidT9wzQ7bOBdYO_lyB1A5gKPre/s3264/Swamp%20platform.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3264" data-original-width="2448" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7_e77lX3qmNcYyIhsg1lFrV0RmKwDJZaY6zti3tqNU4Kza36zsf_Cw-VlqZkDi4RLjpFXz7xaFQRvFmfLaPKi2PW1xcIb66bedko8ij34crco9NsE1mcVja3vfmS8n8Wfj-8aYtU-I3QdiqD-Z8_d1INrQlhkzTidT9wzQ7bOBdYO_lyB1A5gKPre/w300-h400/Swamp%20platform.jpg" width="300" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Overlook, replacing a blind<br />(Margo D. Beller)</td></tr></tbody></table></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">I avoid this particular trail.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">The Swamp, located in the midst of suburbia, serves the same function as New York City's <a href="https://backyardbirdingandbeyond.blogspot.com/2020/01/rediscovering-where-im-from.html" target="_blank">Central Park</a> - a large area in the middle of a concrete jungle where migrating birds can rest before pushing on or arrive to spend the winter. Back in the 1960s, no doubt in the name of "progress," there was a <a href="https://www.njpbs.org/blog-post/new-jersey-airport-swamp-area/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">serious move</a> to make the Swamp the New York metro area's fourth airport. Protesters, led by <a href="https://www.newjerseyhills.com/helen-fenske-lioness-of-new-jerseys-environmental-movement-dies-at-84/article_71cdd832-4efa-5096-8f8b-cc55bde55734.html" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Helen Fenske</a>, fought over many years to get that plan blocked. </span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">When the Friends of Great Swamp decided to leave its old center at one end of the tour road to refurbish a larger property at the other end, the new <a href="https://friendsofgreatswamp.org/helen-c-fenske-visitor-center/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">visitor center</a> was named for Fenske.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">It is what is now taking place across the road from the center that sparked this musing on unintended consequences.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">The old center was small. It had a bookstore, a bathroom and a kitchen where visitors could get a cookie, coffee or a glass of water. It had a very homey air about it. Outside were bird feeders, which attracted many birds as well as some of their predators, including a redtailed hawk and a kestrel. </span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">However, as a place where it could draw large numbers of people for lectures and showcase everything the Swamp has to offer, it was considered insufficient. After the Fenske center opened the old house was taken down. </span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">The larger center does not offer coffee and cookies. It has a larger bookstore, more bathrooms and more meeting areas, but is not particularly homey. There are still feeders, positioned so those inside can look through a plate-glass window without disturbing the feeding birds.</span></p><p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgCZqIuubzJbHo5HryBsE4DvmhzQ6eYzzGh5dpY5Eh26TL-7ZVuc7FcXKWtaC9IyARjRWn2GvvmqC9q_LGgUKblGfVyHZyUVfHWkXfNsSSbYZ5vGf4VhW__WPBaImfMwhCuhzlPtXm9KbB-2r30BHt8dYq4EXaI1Y-LPhGQcFvIIJZCznX3AofLD3li/s320/winter%20tree.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="224" data-original-width="320" height="280" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgCZqIuubzJbHo5HryBsE4DvmhzQ6eYzzGh5dpY5Eh26TL-7ZVuc7FcXKWtaC9IyARjRWn2GvvmqC9q_LGgUKblGfVyHZyUVfHWkXfNsSSbYZ5vGf4VhW__WPBaImfMwhCuhzlPtXm9KbB-2r30BHt8dYq4EXaI1Y-LPhGQcFvIIJZCznX3AofLD3li/w400-h280/winter%20tree.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Winter, Great Swamp (Margo D. Beller)</td></tr></tbody></table></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">When the Fenske Center opened several small trails were put in. However, another, much longer trail was soon blazed on the other side of the road. It was dubbed the "White Oak Trail" because, as my husband and I discovered when we walked it one winter, it leads to some huge oak trees several hundred years old. That winter the trail was icy, and I'm sure it became muddy in spring.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">Now, it is being boardwalked.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><span>The managed part of the Swamp, as I said, has long had boardwalked trails. And, unfortunately, there was precedent for taking a trail and making it more accessible with boardwalks. One trail I walked all the time was boardwalked until you came to the woods. Then you continued on to a blind. This trail is now fully </span>boardwalked. No more trying to get around ankle-deep water after heavy rain. No more tripping over tree roots. </span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">No more old blind either - it was removed for a large "<a href="https://friendsofgreatswamp.org/birding-reaches-new-heights-at-the-wildlife-observation-center/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">observation platform</a>" named for a local environmentalist. It has plenty of seating. More people troop over there, climb the steps, look over the tall reeds at the distant waterfowl. When I am up there, which isn't as often anymore, most of those who come up do not stay long because they are not birding, they are only walking to the end of a boardwalked trail.</span></p><p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNzWyxAB-d3eaIhnn5MvFd5sepsIXywOClUsQJcUCaIvVjnsQEE7NK8bjhxcgUKHYYmNTod5sP-UqYn1A1wRlNydUEgjVg_T1pTIZjcJb5buH5IKzWtFE-G76-vj0Lyc3pZywCo8EBSFQx-6j4lFv33Y7ahqP2DTP0M4GA9-YKdgRhMuZA7cb1uA3P/s922/Margo%20at%20White%20Oak.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="922" data-original-width="922" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNzWyxAB-d3eaIhnn5MvFd5sepsIXywOClUsQJcUCaIvVjnsQEE7NK8bjhxcgUKHYYmNTod5sP-UqYn1A1wRlNydUEgjVg_T1pTIZjcJb5buH5IKzWtFE-G76-vj0Lyc3pZywCo8EBSFQx-6j4lFv33Y7ahqP2DTP0M4GA9-YKdgRhMuZA7cb1uA3P/w400-h400/Margo%20at%20White%20Oak.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">On the White Oak trail, before it was paved.<br />(RE Berg-Andersson)</td></tr></tbody></table></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">As for the White Oak trail, even tho it is not completely boardwalked people are already on it. Perhaps one day MH, with his balky knees, and I will do it, too, if only to see what birds are still hanging around the area and check in on the old oaks (like the one in the photo above).</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">But I think something is lost when you open up an area like this in the name of making it "accessible" and getting people "back to nature." More people mean more erosion, more noise, less opportunity to stand in a truly quiet area.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">I guess I am being selfish in wanting governments to leave parks alone. During <a href="https://backyardbirdingandbeyond.blogspot.com/2020/03/birding-in-time-of-coronavirus.html" target="_blank">Covid</a>, this part of the Swamp was one of the few areas not closed down by a misguided federal government and thus available to people who <i>needed</i> to get out during a time of great fear. We came, too, and found the tour road crowded with cars, people walking (many with dogs on a leash) and riding bicycles. People fought over parking places. Cars crawled along the road, just like during rush hour.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">It is nowhere near that bad now. But it could become that way again, and that is what I dread. </span></p>Margo D. Beller http://www.blogger.com/profile/11132733081191328601noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1002156758794571993.post-76433250952431943662023-10-15T10:57:00.005-04:002023-10-15T15:21:03.306-04:00Wild Goose Watching<i><span style="font-size: medium;">Winter's not gone yet, if the wild geese fly that way.</span></i><br /><p>-- William Shakespeare, "King Lear"</p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">A cool October Sunday morning and<a href="https://backyardbirdingandbeyond.blogspot.com/2023/10/cleaning-up-after-trees.html" target="_blank"> I am sweeping</a>. The trees are starting to color and the leaves are falling in earnest when shaken by the breeze coming from the north. It is blessedly quiet, only a couple of dogs barking in the near-distance dog park, the occasional jay or crow calling and the sound of my broom brushing together the acorns on the patio. The clouds are being chased across the sun. </span></p><p></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">It is slow right now, no runners or dog walkers or kids yelling. No one heading to church or VFW pancake breakfasts or pick-your-own apples or cross-country running matches. I fully expect to soon hear this activity as well as neighbors using their blowers on the fallen leaves (fighting the wind blowing more down) once it is the legal start time for noise on a Sunday. (I hear them now as I write.)</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">There are fewer acorns to collect this time than last time but they are still falling in smaller numbers on the roof of the enclosed porch and in the lawn, where I have to step carefully if I am doing any yard work. I <a href="https://backyardbirdingandbeyond.blogspot.com/2013/10/good-bad-and-raking.html" target="_blank">raked locust pods</a> from the front lawn before our mowing guy came through, and expect to do it again before he next comes. The yew hedge, I notice, has dropped its uneaten <a href="https://backyardbirdingandbeyond.blogspot.com/2023/08/food-for-flight.html" target="_blank">red berries</a> on the edge of the driveway, and I push those away with my broom, too.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"></span></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7IXWQ8Kjc19VEUK2LSftG-0_qMT3bCO-IRHx8LYTQ9R75TTegYrfTit2nY5_Ux2OBp3L29-7xWZaHCSLnES7L0fFb2WIXZyLueLB7EAJHfhMzyKxyoa1b3iaGrXb3pX6PHzyANIzfxDqJ7A7UPm96HoRIq1GoyG5yFuc7ATrtq1eukJTv7LihUDx2/s800/flying%20Canada%20geese%20(public%20use%20photo).jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="450" data-original-width="800" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7IXWQ8Kjc19VEUK2LSftG-0_qMT3bCO-IRHx8LYTQ9R75TTegYrfTit2nY5_Ux2OBp3L29-7xWZaHCSLnES7L0fFb2WIXZyLueLB7EAJHfhMzyKxyoa1b3iaGrXb3pX6PHzyANIzfxDqJ7A7UPm96HoRIq1GoyG5yFuc7ATrtq1eukJTv7LihUDx2/w400-h225/flying%20Canada%20geese%20(public%20use%20photo).jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span face="Inter, ui-sans-serif, system-ui, -apple-system, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Ubuntu, Cantarell, "Noto Sans", sans-serif, BlinkMacSystemFont, "Segoe UI", "Helvetica Neue", Arial, "Noto Sans", "Apple Color Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Symbol", "Noto Color Emoji"" style="background-color: white; 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text-decoration: inherit;" target="_blank">Moongooses</a><span face="Inter, ui-sans-serif, system-ui, -apple-system, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Ubuntu, Cantarell, "Noto Sans", sans-serif, BlinkMacSystemFont, "Segoe UI", "Helvetica Neue", Arial, "Noto Sans", "Apple Color Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Symbol", "Noto Color Emoji"" style="background-color: white; color: #30272e; font-size: 14px; text-align: start;">" by </span><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/44510888@N05" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="--tw-border-spacing-x: 0; --tw-border-spacing-y: 0; --tw-ring-color: rgba(59,130,246,0.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 transparent; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 transparent; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 transparent; --tw-shadow: 0 0 transparent; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-text-opacity: 1; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; background-color: white; 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--tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 transparent; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 transparent; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 transparent; --tw-shadow: 0 0 transparent; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-text-opacity: 1; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; background-color: white; border: 0px solid; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Inter, ui-sans-serif, system-ui, -apple-system, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Ubuntu, Cantarell, "Noto Sans", sans-serif, BlinkMacSystemFont, "Segoe UI", "Helvetica Neue", Arial, "Noto Sans", "Apple Color Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Symbol", "Noto Color Emoji"; font-size: 14px; text-align: start; text-decoration: inherit;" target="_blank">CC0 1.0</a><span face="Inter, ui-sans-serif, system-ui, -apple-system, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Ubuntu, Cantarell, "Noto Sans", sans-serif, BlinkMacSystemFont, "Segoe UI", "Helvetica Neue", Arial, "Noto Sans", "Apple Color Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Symbol", "Noto Color Emoji"" style="background-color: white; color: #30272e; font-size: 14px; text-align: start;">.</span></td></tr></tbody></table><p></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">I enjoy the quiet, but then I hear the distant honking. I stop and look at the sky where it is not blocked by trees, and I wait. </span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">This time there are only about 40 Canada geese very high up. Most of them are in a long V while some are in an uneven line to the V's left. They are flying southeast because at this time of year they are migrating to their winter grounds. I always stop to watch<a href="https://backyardbirdingandbeyond.blogspot.com/2017/10/preparing-for-winter.html" target="_blank"> the flying geese</a> when I hear the honking. </span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">It is not as though these are rare migrants. In my part of the world they are far too common. Decades ago a few did not migrate. They found <a href="https://backyardbirdingandbeyond.blogspot.com/2012/02/geese-on-grass-alas.html" target="_blank">parks, office campuses and backyards</a> full of food, the weather not too bad and few to no predators. They stayed, they bred, they created a large number of little fuzzballs (one brood each year can include from <a href="https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Canada_Goose/lifehistory" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">two to eight goslings</a>) that start off looking so cute but then grow to look just like their parents. Then the cycle begins again.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">Canada geese, whether they are wild or domesticated, are <a href="https://www.audubon.org/news/the-migratory-bird-treaty-act-explained" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">protected by treaty.</a> They can't be hunted except during specific state hunting seasons. The hunters must be licensed. Those hunts help keep down the population. But people in cities are horrified when officials order a goose "culling" to cut down the number befouling the parks. <a href="https://www.denverpost.com/2019/07/06/denver-canada-goose-culling-protest/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">They rally, they protest. </a>These are people who do not hunt and do not see an <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/06/04/us/canada-geese-killing-foster-city.html" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">ecological imbalance</a>, they see "nature" being destroyed for (to them) no good reason.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">At their worst, grass and ponds are <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2022/05/rochester-canada-geese-management/629916/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">green with goose excrement</a>. When the young are small the goose parents, which mate for life, are extremely protective and will attack a person who gets too close. Most of the time when I hear honking it is from geese that are in the nearby community garden, or the pond a quarter mile away. When they fly they are not heading north in the spring or south for the winter, they are rising from one pond and heading to another so they can continue eating. When people walk their dogs at the community garden the geese take off with a noisy clatter, scattering in many directions but then meeting up later. (In that they are like another now-common pest where I live, the <a href="https://backyardbirdingandbeyond.blogspot.com/2018/06/depriving-deer.html" target="_blank">deer</a>.)</span></p><p></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgIUGfx_X5i1Q-Oy-e6AFa6A_RauTxe5_3nMA3LZL_tSYaWef9BFngNyFB_Hf3vj9EB98uJ3wU5CSE0ve_uRIK8nnz9VDW5-NmTbldMe6a4W8VObsBc88-0zoxsC4crVn5a6NuLkfwrDO2uZBdPbutrzb6e4bCuQiGn4at0YlkWAT_CsdWj8hNqB6iy/s575/urban%20Canada%20geese.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="281" data-original-width="575" height="195" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgIUGfx_X5i1Q-Oy-e6AFa6A_RauTxe5_3nMA3LZL_tSYaWef9BFngNyFB_Hf3vj9EB98uJ3wU5CSE0ve_uRIK8nnz9VDW5-NmTbldMe6a4W8VObsBc88-0zoxsC4crVn5a6NuLkfwrDO2uZBdPbutrzb6e4bCuQiGn4at0YlkWAT_CsdWj8hNqB6iy/w400-h195/urban%20Canada%20geese.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">How I see Canada geese all too often. (Margo D. Beller)</td></tr></tbody></table><p></p><span style="font-size: medium;">But this morning's calling geese are wild geese, doing what wild geese are supposed to do - get out before winter comes and the lakes and ponds freeze. </span><p></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">Why are they flying in a V? According to an article by the U.S.<a href="https://www.loc.gov/everyday-mysteries/zoology/item/why-do-geese-fly-in-a-v/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"> Library of Congress</a>:</span></p><span style="font-size: medium;"><i>First, it conserves their energy. Each bird flies slightly above the bird in front of them, resulting in a reduction of wind resistance. The birds take turns being in the front, falling back when they get tired. In this way, the geese can fly for a long time before they must stop for rest. The authors of a 2001 Nature article stated that pelicans that fly alone beat their wings more frequently and have higher heart rates than those that fly in formation. It follows that birds that fly in formation glide more often and reduce energy expenditure (Weimerskirch, 2001).<br /><br />The second benefit to the V formation is that it is easy to keep track of every bird in the group. Flying in formation may assist with the communication and coordination within the group. Fighter pilots often use this formation for the same reason. </i></span><div><br /></div><div><span style="font-size: medium;"><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhjqjJk_XUFuCMa_QOtx2ntqqBceHL7rjkZwCplt7qLj09Amx6RgRFjLwcKzMH0AjRRLvGimsX81Z5jw6pPgMm_TvaY4BNCWLalvP-pT8rb9Y63b2xhyIou1uVjq6DasCR60SSv44XuG__wZoldgthS1vTT1Ap5TJXVUOL6x4Hs1icvCXRQXBsne32g/s320/Hawk%20Mountain%20birders.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="218" data-original-width="320" height="272" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhjqjJk_XUFuCMa_QOtx2ntqqBceHL7rjkZwCplt7qLj09Amx6RgRFjLwcKzMH0AjRRLvGimsX81Z5jw6pPgMm_TvaY4BNCWLalvP-pT8rb9Y63b2xhyIou1uVjq6DasCR60SSv44XuG__wZoldgthS1vTT1Ap5TJXVUOL6x4Hs1icvCXRQXBsne32g/w400-h272/Hawk%20Mountain%20birders.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Easy birding atop Hawk Mountain, Pa. (Margo D. Beller)</td></tr></tbody></table><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-size: medium;">If I am outside at the right time of morning on the right day in the right month, I can see multiple large Vs of geese, sometimes with hundreds of birds. This is an easy type of bird watching, just as being on a hawk platform and watching the migrating eagles, buteos, accipiters and falcons <a href="https://backyardbirdingandbeyond.blogspot.com/2015/09/eyes-like-hawk.html" target="_blank">heading south over mountain ridges</a> each autumn is easy birding. The birds fly in daylight and are big and easy to see, not like the small warblers jumping around quietly from branch to branch in still-leafy trees. Finding warblers in autumn is a challenge, but there are times I don't want a challenge. I just want to stand still on a quiet Sunday morning and look up at a V of wild birds flying away to the south.</span></div><div><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-size: medium;">Earthbound, I envy them. <br /></span><br /></div>Margo D. Beller http://www.blogger.com/profile/11132733081191328601noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1002156758794571993.post-4941527001979135892023-10-06T17:34:00.000-04:002023-10-06T17:34:00.293-04:00Cleaning Up After The Trees<p><i> <span style="font-family: Charter, Georgia, Times, serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">In October, a maple tree before your window lights up your room like a great lamp.</span></span></i></p><p><span style="font-family: Charter, Georgia, Times, serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">-- <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/John-Burroughs" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">John Burroughs</a></span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: Charter, Georgia, Times, serif; font-size: medium;">October, the year's tenth month (with a name reflecting when it was the eighth month under the Roman calendar), is a time of transition. October is when you really notice it is darker later in the morning and earlier in the evening. October is when <a href="https://www.timeanddate.com/weather/@5101760/historic" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">the weather switches</a> from over 80 degrees one day to cold enough to break out the winter quilt the next. </span></p><p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLcarBiEgFYtmxkdvVVr4cE9Lru8Gyd3xA3wiEeXi_6IV3JXiHOK48rtdntHMh4XIRGR0mcBV2MUf4VWcwBD7GpsRfq8nvW6kqaEWCgWv2mDlcLzpbT3gf1nBtDp3T2vFHLvaseqkv8UN-XTXe9-9fzum-apaUcMIYB8IZEqlZyWBGYXMpJoiHMhrc/s3264/20231005_152701.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2448" data-original-width="3264" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLcarBiEgFYtmxkdvVVr4cE9Lru8Gyd3xA3wiEeXi_6IV3JXiHOK48rtdntHMh4XIRGR0mcBV2MUf4VWcwBD7GpsRfq8nvW6kqaEWCgWv2mDlcLzpbT3gf1nBtDp3T2vFHLvaseqkv8UN-XTXe9-9fzum-apaUcMIYB8IZEqlZyWBGYXMpJoiHMhrc/w400-h300/20231005_152701.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The acorn doesn't fall far from the tree - a small sample of<br />what I have been sweeping up from the patio.<br />(Margo D. Beller)</td></tr></tbody></table></p><p><span style="font-family: Charter, Georgia, Times, serif; font-size: medium;">October is when the <a href="https://backyardbirdingandbeyond.blogspot.com/2015/06/searching-for-our-rural-past.html" target="_blank">pumpkins, squashes and dried corn threshes</a> start showing up on suburban doorsteps with the September mums. You realize you are closer to the end of the year than the beginning, and you wonder <a href="https://www.accuweather.com/en/winter-weather/us-winter-forecast-for-the-2023-2024-season/1583853" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">if there will be more snow</a> this year than last.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: Charter, Georgia, Times, serif; font-size: medium;">For me, October is when I start thinking about bringing plants back into the house and putting up storm windows. I notice fewer catbirds in the yard but hear <a href="https://backyardbirdingandbeyond.blogspot.com/2014/12/winter-birds.html" target="_blank">white-throated sparrows</a>. Raptors are <a href="https://backyardbirdingandbeyond.blogspot.com/2015/09/eyes-like-hawk.html" target="_blank">on the move</a> and I see skeins of Canada geese overhead, heading south. Soon I will be putting out more seed feeders and suet.</span></p><p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiL1yGyDlC4zq2omtXhdf_Ma6Nk_TPnJTPwE-x5c_vAof5qsaFjJNnnXgAJRVm90jevq1MvagMPc4_lZt5URZXTQEpOhpPKdAWrxatevtWfyVEad_POn98jMC90hIjFqbR5a5DgBMD-yRS_Vz6hG378H4oeVC7pPu0pzewj1b6zIIR7lhtAp5IUBK9o/s3264/20231006_075625.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2448" data-original-width="3264" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiL1yGyDlC4zq2omtXhdf_Ma6Nk_TPnJTPwE-x5c_vAof5qsaFjJNnnXgAJRVm90jevq1MvagMPc4_lZt5URZXTQEpOhpPKdAWrxatevtWfyVEad_POn98jMC90hIjFqbR5a5DgBMD-yRS_Vz6hG378H4oeVC7pPu0pzewj1b6zIIR7lhtAp5IUBK9o/w400-h300/20231006_075625.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The "flowers" on the ornamental grasses are the<br />best they've been in years. (Margo D. Beller)</td></tr></tbody></table></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: Charter, Georgia, Times, serif;">Yes, there are also the </span><a href="https://www.almanac.com/why-do-leaves-change-color-fall" rel="nofollow" style="font-family: Charter, Georgia, Times, serif;" target="_blank">colorful autumn leaves</a><span style="font-family: Charter, Georgia, Times, serif;"> that send people into their cars to drive north to Vermont or the Adirondacks or other such hotspots. In my yard the red leaves of the maple and the dogwood, the brown of the white oak, the yellow of the elms and the scarlet of the red oak will be very pretty, at least for a short while. And then the usual October winds will blow them off the trees to become that much more mess to be cleaned up. </span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: Charter, Georgia, Times, serif; font-size: medium;">Yes, October is when things start falling out of trees.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: Charter, Georgia, Times, serif; font-size: medium;">This week, the summery days gave way to foggy, cool nights and my sleep has been continually interrupted by the sharp rap of <a href="https://backyardbirdingandbeyond.blogspot.com/2019/10/nuts-and-pods-to-you.html" target="_blank">oak acorns falling</a> on the enclosed porch's roof. The <a href="https://backyardbirdingandbeyond.blogspot.com/2019/06/summer-of-my-discontent-squirrel.html" target="_blank">squirrels are foraging</a> in the trees by day, and by night the trees must figure it's time to spread some seeds all over the ground beneath them to perpetuate the species. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: Charter, Georgia, Times, serif; font-size: medium;">The dropping does not cease. Sometimes, if the acorn hits a metal gutter, it can sound like a gunshot. Most of the time, however, it sounds like someone is banging into something in the night.</span></p><p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhoGocUfcFHQsCSo36DJSJwkoaw-Phfah-X4sdqiZDU3XMCusYeBLNTZy02MW07Z9PP71q-gp_iEVuxQWTrPEXDCd56iUoB5UXARY-5Wjr3JZm-mwrVEaEiRlLGqZntd3wenHIeqhttHfzCgRkWNHABSRjI-LEH7rq06_m1Idko630FdaQYbUVwQyk4/s3264/20231006_074758.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2448" data-original-width="3264" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhoGocUfcFHQsCSo36DJSJwkoaw-Phfah-X4sdqiZDU3XMCusYeBLNTZy02MW07Z9PP71q-gp_iEVuxQWTrPEXDCd56iUoB5UXARY-5Wjr3JZm-mwrVEaEiRlLGqZntd3wenHIeqhttHfzCgRkWNHABSRjI-LEH7rq06_m1Idko630FdaQYbUVwQyk4/s320/20231006_074758.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Two types of nuts falling from my trees. (Margo D. Beller)</td></tr></tbody></table></p><p><span style="font-family: Charter, Georgia, Times, serif; font-size: medium;">Despite the noise I am glad I have this roof over my <a href="https://backyardbirdingandbeyond.blogspot.com/2017/05/my-corner-office.html" target="_blank">porch</a>. I have friends with open decks who are forced to huddle under the picnic table umbrella as acorn bombs drop from the sky. When my in-laws lived in New Jersey the big oak next to the driveway regularly pitted the old family sedan, making it look like it had been in a hail storm.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: Charter, Georgia, Times, serif; font-size: medium;">My problem is when the acorns make it hard to walk to the feeder pole or the water dish. That is why I have gone out on the patio three times - so far - to herd marble-like oak acorns with my broom into my large garden pail, lug it to a corner of my yard and dump it for any squirrel, chipmunk, deer, woodpecker, jay or crow that might want a snack.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: Charter, Georgia, Times, serif; font-size: medium;">But there are many, many more acorns all over the lawn, and even when I am drinking coffee on the porch, congratulating myself on a job well done, I hear the acorns continuing to drop. It will be like this for weeks.</span></p><p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgf7BRPH_aND6FI2664m-hgOBOs6ykufqqpzbftHDGrS5H8GdPoyq6NiUX26y4Hv7nGncxi-WXa5aEBaal8t-hLwnpKkYx6XvY7Avnx3DXeXLAvN6JCqogghDljvxf5our3mBTWqfMTTZBb22T-xJSeQRTsWtKcDrCempvcb2inoDJg0K3FzTI6nkYB/s3008/pods%20forming%202022.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2000" data-original-width="3008" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgf7BRPH_aND6FI2664m-hgOBOs6ykufqqpzbftHDGrS5H8GdPoyq6NiUX26y4Hv7nGncxi-WXa5aEBaal8t-hLwnpKkYx6XvY7Avnx3DXeXLAvN6JCqogghDljvxf5our3mBTWqfMTTZBb22T-xJSeQRTsWtKcDrCempvcb2inoDJg0K3FzTI6nkYB/w400-h266/pods%20forming%202022.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">What hangs up will eventually come down. (Margo D. Beller)</td></tr></tbody></table></p><p><span style="font-family: Charter, Georgia, Times, serif; font-size: medium;">It is not the tree's fault, of course. It is just trying to survive. If the trees were in the woods this would be a barely noticed process. But these trees are not in the woods, they border the property of my suburban yard. And so I notice big time.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: Charter, Georgia, Times, serif; font-size: medium;">There are some years when there are many more acorns than there are squirrels, like this year. There are some years there are many more squirrels than there are acorns, like last year. This boom and bust is not as random as it may seem.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: Charter, Georgia, Times, serif;">Acorns are seeds and they are dropped by the oaks to make more trees. But the seeds are also food. The more food there is, the more an animal eats and then the more it breeds. More animals mean more food is needed. When seeds are plentiful, everyone is happy - the animals and the trees. But if there are too many animals and not enough seeds, there will be a decrease in new trees. </span><span style="font-family: Charter, Georgia, Times, serif;">That seems to prompt trees to shut down making seeds, which then cuts back on the animal population because there is less food.</span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: Charter, Georgia, Times, serif; font-size: medium;">The technical name for this boom and bust cycling is masting. According to the <a href="https://www.njconservation.org/acorn-booms-and-busts-a-nutty-tale/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">New Jersey Conservation Foundation</a>, mast is the fruit of forest trees, in this case acorns. During "mast" years, the trees "go into overdrive, producing enormous amounts of nuts." Then comes the bust, a year or more when there are very few nuts produced.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbZQaV1qnqReJhBJNvXywOtR4d_e5Zk7IeVP_fbKKDexaHq1zegeYtBBa6TvDKxVZiomF8STR5iS0j4GX6BwrROwvQGAZC5rum9rgdP-fBp7k0sehezjJof_GAykTmEu1NNJP8v7z2jEX5vFxEsXwtbG8tNhfFFftlILI9y1YyRGpcYYXvZMwQZ-Wh/s3264/leaves%202020.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2448" data-original-width="3264" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbZQaV1qnqReJhBJNvXywOtR4d_e5Zk7IeVP_fbKKDexaHq1zegeYtBBa6TvDKxVZiomF8STR5iS0j4GX6BwrROwvQGAZC5rum9rgdP-fBp7k0sehezjJof_GAykTmEu1NNJP8v7z2jEX5vFxEsXwtbG8tNhfFFftlILI9y1YyRGpcYYXvZMwQZ-Wh/w400-h300/leaves%202020.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">How the pretty autumn leaves will eventually end up...<br />(Margo D. Beller)</td></tr></tbody></table></span></p><p><span style="font-family: Charter, Georgia, Times, serif; font-size: medium;">Why does this happen? Again, from the Foundation:</span></p><p><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "Work Sans", sans-serif;"><i><span style="font-size: medium;">Scientists don’t know the exact trigger for mast years, but it most likely has to do with climate events in past stressful years. Trees may produce an abundance of offspring as a hedge in case the stressful times continue. Stressors may include droughts, heat waves, or cold spells.</span></i></span></p><p><span style="font-family: Charter, Georgia, Times, serif; font-size: medium;">I'm no scientist but I know there is a lot of <a href="https://climate.nasa.gov/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">wacky stuff</a> going on in the atmosphere around the world - a <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2023/08/20/weather/hurricane-hilary-california-southwest-tropical-storm-sunday/index.html" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">rare tropical storm in California</a>, <a href="https://dailycaller.com/2023/09/18/canadian-wildfire-map-2023/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">abundant wildfires in Canada</a>, <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2023/09/13/middleeast/what-we-know-about-libya-floods-intl/index.html" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">deadly floods in Libya</a>. We are on pace to have the <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2023/10/04/world/september-hottest-record-2023-climate-intl/index.html" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">hottest year on record</a> after having the <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-54442782" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">hottest past few months</a> on record.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqntZ4Pb4vjHfwQRDnC4p3mx16IRK9Q3K3EHrcRpyV_-a-ZT0eyMtF0IR8ZObIOSrPhwlpmWhBNHmkUe19jzdzryiZd4Ep5xoH6U5mFYhlu8NLUUuyYG7KcxOw3-zyB5Bjug13VV2TSXmuGEC7WfbL2M11S1gT5lXHTgv3vqGG1fdLf8xHMWKQfoUc/s320/pods.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="240" data-original-width="320" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqntZ4Pb4vjHfwQRDnC4p3mx16IRK9Q3K3EHrcRpyV_-a-ZT0eyMtF0IR8ZObIOSrPhwlpmWhBNHmkUe19jzdzryiZd4Ep5xoH6U5mFYhlu8NLUUuyYG7KcxOw3-zyB5Bjug13VV2TSXmuGEC7WfbL2M11S1gT5lXHTgv3vqGG1fdLf8xHMWKQfoUc/w400-h300/pods.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">... and the pods. (Margo D. Beller)</td></tr></tbody></table></span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: Charter, Georgia, Times, serif;">Closer to home, this has been </span><a href="https://www.weather.gov/marfc/NJPrecipitationYTD" rel="nofollow" style="font-family: Charter, Georgia, Times, serif;" target="_blank">a very wet year.</a><span style="font-family: Charter, Georgia, Times, serif;"> The same abundance of rain that has helped </span><a href="https://backyardbirdingandbeyond.blogspot.com/2023/09/autumnal-thoughts.html" style="font-family: Charter, Georgia, Times, serif;" target="_blank">keep my dogwood tree alive</a><span style="font-family: Charter, Georgia, Times, serif;">, produced the "flowers" on my ornamental grasses for the first time in years and kept the spider mites and white flies off my flowers likely produced favorable conditions for the oak trees to produce acorns after a year when not many were produced. The old trees have grown and now more of their branches are above the porch roof, something I didn't notice until the acorns started raining down heavier than usual this year. </span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: Charter, Georgia, Times, serif;">The oaks are not alone, of course. Many other trees are now dropping their seeds, including</span><span style="font-family: Charter, Georgia, Times, serif;"> the bane of my existence, <a href="https://backyardbirdingandbeyond.blogspot.com/2012/07/a-plague-of-locusts.html" target="_blank">the black locust</a>. October is when I notice how many of the <a href="https://backyardbirdingandbeyond.blogspot.com/2021/10/sunday-silence.html" target="_blank">long, black pods</a> are hanging, waiting for some signal or gust of wind to drop like a blanket over my lawn. Like the acorns, eventually they will all come down and be swept away, to be forgotten until the next October. </span></span></p>Margo D. Beller http://www.blogger.com/profile/11132733081191328601noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1002156758794571993.post-32300281118657361962023-10-01T16:30:00.000-04:002023-10-01T16:30:38.136-04:00Where Are The Birds?<p><span style="font-size: medium;">The other day, the one day last week that was not cold, dark and rainy, I went for a long walk as much for exercise as for seeing what birds were around. I went to my usual patch, a linear park not far from me called <a href="https://backyardbirdingandbeyond.blogspot.com/2018/06/taking-different-path.html" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Patriots Path</a>. </span></p><p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgnVG0NU1PgGVbkz2DLryw_L2inJZLC-cAU17MMQYKxXwpH5cbwbLtQwALvAxc4a287lpwSWvYUgNLtkXbnxQHx75WmEDeujkgv_k10XUtEqJkGE3hwLW9JKuizheXfTIMBYXM-Fk_yLSnepysejzwucF-5KqELza93FE22zC8ifnfXQQdASaMiFUPv/s2048/Patriots%20Path%20trail.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1536" data-original-width="2048" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgnVG0NU1PgGVbkz2DLryw_L2inJZLC-cAU17MMQYKxXwpH5cbwbLtQwALvAxc4a287lpwSWvYUgNLtkXbnxQHx75WmEDeujkgv_k10XUtEqJkGE3hwLW9JKuizheXfTIMBYXM-Fk_yLSnepysejzwucF-5KqELza93FE22zC8ifnfXQQdASaMiFUPv/w400-h300/Patriots%20Path%20trail.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Patriots Path (Margo D. Beller)</td></tr></tbody></table></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">After more than an hour of walking and listening to jays,<a href="https://backyardbirdingandbeyond.blogspot.com/2018/02/the-robin.html" target="_blank"> robins</a>, cardinals, <a href="https://backyardbirdingandbeyond.blogspot.com/2017/05/5-ways-of-looking-at-catbird.html" target="_blank">catbirds</a>, Carolina wrens and many other of the more common birds of the area, I was on my way back to the car when I was stopped by a woman walking her dog. "Are you looking for birds?" she asked, looking at my binoculars.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">This has happened before, and I wondered if she was going to tell me about seeing some strange bird she couldn't identify. But no. What she said was, "Have you noticed there are fewer birds? Is something environmental happening to them?"</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">I wasn't sure by "environmental" whether she meant chemicals killing birds, which is <a href="https://www.audubon.org/magazine/spring-2020/this-brutal-pesticide-creates-circle-death-so-why" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">certainly a major hazzard</a>.<a href="https://www.sciencenews.org/article/cats-kill-more-one-billion-birds-each-year" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"> So are cats</a>, both those domestic ones allowed to roam outdoors by their owners and the feral ones I sometimes see passing through my yard. </span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">To her I blamed the weather, specifically <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2023/09/24/weather/ophelia-storm-threat-north-carolina-new-york/index.html" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Tropical Storm Ophelia</a> and other storms that have blown through the eastern United States. When Ophelia was going up the coast, the winds were mainly out of the east. If a bird was trying to head south, I said, it would likely go west to avoid the headwinds. "The midwest is probably seeing a bumper crop of birds," I said.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">She seemed reassured and thanked me.</span></p><p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgKhjlqlYU45877rmGlqCXYbY4jBSq-z6KjRHw70u0Vu7RhF7RG8EyO2vEWLuCTphQGDqKpvmdQn0CHuU_Tu-ckG0jcZdekVW9kytAMfnof5sgrNGLd65zy9mg8RAzs5oEfml9wM_PGUisJ4f9uSnoCEjyw-XTOGGWqnmdc8dFAcGInYO3DGg72Tc5v/s3264/cat3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3264" data-original-width="2448" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgKhjlqlYU45877rmGlqCXYbY4jBSq-z6KjRHw70u0Vu7RhF7RG8EyO2vEWLuCTphQGDqKpvmdQn0CHuU_Tu-ckG0jcZdekVW9kytAMfnof5sgrNGLd65zy9mg8RAzs5oEfml9wM_PGUisJ4f9uSnoCEjyw-XTOGGWqnmdc8dFAcGInYO3DGg72Tc5v/w300-h400/cat3.jpg" width="300" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A potential bird hazzard, if allowed outside.<br />(Margo D. Beller)</td></tr></tbody></table></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">After I got home I thought about our conversation. Besides chemicals and cats there is the possibility of birds being blown into trees by high winds. Or hit by cars as they fly low across the road (robins and sparrows are prone to this, I've found). </span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">Then I found <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/sep/25/canada-warbler-magnolia-uber-rare-american-birds-land-in-uk-aoe?ref=upstract.com" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">this article</a>, which gave me another perspective - a hurricane -<a href="https://www.npr.org/2023/09/05/1197766255/tropical-storm-hurricane-lee" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"> Lee</a> - so strong the birds were blown across the Atlantic Ocean to Europe, where "common" birds I find daily in my travels are "rarities" over there. Lee, <a href="https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/why-hurricane-lee-is-growing-bigger/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">a category 5 storm</a>, blew hard along the East Coast, and I expected to see reports of birds showing up in places where they are normally not found.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">That happened with flamingos after <a href="https://abcnews.go.com/US/bird-watchers-wild-flamingos-us-hurricane-idalia/story?id=102939783" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Hurricane Idalia</a>, when the <a href="https://ebird.org/species/grefla2" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">pink birds</a> associated with Florida and the tropics started being reported in Wisconsin, Texas and Ohio. One area's "common" is another's "rarity," even within the United States. But I never expected birds to be blown so far to the east by Hurricane Lee.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">So are there fewer birds? Depends on where you go. Back in my area I have found lots of the more common birds and, once in a while, a migrant bird passing through on its way to its southern wintering grounds. But that is because I have taken myself outside to look for them. I don't usually go birding in the rain. I don't even put out feeders in the rain. And we've had a <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2023/09/29/weather/new-york-city-northeast-rain-flood-forecast-climate-friday/index.html" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">ton of rain</a> lately.</span></p><p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQST5-w9kPAeGvDHMkbU08jN-ztlG8EaPCNeyUuGJvc3eZsTmFasnsGL-wyFcG9RJXj1kPvQAh35tY2JAwO6xK5kiLjsPF08stnH6VspleZr5ZY0PlPlFc5PnDCRCLyzUdysWGR8CENvniODLwf-ZUJfFd_W4e8cFBBeXjgUIEOmcUXhL_3Y46CAoz/s2048/whippany%20pp.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1536" data-original-width="2048" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQST5-w9kPAeGvDHMkbU08jN-ztlG8EaPCNeyUuGJvc3eZsTmFasnsGL-wyFcG9RJXj1kPvQAh35tY2JAwO6xK5kiLjsPF08stnH6VspleZr5ZY0PlPlFc5PnDCRCLyzUdysWGR8CENvniODLwf-ZUJfFd_W4e8cFBBeXjgUIEOmcUXhL_3Y46CAoz/w400-h300/whippany%20pp.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The rain-swollen Whippany River along Patriots Path.<br />(Margo D. Beller)</td></tr></tbody></table></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">Maybe the woman I spoke to sees fewer birds now than before because she is out more often with her dog in all types of weather and has more of a basis of comparison. Maybe what she sees confirms what <a href="https://www.audubon.org/news/more-half-us-birds-are-decline-warns-new-report" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Audubon has warned </a>about the decline in U.S. birds. </span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">Where are all the birds? I have to believe they are still out there. You and I just have to go find them.</span></p>Margo D. Beller http://www.blogger.com/profile/11132733081191328601noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1002156758794571993.post-71652814693793485132023-09-23T12:14:00.002-04:002023-09-23T12:18:03.109-04:00Autumnal Thoughts<p><span style="font-size: medium;">As I write, a tropical storm named <a href="https://time.com/6316922/storm-ophelia-north-carolina-coastal-areas/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Ophelia</a> hit the North Carolina coast and will slowly make its way north. While still many miles away, rain and strong winds are currently lashing my northeast-facing windows. The fact it took a very long time for this storm to get strong enough to <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2023/09/22/tropical-storm-ophelia-expected-to-form/70929929007/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">finally be named</a> while being big enough to be constantly pointed out by local and national weather forecasters is, to me, another manifestation of the, shall we say, unusual weather afflicting us in recent years. </span></p><p></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2X5ZQ-eWFXwiAeq_26s1MdX1FzkcOR_vGNg9sCCCX8WqI8JJjIcs_egEU5uobkiPN_hyrQbx3rJJgCRit89A9h1KtLI4OmKL6Rma1gVADe0GuBlRf1OVjFl29X_ce4XVtfDP1noElOrrrtf62QhDrsjY2hpzzJS2JBWE6jJc0L4A_rdojz3WOQ63x/s3264/Coleuses.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2448" data-original-width="3264" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2X5ZQ-eWFXwiAeq_26s1MdX1FzkcOR_vGNg9sCCCX8WqI8JJjIcs_egEU5uobkiPN_hyrQbx3rJJgCRit89A9h1KtLI4OmKL6Rma1gVADe0GuBlRf1OVjFl29X_ce4XVtfDP1noElOrrrtf62QhDrsjY2hpzzJS2JBWE6jJc0L4A_rdojz3WOQ63x/s320/Coleuses.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">This pot of coleus will eventually come inside. (Margo D. Beller)</td></tr></tbody></table><p></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">This storm will not be like October 2012's <a href="https://backyardbirdingandbeyond.blogspot.com/2012/12/hurricane-sandy-and-birds.html" target="_blank">Hurricane Sandy</a>, which hit even my inland New Jersey area with storm-force winds that ripped off one of my window shutters and put us into cold darkness for two days. Sandy was, according to the federal weather agency <a href="https://www.fema.gov/press-release/20210318/remembering-sandy-five-years-later" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">NOAA</a>, <span face=""Source Sans Pro", sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #1b1b1b;"> </span><span face=""Source Sans Pro", sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #1b1b1b;">the "second-largest Atlantic storm on record, and affected the East Coast from Florida to Maine, as well as states as far inland as West Virginia, Ohio, and Indiana. The storm made landfall in southern New Jersey on Oct. 29, 2012, battering the densely populated New York and New Jersey region with heavy rains, strong winds, and record storm surges."</span></span></p><p><span face=""Source Sans Pro", sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #1b1b1b;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Ophelia shouldn't be nearly that bad, and the raw, wet conditions we're facing now are nicer, by comparison, than earlier this year when the <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/canadas-record-wildfire-season-whats-behind-it-when-will-it-end-2023-08-17/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">wildfire smoke blown south from Canada</a> turned the skies over <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/av/world-us-canada-65840256" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">New York City orange</a>. And then there were the fires in Hawaii that killed hundreds of people, <a href="https://www.aarp.org/politics-society/advocacy/info-2023/extreme-weather-older-adults.html" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">mainly older people</a>. The Environmental Protection Agency, in the emotionless prose of a federal bureaucracy, has even provided a report on the <a href="https://www.epa.gov/climateimpacts/climate-change-and-health-older-adults" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">key threats of climate change</a> on older people, including heat illnesses, respiratory illnesses, insect-related diseases (including <a href="https://backyardbirdingandbeyond.blogspot.com/2012/03/tick-tick-tick.html" target="_blank">ticks</a>), water-related illnesses and, my personal favorite, mental health issues.</span></span></p><p><span face=""Source Sans Pro", sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #1b1b1b;"></span></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhxdmbnftCgfKVFdZ8N3FyjLs1coYjVfh9ohSt-YsThiSUYt-PCt9F_YwUT3TKcLt_8I_6EoCvouj7RD73isTpZlmXYutbSoLr0SpegezTFhXjvsC1Uhh2A7y4Nh921bz1uapOlJKGOmb92e2iGedRvAVZa2nF_wAMcWru81SDqSsO-d3tDlQul_kOy/s3264/zinnias.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3264" data-original-width="2448" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhxdmbnftCgfKVFdZ8N3FyjLs1coYjVfh9ohSt-YsThiSUYt-PCt9F_YwUT3TKcLt_8I_6EoCvouj7RD73isTpZlmXYutbSoLr0SpegezTFhXjvsC1Uhh2A7y4Nh921bz1uapOlJKGOmb92e2iGedRvAVZa2nF_wAMcWru81SDqSsO-d3tDlQul_kOy/w300-h400/zinnias.jpg" width="300" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A couple of the zinnias I grew from seed and<br />cut for my kitchen. I will grow more next year.<br />(Margo D. Beller)</td></tr></tbody></table><p></p><p><span face=""Source Sans Pro", sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #1b1b1b;"><span style="font-size: medium;">So an older person not only has to contend with physical and emotional issues but environmental ones far beyond his or her control. In my case, there is the shortening of the days and knowing at some point there will be <a href="https://backyardbirdingandbeyond.blogspot.com/2017/10/preparing-for-winter-part-2.html" target="_blank">leaves to rake</a>, gutters to have cleaned and a garden to cut down and put to bed. My husband (MH) and I now hire people to clear the gutters and get rid of the leaves (tho' I've been known to go after the blanket of <a href="https://backyardbirdingandbeyond.blogspot.com/2021/10/sunday-silence.html" target="_blank">pods</a> that falls on the front lawn), but I, however, am the one doing the work on the garden, and that work gets harder each year.</span></span></p><p><span face=""Source Sans Pro", sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #1b1b1b;"><span style="font-size: medium;">I finally had someone come over with a chainsaw to cut off the <a href="https://backyardbirdingandbeyond.blogspot.com/2023/04/life-and-dying-in-backyard.html" target="_blank">dead parts of the dogwood</a>. Two-thirds of the tree was removed. The remaining part is still filled with leaves slowly going red. It is struggling to stay alive. As am I.</span></span></p><p><span face=""Source Sans Pro", sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #1b1b1b;"></span></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhDqR2E7Lx8MulzVXcPUJN3RTJv93YMCytBcrWRTStuXMornUvA3bwHAdLL9V_ZXZ6nlua8BzI5CIPTXYPvI7HPzo30eR9DFAE9y7EZjPO8xgPjh3nenV3JjdxskVd0B5Y8y4h7LqH6Y5VzjVJPIKyMktETiw_2gbEqndY0d5WQebsiBph5HHCDudZp/s3264/dogwood%20cut.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3264" data-original-width="2448" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhDqR2E7Lx8MulzVXcPUJN3RTJv93YMCytBcrWRTStuXMornUvA3bwHAdLL9V_ZXZ6nlua8BzI5CIPTXYPvI7HPzo30eR9DFAE9y7EZjPO8xgPjh3nenV3JjdxskVd0B5Y8y4h7LqH6Y5VzjVJPIKyMktETiw_2gbEqndY0d5WQebsiBph5HHCDudZp/w300-h400/dogwood%20cut.jpg" width="300" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">What remains of the dogwood. (Margo D. Beller)</td></tr></tbody></table><p></p><p><span face=""Source Sans Pro", sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #1b1b1b;"><span style="font-size: medium;">In past blog posts I have mentioned <a href="http://backyardbirdingandbeyond.blogspot.com/2019/09/a-walk-among-autumn-weeds.html" target="_blank">walking among the autumn weeds</a> and enjoying the <a href="https://backyardbirdingandbeyond.blogspot.com/2017/09/autumn-colors.html" target="_blank">autumnal colors</a>. I've even mentioned the feeling of peace when <a href="https://backyardbirdingandbeyond.blogspot.com/2019/10/disposing-of-fruits-of-my-labor.html" target="_blank">cutting down the garden</a>. Nowadays I don't feel that enjoyment, likely because as I get older it gets harder and I feel the resulting muscle pains for longer. (MH, having ceded his grass-cutting duties to paid help to spare his balky knees, is much happier.) </span></span></p><p><span face=""Source Sans Pro", sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #1b1b1b;"><span style="font-size: medium;">This year's wet summer - not as bad for us as for <a href="https://www.boston.com/weather/weather/2023/08/28/tornado-trends-new-england-how-active-2023/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">New England</a> - has been a boon for my flowers, keeping the red spider mites and the white flies away (<a href="https://backyardbirdingandbeyond.blogspot.com/2022/06/a-hot-time-in-garden.html" target="_blank">unlike last year</a>). It has also benefited the <a href="https://backyardbirdingandbeyond.blogspot.com/2020/08/at-war-with-weeds.html" target="_blank">weeds</a>, which proliferated until the <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-09-05/new-york-broils-under-longest-heat-stretch-of-summer" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">unusual September heatwave</a> we had subsided and I could go out and pull them. </span></span></p><p><span face="Source Sans Pro, sans-serif" style="color: #1b1b1b;"><span style="background-color: white; font-size: medium;">I guess what bothers me even more than climate changes I can't control and the aches and pains of my older body is the inevitability of it all. The summer ends. The birds fly south. The leaves fall. The days grow shorter. The plants must be cut back or brought inside from back porch or front yard before the winter cold can kill them. Daylight savings time ends (this year on November 5). The year ends. </span></span></p><p><span face="Source Sans Pro, sans-serif" style="color: #1b1b1b;"><span style="background-color: white; font-size: medium;">Life ends. But not anytime soon for the world or for me, I hope.</span></span></p><p><span face="Source Sans Pro, sans-serif" style="color: #1b1b1b; font-size: medium;"><span style="background-color: white;"><br /></span></span></p>Margo D. Beller http://www.blogger.com/profile/11132733081191328601noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1002156758794571993.post-20922194465553490922023-08-25T16:08:00.000-04:002023-08-25T16:08:15.727-04:00Spruce Has A Question<p><span style="font-size: medium;">I am now beginning to read reports of warblers passing through the area again. Southbound migration begins! To find these birds I will have to go elsewhere. I do not live in a forest. The only trees are those left by the developers of my suburban neighborhood on the border between my property and my backyard neighbor, and those trees that were planted by the previous owners of my home or by me. I see birds but not many migrants.</span></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7W4Gs6fKisNBs3EpSUt5uLsRM4JkLrNMDVmJ9PTjU4KjGxbMfremUYT0Pf6p9v72UK4RuJnz8KeQ4TroCMRPWJZaWNNTAIo4ZtOznTc8GW-pZ9zffL7fJDPjWxVFjc0RKstvCRhN71Y46N9UNuE4gjH62pZ4S7frofkl55-kMfRuYviTTmKwQmhvV/s3264/dying%20dogwood.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2448" data-original-width="3264" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7W4Gs6fKisNBs3EpSUt5uLsRM4JkLrNMDVmJ9PTjU4KjGxbMfremUYT0Pf6p9v72UK4RuJnz8KeQ4TroCMRPWJZaWNNTAIo4ZtOznTc8GW-pZ9zffL7fJDPjWxVFjc0RKstvCRhN71Y46N9UNuE4gjH62pZ4S7frofkl55-kMfRuYviTTmKwQmhvV/s320/dying%20dogwood.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Sick dogwood (Margo D. Beller)</td></tr></tbody></table><p><span style="font-size: medium;">I was looking at one of those trees the other day, the <a href="https://backyardbirdingandbeyond.blogspot.com/2023/04/life-and-dying-in-backyard.html" target="_blank">dogwood</a> that is not doing so well. It is not completely dead, and I still have hope that by cutting off the dead branches the rest will survive and perhaps bloom next year and produce <a href="http://backyardbirdingandbeyond.blogspot.com/2023/08/food-for-flight.html" target="_blank">food for the birds.</a></span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">As I looked, the Colorado blue spruce I planted nearby called me over.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">"Margo, the human across the street cut back my brother spruce. Why? He looks awful!"</span></p><p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhnxicWvJxMYbnIVYn6CDgBj4ML6o1EhyqNEVCL-Hn6JbhXNb2PcRl0Ecnhz8yr4EH6ybFBJqbxr3NxndXyFMuyBXOP3Wm-KKPrwBQHvpl9I7j1RJj3tV5VzRa7WNng6u5qzhavr_3f2xXRpEysvlAOPLY_dtcL-1OUkz6RDSBsK0H9I3a9cuGpvTvl/s2325/exposed%20tree%20-%20Edited.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2325" data-original-width="1632" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhnxicWvJxMYbnIVYn6CDgBj4ML6o1EhyqNEVCL-Hn6JbhXNb2PcRl0Ecnhz8yr4EH6ybFBJqbxr3NxndXyFMuyBXOP3Wm-KKPrwBQHvpl9I7j1RJj3tV5VzRa7WNng6u5qzhavr_3f2xXRpEysvlAOPLY_dtcL-1OUkz6RDSBsK0H9I3a9cuGpvTvl/s320/exposed%20tree%20-%20Edited.jpg" width="225" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Exposed tree, partially<br />covered by neighboring trees.<br />(Margo D. Beller)</td></tr></tbody></table></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">I looked over and saw what he saw. Spruce branches had been cut, gathered and dumped at the curb. The tall Norway spruce looked like a dowager raising her long skirt to reveal her skinny legs. </span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">Around the tree were small shrubs. Perhaps they had always been there and the new homeowner - more of a hands-on gardener than the previous guy ever was - wanted the small shrubs to be seen. Or the lower branches got in the way of his mowing, or the cars using the driveway. I don't know. I don't talk about such things with my neighbors because it isn't my business, just as the deer netting protecting my flowers isn't theirs. Call it suburban etiquette. </span></p><p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjgwbKhL3atUHZpnZU2fAv8QPe_j47Kq6R0r1GpHT23LbT20CccHuUFc1k6eUf5M0m87PmNF183yJHcFvn7KAe4806a0n4wIxoPRte7N9dGlcqql4WFpHgmtAv-UAk1XTPqbgxt9pKbBtlYEWVeZ7ULWnTuvTpsQ1ztbGhcucrQmS7ib4_Ar55IAaPd/s3264/cannas.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2448" data-original-width="3264" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjgwbKhL3atUHZpnZU2fAv8QPe_j47Kq6R0r1GpHT23LbT20CccHuUFc1k6eUf5M0m87PmNF183yJHcFvn7KAe4806a0n4wIxoPRte7N9dGlcqql4WFpHgmtAv-UAk1XTPqbgxt9pKbBtlYEWVeZ7ULWnTuvTpsQ1ztbGhcucrQmS7ib4_Ar55IAaPd/s320/cannas.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Some of the plants protected by deer netting<br />(Margo D. Beller)</td></tr></tbody></table></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">I looked back at my tree, nicknamed <a href="https://backyardbirdingandbeyond.blogspot.com/2023/03/spruce-bringsgreen-speaks.html" target="_blank">Spruce Bringsgreen</a>. He is now 16 years old and, I would guess, about 50 feet tall. His upper branches provide shelter for roosting birds in winter and occasionally one builds a nest in him during the spring. But his lower branches, I admit, do get in the way. When my husband used to do the lawn the branches would get caught in his mower. (That isn't an issue with the mower our lawn guy drives around the yard now, apparently.) So I would trim one or two branches, which did not give easily to my lopper. Spruce is one tough tree.</span></p><p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVpY2rKaLYez9eQiGmO6mYAZdL-8JU5CGsTSlKuWfN4MHOy7Du_vYmYupJL05LSwM4aXPVqOPoOGJ75LNyfbg4bZCjofkfshKsjbZVabzxWuqC_WTB-41Avf-xCdiEvpyVjElRe7e_lPD56YlDGRlC18bnUzDRZSpakoInKwrmG4x368HN3YGftfsk/s3264/Spruce's%20skirt.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2448" data-original-width="3264" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVpY2rKaLYez9eQiGmO6mYAZdL-8JU5CGsTSlKuWfN4MHOy7Du_vYmYupJL05LSwM4aXPVqOPoOGJ75LNyfbg4bZCjofkfshKsjbZVabzxWuqC_WTB-41Avf-xCdiEvpyVjElRe7e_lPD56YlDGRlC18bnUzDRZSpakoInKwrmG4x368HN3YGftfsk/s320/Spruce's%20skirt.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Spruce's lower branches (Margo D. Beller)</td></tr></tbody></table></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">The lower branches also shelter a variety of weeds including my nemesis, <a href="https://backyardbirdingandbeyond.blogspot.com/2018/08/in-weeds.html" target="_blank">ground ivy</a>, mainly to the edge where the weeds can get some sun and where Spruce's dropped leaves aren't creating a thick mat. Spruce's "leaves" are prickly, as they are on all spruces (which is why deer don't eat them), and that means I can expect to be scratched despite my best efforts to cover myself. </span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">Still, cutting back one-third of the tree seems to me a bit much. </span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">"Spruce," I said, "I do not know why the humans in this area <a href="https://backyardbirdingandbeyond.blogspot.com/2020/04/a-hole-in-sky.html" target="_blank">do things like that</a>. They seem to cut down what appear to be healthy trees for no reason I can figure out. But sometimes there is a reason. You'll remember I had to cut down that <a href="https://backyardbirdingandbeyond.blogspot.com/2023/01/an-inconvenient-tree.html" target="_blank">dead ash</a> earlier this year. People plant things and they also uproot things, sometimes big things like that spruce. But rest assured I will never do to you what he did to your brother. I promise."</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">It might be my imagination but Spruce seemed to stand taller after that.</span></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGoihqNl-WvhHkzcV4fRkwLjKuTeH4mdirKfQGL9Rv2wj15916gBCm73zfWGXQuxr58EOCWo9cc8AfXCNVOOAC7l9rBOWbrxsmox5E1VYC3YQXInZ2bbW0LISZbjcmm6Ps_0IqidJq1EwL3fBeMwrnpP2reOsds-8u71qhJvszWLnyBBFqcBXl1746/s3264/Spruce%20August%202023.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3264" data-original-width="2448" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGoihqNl-WvhHkzcV4fRkwLjKuTeH4mdirKfQGL9Rv2wj15916gBCm73zfWGXQuxr58EOCWo9cc8AfXCNVOOAC7l9rBOWbrxsmox5E1VYC3YQXInZ2bbW0LISZbjcmm6Ps_0IqidJq1EwL3fBeMwrnpP2reOsds-8u71qhJvszWLnyBBFqcBXl1746/s320/Spruce%20August%202023.jpg" width="240" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Spruce Bringsgreen standing tall (Margo D. Beller)</td></tr></tbody></table><p><br /></p>Margo D. Beller http://www.blogger.com/profile/11132733081191328601noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1002156758794571993.post-39411838843313335192023-08-16T14:40:00.003-04:002023-08-17T09:10:53.002-04:00Food for Flight<p><span style="font-size: medium;">As usual, the year is flying by. It is now August. For many birds, nesting is complete and the young have dispersed. The days are starting to get shorter and the winds are coming out of the north. Instinct tells them it is time to head south for the winter. </span></p><p></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_TTykUoHlaluFsHsksl1whq8jBLMhSZFTwhk4Y53Fc7I9i9SGGJOsGSosJntB9t2tfPpcuDNoeh2IAbGFQMpajrdHzZCgH8BDyNdQjMKmCWz4yt4cZVJZwW_KlyAy01o2CFzR6df-7npNv_zRW7hPP9UjyEFFylPOV9C5fT2EwsOROUHOATxORdwo/s3264/20230816_113451.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3264" data-original-width="2448" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_TTykUoHlaluFsHsksl1whq8jBLMhSZFTwhk4Y53Fc7I9i9SGGJOsGSosJntB9t2tfPpcuDNoeh2IAbGFQMpajrdHzZCgH8BDyNdQjMKmCWz4yt4cZVJZwW_KlyAy01o2CFzR6df-7npNv_zRW7hPP9UjyEFFylPOV9C5fT2EwsOROUHOATxORdwo/w300-h400/20230816_113451.jpg" width="300" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Jewelweed (Margo D. Beller)</td></tr></tbody></table><p></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">Birds travel light, literally and figuratively. A <a href="https://backyardbirdingandbeyond.blogspot.com/2019/06/watching-for-hummingbirds.html" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">hummingbird</a> weighs less <a href="https://www.birdsandblooms.com/birding/attracting-hummingbirds/hummingbird-anatomy/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">than an ounce</a>. An <a href="https://backyardbirdingandbeyond.blogspot.com/2019/04/the-fish-hawk.html" target="_blank">osprey</a> can weigh up to <a href="https://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/birds/facts/osprey" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">four pounds</a>. Even the biggest birds can be thrown off course by high winds and heavy rains, making their travel perilous, especially when they have to fly over open water such as the Gulf of Mexico or the Atlantic Ocean.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">They also don't travel with a cooler filled with snacks. They have to depend on whatever foods they can find when they land after a day (diurnal flyers such as hawks) or night (most small birds including warblers) of flying. For the osprey, that means fish. For other raptors, that means small mammals or birds (which is why most small birds travel at night). For the smaller birds, that includes insects, the seeds and fruits ripening now, and whatever they might find at people's feeders.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">The privet shrubs in my backyard are filled with small, round, black berries favored by such fruit eaters as robins, mockingbirds, catbirds and cedar waxwings. The wild cherry tree has also attracted birds because it is fruiting, which is good because the viburnum and <a href="https://backyardbirdingandbeyond.blogspot.com/2023/04/life-and-dying-in-backyard.html">dogwood</a> are not going to provide much to eat this fall. There are also red berries all over the yew hedge.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">In my travels I have seen plenty of food Mother Nature has put out for migrating birds.</span></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjxn6kV9XTwNTSJqnlhn1FZWjXCg2CahF45yIdHxAsk-GFcBPmZs69ZJvNBuzUwSCyc81O6ZU6YfYoRftqwO3QVO6E8YWnOI2m4rbdpcS0q2ezkLWd1A1SOECSXbkVEO13ZLxyQ3Yq3RWe3AKJsVu2Ykl21vDQ5RXJMjtNduQtofnARIfQC1WrxPNcL/s1692/hop%20hornbeam.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1595" data-original-width="1692" height="378" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjxn6kV9XTwNTSJqnlhn1FZWjXCg2CahF45yIdHxAsk-GFcBPmZs69ZJvNBuzUwSCyc81O6ZU6YfYoRftqwO3QVO6E8YWnOI2m4rbdpcS0q2ezkLWd1A1SOECSXbkVEO13ZLxyQ3Yq3RWe3AKJsVu2Ykl21vDQ5RXJMjtNduQtofnARIfQC1WrxPNcL/w400-h378/hop%20hornbeam.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Hop hornbeam with hanging seeds (Margo D. Beller)</td></tr></tbody></table><p><span style="font-size: medium;">There's the <a href="https://www.uky.edu/hort/American-Hophornbeam" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">hop hornbeam</a>, for instance. I would never have even noticed this tree had I not almost walked into a low-hanging branch and noticed the seeds dangling from it. Once I identified this tree I found it everywhere - on hillsides, along river banks. It is an <a href="https://www.nashvilletreeconservationcorps.org/treenews/how-to-use-understory-trees-in-your-landscape" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">understory tree,</a> meaning it grows below the canopy of larger trees. Apparently it thrives on being left alone, which may be why they were planted years ago by municipal parks departments. I've seen cardinals and cedar waxwings eating the seeds from this tree. </span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">There are also nectar-filled or seeding <a href="https://backyardbirdingandbeyond.blogspot.com/2017/09/autumn-colors.html" target="_blank">flowers</a>. Thistle and goldenrod bloom now, and when they go to seed they will feed goldfinches, sparrows and other seed eaters. <a href="https://backyardbirdingandbeyond.blogspot.com/2018/08/in-weeds.html" target="_blank">Weeds</a> are also a wonderful source of seeds, including the ragweed that torments my sinuses and always seems to come back no matter how much it is mowed or pulled out.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">The <a href="https://www.fs.usda.gov/wildflowers/plant-of-the-week/lobelia_cardinalis.shtml" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">cardinal flower</a> has a gentle spike of red flower and prefers moist areas, which is why I see it near streams and why I've had no luck growing it in my garden. Hummingbirds are attracted by the color and feed on the pollen. Another hummingbird favorite is jewelweed. This one also favors wet areas along stream banks or bogs but unlike the cardinal flower it is orange-yellow. However, its flower is a trumpet that attracts the hummingbird. Apparently it is also used to <a href="https://www.webmd.com/vitamins/ai/ingredientmono-533/jewelweed" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">make medicine</a>, but thankfully no one has touched the stands of jewelweed I've seen attracting hummingbirds, bees and insects.</span></p><p></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGAYFkjr69iLpVtyM3yR2517Z9yBaO2DVt7-7L90pmE4aeS1THw3NsOSx2hJE5cLCDgQriGa-yn7CLAmcWH2zMmXihuv_eflWIQGPomxhIJjJ3xWaO35TDF9H4ceXYtV9qnzwkhIO9nlCAGpvN19Pdbb9MwM9u7TueSgRjjaX3pLfwXFzz8wHDLqy_/s3264/20230816_113010.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2448" data-original-width="3264" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGAYFkjr69iLpVtyM3yR2517Z9yBaO2DVt7-7L90pmE4aeS1THw3NsOSx2hJE5cLCDgQriGa-yn7CLAmcWH2zMmXihuv_eflWIQGPomxhIJjJ3xWaO35TDF9H4ceXYtV9qnzwkhIO9nlCAGpvN19Pdbb9MwM9u7TueSgRjjaX3pLfwXFzz8wHDLqy_/w400-h300/20230816_113010.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Cardinal flower (Margo D. Beller)</td></tr></tbody></table><p></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">These food sources are not everywhere, of course. The <a href="https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2022/02/24/1082752634/the-insect-crisis-oliver-milman" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">insect population is in decline</a>, which will have a devastating effect not only on birds but on humans because most of our food needs to be pollinated by bees and insects when it is first flowering. Ocean waters are much warmer than they should be this summer. According to <a href="https://www.climate.gov/news-features/blogs/august-2023-el-ni%C3%B1o-update-back-school" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">NOAA</a>, we are in an El Nino year. That means:</span></p><span style="font-size: medium;"><i>Our global climate models are predicting that the warmer-than-average Pacific ocean conditions will not only last through the winter, but <a href="https://iri.columbia.edu/our-expertise/climate/forecasts/enso/current/?enso_tab=enso-sst_table">continue to increase</a>. There is a good chance—approximately 2 in 3—that the peak Oceanic Niño Index this winter will match or exceed 1.5 °C, our informal threshold for a “strong” El Niño event. </i><br /><br />El Nino, <a href="https://www.noaa.gov/understanding-el-nino">according to NOAA</a>, is a "naturally occurring climate pattern associated with warming of the ocean surface temperatures in the central and eastern tropical Pacific Ocean, which can significantly influence weather patterns, ocean conditions, and marine fisheries worldwide."<br /><br />When the <a href="https://www.npr.org/2023/08/15/1193882817/pacific-northwest-heat-wave-could-bring-record-breaking-temperatures-through-thu" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Pacific Northwest</a> is as <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-08-15/extreme-heat-hits-cities-from-portland-to-houston-weather-watch" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">hot as Houston</a>, when <a href="https://www.nifc.gov/fire-information/nfn" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">wildfires destroy millions of acres</a> of forests and homes, when parts of the U.S. have <a href="https://www.aol.com/weather/temperatures-soar-again-southwest-ramping-150200135.html" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">not gone below 100 degrees F</a> in months, when New England is <a href="https://www.nbcboston.com/weather/first-alert-thunderstorms-and-heavy-downpours-as-storms-hit-new-england/3107986/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">hit with tornadoes</a>, when the mid-Atlantic states are hit by several <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2023/07/09/us/new-york-flash-flooding/index.html" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">100-year floods</a> in one season, what is a "naturally occurring climate pattern" anymore?</span><div><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-size: medium;">I just hope the birds make it.<br /></span><div><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /> </span><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p></div></div>Margo D. Beller http://www.blogger.com/profile/11132733081191328601noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1002156758794571993.post-45932299852946861392023-07-27T13:43:00.001-04:002023-07-27T13:43:45.562-04:00Summer Doldrums<p><span style="font-size: medium;">This seems like more of a <a href="https://newjersey.news12.com/new-jersey-braces-for-extreme-heat-heres-how-you-can-stay-cool-and-safe" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">hellish summer</a> than usual, which is what I think every year. Summer is always a time when I stay indoors with the air conditioner on if the heat and humidity get to extremely uncomfortable levels. Even when it is cool in the very early morning I have to dress in long sleeves and head covering, my pants tucked into my socks, to protect myself from the many <a href="https://www.yahoo.com/news/july-rains-created-perfect-storm-082206004.html" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">insects</a> that would otherwise bite any uncovered area.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiaPCUX8DGWVs3iRnuudrs2JfbXihHkckhbRxtAUPNrgE6KW4G08TCQCKmCbXTbfRu1wVbI8vzm4Vns7HzvHE3fA0iFSi_fh8qUYi70A4HZmO9dz-1df3vVlo5Qa_fRUg-1dVAjeSo23cExS9m3RDMJLolCJWnMaYkub6F2fEiU7b1X-gtLIdpdXowp/s3264/20230725_075630.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3264" data-original-width="2448" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiaPCUX8DGWVs3iRnuudrs2JfbXihHkckhbRxtAUPNrgE6KW4G08TCQCKmCbXTbfRu1wVbI8vzm4Vns7HzvHE3fA0iFSi_fh8qUYi70A4HZmO9dz-1df3vVlo5Qa_fRUg-1dVAjeSo23cExS9m3RDMJLolCJWnMaYkub6F2fEiU7b1X-gtLIdpdXowp/w300-h400/20230725_075630.jpg" width="300" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Summer flowers - coneflower, zinnias, daisies,<br />coreopsis (Margo D. Beller)</td></tr></tbody></table></span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">This year's weather has <a href="https://www.northjersey.com/story/weather/2023/06/27/rain-totals-new-jersey-weather/70360065007/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">produced enough rain</a> to make me glad I did not call for the sprinkler to be turned on, and to produce mushrooms in the lawn. It has kept my half-dead dogwood tree alive and given my yard guy gainful employment.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">The rain has been good for my cannas and my flowers, including the zinnia and marigold seeds I planted. With the daisies, coreopsis and conflowers blooming now I can finally cut my own bouquet instead of paying to make one at the farmstand I frequent for summer vegetables. The rain also prompted enough weeds to force me to pull them from all over the garden over the course of three early mornings, before the sun, humidity and my sore body drove me inside.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">I gave up on what I had thought were <a href="https://backyardbirdingandbeyond.blogspot.com/2017/04/growing-my-own.html" target="_blank">pepper seedlings</a>. They were weeds, so I'll be buying my peppers this year.</span></p><p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfE2q1XMsOTB0tdLl2swtIlbQVx3hXDVc0vwklKynlawBmWB8I37sfu_pIOZ8glH7d-pWvVHHk1sBzu3BuXlvij4LXpaT2FVKcfNdtvGoQXb2_4mMaRPHPXr4JURC_-72Xi0Hy8Hdfj-iycREdgIU1SR0wlewPXoo8nhb8mtn01MfkmjO_rAJtkGWV/s3264/mystery%20pot.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3264" data-original-width="2448" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfE2q1XMsOTB0tdLl2swtIlbQVx3hXDVc0vwklKynlawBmWB8I37sfu_pIOZ8glH7d-pWvVHHk1sBzu3BuXlvij4LXpaT2FVKcfNdtvGoQXb2_4mMaRPHPXr4JURC_-72Xi0Hy8Hdfj-iycREdgIU1SR0wlewPXoo8nhb8mtn01MfkmjO_rAJtkGWV/w300-h400/mystery%20pot.jpg" width="300" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Not a pepper after all. (Margo D. Beller)</td></tr></tbody></table></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">And then there is the continual prospect of <a href="https://www.northjersey.com/story/news/environment/2023/07/19/nj-air-quality-2023-canada-wildfires-indez/70424507007/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">smoke from Canadian wildfires</a> mixing with the usual high levels of ozone each time the wind comes out of an otherwise pleasant northwesterly direction. Will the fires continue into the fall when the migrants start <a href="https://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/article/wildlife-smoke-affects-birds-too-you-can-help" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">heading south</a>?</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">It has been hard to get myself walking in this weather, even harder to go listen for birds. At this time of year it's rare I find a bird that I couldn't find in my backyard, so I don't usually bother. In the backyard the robins are going after ripe fruit in the black cherry tree, the catbird family members chase each other around the yard, and chipping and song sparrows call from the trees. I hear the cardinals in the morning and have a brief temptation to put out seed for them. But then I remember these birds eat the insects that plague me and don't need my seed now.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">I could follow the usual flock of birders down the coast and look for the <a href="https://backyardbirdingandbeyond.blogspot.com/2017/06/down-shore.html" target="_blank">shorebirds</a> that spend the summer in New Jersey. But the one time we went shorebirding in summer we were attacked by <a href="https://bitingflytrap.com/blogs/news/5-facts-you-didn-t-know-about-greenheads" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">greenhead flies</a>, which meant staying in the car with the windows up as we drove the tour road. </span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">So I sit on my porch in the early morning with the fan on, sipping my coffee as my neighbors go off to work or get their kids ready for camp. That is how I see the cardinals, robins, catbirds and occasional others in my yard. (The hummingbird feeder has yet to draw a single bird, unfortunately, even with the pink flowers in bloom near it.)</span></p><p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiF5C438qxND6O0KKpNmpedYKzZM4AHSVS2CD0iwj02HM7n0uznaIy4C4aoTnHaoPJTVjJQcSvo4Fyz25TT-9oe79czWZtAWzuZhnBUk3v2Jl6biFtbGir5rgKFypXna52PdH13a3ptAnM7xc8DwWNOoq_370XhjLyp6GnmLMlbhTNYJdnsQRpSWUqg/s3264/wren%20box.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3264" data-original-width="2448" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiF5C438qxND6O0KKpNmpedYKzZM4AHSVS2CD0iwj02HM7n0uznaIy4C4aoTnHaoPJTVjJQcSvo4Fyz25TT-9oe79czWZtAWzuZhnBUk3v2Jl6biFtbGir5rgKFypXna52PdH13a3ptAnM7xc8DwWNOoq_370XhjLyp6GnmLMlbhTNYJdnsQRpSWUqg/w300-h400/wren%20box.jpg" width="300" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Wren nest box (Margo D. Beller)</td></tr></tbody></table></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">Then there is the <a href="https://backyardbirdingandbeyond.blogspot.com/2023/05/summertime.html" target="_blank">house wren box</a>. A few weeks ago, long after the first pair of wrens and their young departed, another pair actively investigated the box and seemed ready to use the old nest inside. Then, once again, something happened. </span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">After a few days when I wasn't on the porch I came out one morning to find a male singing loud and long but no activity at the box. In fact, over the next few days if a female showed up he chased her away. We went away for a few days but as of yesterday he was still around, tho' not singing as loudly or as often. I am no expert on <a href="https://backyardbirdingandbeyond.blogspot.com/2013/05/return-of-wren-again.html" target="_blank">house wren behavior</a> despite <a href="https://backyardbirdingandbeyond.blogspot.com/2016/05/another-year-another-house-wren.html" target="_blank">all the writing</a> I do about them, so I have no idea what is going on. </span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">In a few weeks the male will be gone and the box will be brought down and emptied. The summer heat will be a distant memory, I hope.</span></p>Margo D. Beller http://www.blogger.com/profile/11132733081191328601noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1002156758794571993.post-76596669086878512602023-06-28T11:10:00.001-04:002023-06-28T11:10:48.135-04:00Another Season of Wrens and Apples (and Squirrels)<p><span style="font-size: medium;">Right now, on the cusp of July, <a href="https://backyardbirdingandbeyond.blogspot.com/2023/04/the-ladies-who-sing.html" target="_blank">birdsong</a> is heard once again in my yard.</span></p><p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgStDWNxabSt8cBopQgyOtotoLdcRcKns9nZg-4T7hR8GjwudC-hXGUWKuwkAm3NQYR5JfdcQOlWqeReP-QRrHB5Vbkn1gTw8AtSuq82Tt742DBqgc4K1PIZgsBmUZbVEumIrQcRQJBE3ZoxFK9xcda6pFHCih40nvpFkW-M3yIxuwhKxObogT0tPsW/s3264/apples.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3264" data-original-width="2448" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgStDWNxabSt8cBopQgyOtotoLdcRcKns9nZg-4T7hR8GjwudC-hXGUWKuwkAm3NQYR5JfdcQOlWqeReP-QRrHB5Vbkn1gTw8AtSuq82Tt742DBqgc4K1PIZgsBmUZbVEumIrQcRQJBE3ZoxFK9xcda6pFHCih40nvpFkW-M3yIxuwhKxObogT0tPsW/s320/apples.jpg" width="240" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Apples (Margo D. Beller)</td></tr></tbody></table></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">That's because the young that had been protected in their nests by their parents are now flying around after them, begging for food. The parents, in turn, send out contact calls to make sure everyone stays together. Now, about a month after the northbound migrants moved through and the nesting birds went silent, I am hearing songs or calls again: catbird, song sparrow, titmouse, house finch, white-breasted nuthatch, cardinal, assorted woodpeckers. Some of these birds may have second broods, but for now the emphasis is on teaching the first brood to take care of itself.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">The <a href="https://backyardbirdingandbeyond.blogspot.com/2018/07/watching-neighbors.html" target="_blank">house wrens</a> in my yard have also been on the move. Once again I did not see the moment when the young, no doubt cramped in such a small space in hot, humid weather, took off after their parents. On Friday morning, June 23, the parents were busy feeding the young, hanging outside the box except for when one would go inside to clean out the poop. I could see the heads of the young as they came to the opening and looked out. They seemed very agitated.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">On Saturday morning, June 24, we had a deluge for the first time in weeks. I stayed inside. When it was over I went outside to pull out stubborn weeds from my front walkway (stubborn because of long taproots, which gave easily in the soggy soil). When I walked to my compost pile to dump them I heard the scolding of a house wren, then the dry, rattle-like calls of young. Sure enough, as I sat to rest on my porch, I watched the nest box and saw no activity. Once again, these birds had flown.</span><span style="font-size: large;"> </span></p><p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjmJ0wyna14rVE4ZO6Wf-w1zXQyAZwzRVr-uGLcKp_37SH-65qDN-14h2LNWxC43zCS6jSxHXMvTxd_5z5jslbn4WgVo2W5kEe2yncTALv6DyiRCcu8zx9Q02LPnAJ5oxtKM7Qte_fBPHwizxCnw2W_jBaE6IUjawY5FrQUGWMClTHA1qzh_rS5jWm7/s3264/wren%20box%202023.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3264" data-original-width="2448" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjmJ0wyna14rVE4ZO6Wf-w1zXQyAZwzRVr-uGLcKp_37SH-65qDN-14h2LNWxC43zCS6jSxHXMvTxd_5z5jslbn4WgVo2W5kEe2yncTALv6DyiRCcu8zx9Q02LPnAJ5oxtKM7Qte_fBPHwizxCnw2W_jBaE6IUjawY5FrQUGWMClTHA1qzh_rS5jWm7/s320/wren%20box%202023.jpg" width="240" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Empty nest (Margo D. Beller)</td></tr></tbody></table></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">My guess is they flew Friday afternoon. Since then they have been moving between my yew hedge and the shrubby area near my compost pile. In fact, today, when I went to that shrubby area to pull out a tree branch to add to my brush pile, five wrens jumped out! A parent and four young? Two parents and three young? All young? I don't know. I quickly left the area and they settled down.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">Here is a <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cqcpQJhYa9A" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">video</a> I found that shows five wrens fledging. (The video lasts about five minutes. The site is not associated with mine.) </span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">Meanwhile,<a href="https://backyardbirdingandbeyond.blogspot.com/2017/07/wrens-and-apples.html" target="_blank"> the apple tree</a> has brought forth a prodigious amount of fruit, right on time. I am usually busy picking apples from late June into early July. People I know with their own apple trees think it odd that my apples are not ready for harvest in the fall. However, doing a bit of searching, I found that there are <a href="https://www.homesteadingwhereyouare.com/2021/09/17/early-apple-varieties/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">many types</a> of early apple varieties. I'm not sure which of them is mine.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">Starting last week, I was knocking apples down with an extension pole because thanks to the <a href="https://backyardbirdingandbeyond.blogspot.com/2023/01/an-inconvenient-tree.html" target="_blank">tree pruning in January</a> the lower, more easily reached branches are gone. I've managed to fill a bucket with enough apples for me to make apple sauce, when I get around to it. For now, the fruit is stored in my cellar.</span></p><p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgk7pQHtDRRmluVd-te3vI60cffXkRVLOwAN59VIX-O7za5z3KfgK_BCdIckR9J-gQWOwPpRGMzKR5z78MbGesLgD9XWnsTvFGsXuAkNLNbpz-S0Xf2jWv1Gcy9xZ9KkBhs2qFXdfLGuBJ1sRpdZXZjEeF_khVvPp-dpWtQJEtTTriGuaaKBOiLBwx_/s3008/small%20apples.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2000" data-original-width="3008" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgk7pQHtDRRmluVd-te3vI60cffXkRVLOwAN59VIX-O7za5z3KfgK_BCdIckR9J-gQWOwPpRGMzKR5z78MbGesLgD9XWnsTvFGsXuAkNLNbpz-S0Xf2jWv1Gcy9xZ9KkBhs2qFXdfLGuBJ1sRpdZXZjEeF_khVvPp-dpWtQJEtTTriGuaaKBOiLBwx_/s320/small%20apples.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">(Margo D. Beller)</td></tr></tbody></table></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">The squirrels always seem to know when the apples are ripe and they have been eating the fruit regularly. I am also making regular visits, but to dispose of what they've eaten and dropped before the deer (or <a href="https://backyardbirdingandbeyond.blogspot.com/2016/08/and-brown-bear-in-pear-tree.html" target="_blank">bear</a>?) can get to it. Sometimes there is even fruit for me. I cut into one of the apples I picked up today and it doesn't taste particularly sweet - almost all the apples are on the green side - but for a hungry or thirsty squirrel they will do.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">I have taken down what large fruit I can reach. I must now depend on squirrels, or one of the many intense thunderstorms we've been suffering through this week, to knock down any other apples. Then I must get them before the deer.</span></p><p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPdtie6QkpKnID7p9AKiT-Xk_E9qcOKzy6vrDubdaTS8XS3Z5Y0fIIH3QWVJLXUx5FiNecKV2Owutz4ib_I_56ikod7tC-8nFGRXVhyufv-BFiMOzW51I_Fd3dOzhrw-toBMtZdAfVC5gvRUstnA9466L7RQSarTDk7WKHfGLqeGr8MP3EEiCzeIG7/s957/treed%20squirrel%20-%20Edited.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="957" data-original-width="756" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPdtie6QkpKnID7p9AKiT-Xk_E9qcOKzy6vrDubdaTS8XS3Z5Y0fIIH3QWVJLXUx5FiNecKV2Owutz4ib_I_56ikod7tC-8nFGRXVhyufv-BFiMOzW51I_Fd3dOzhrw-toBMtZdAfVC5gvRUstnA9466L7RQSarTDk7WKHfGLqeGr8MP3EEiCzeIG7/w253-h320/treed%20squirrel%20-%20Edited.jpg" width="253" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Treed squirrel (Margo D. Beller)</td></tr></tbody></table></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">It is gratifying to me that, after all these years, the apple tree continues to produce despite heavy pruning (and whacking at the branches by me). I'm sure the squirrels are happy about it, too. We'll all enjoy it while it lasts.</span></p><p><br /></p>Margo D. Beller http://www.blogger.com/profile/11132733081191328601noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1002156758794571993.post-87171345018349074042023-06-17T09:30:00.001-04:002023-06-17T09:30:00.153-04:00Growing Concern<p><span style="font-size: medium;">I like trees. I've written about my <a href="https://backyardbirdingandbeyond.blogspot.com/2018/12/when-cure-is-worse-than-disease.html" target="_blank">despair</a> when they are <a href="https://backyardbirdingandbeyond.blogspot.com/2023/01/an-inconvenient-tree.html" target="_blank">cut down</a>, including by me. But after a recent walk I had to wonder about the unintended consequences of planting some trees in a particular area.</span></p><p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjWxATaXN-uydFVGNfVj_hUJ7B1mu6_Oyx8UyE73G5iKTtYHt7_FOFoLuf2z7L7xSSz1D0EfMsYXczVxiEZKuEsGwlImJFCowGVhNAlHEowbFXb_Twb6ZNExjghEfeMosMlUI__cz0drQDEyZLObRy25Ab2Qot1HrO1sUfCC68wYJfU-K2Dthl7gQ/s3264/saplings1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2448" data-original-width="3264" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjWxATaXN-uydFVGNfVj_hUJ7B1mu6_Oyx8UyE73G5iKTtYHt7_FOFoLuf2z7L7xSSz1D0EfMsYXczVxiEZKuEsGwlImJFCowGVhNAlHEowbFXb_Twb6ZNExjghEfeMosMlUI__cz0drQDEyZLObRy25Ab2Qot1HrO1sUfCC68wYJfU-K2Dthl7gQ/w400-h300/saplings1.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Saplings, May 2023<br />(Margo D. Beller)</td></tr></tbody></table></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">In the <a href="https://www.morrisparks.net/index.php/parks/central-park-of-morris-county" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Central Park of Morris County</a> not far from me a field was planted with tree saplings a number of years ago. All you could see were rows of protective tubing. In autumn 2021 I went for a walk in that area after a long absence and noticed the saplings had grown tall enough to be seen above the tubing.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">The other week I went back and the saplings were even taller. I could now identify many of the trees including tulip poplars, maples, even at least one sweetgum. What happens when they all grow up, I wondered. Tulip poplars alone can <a href="https://www.uky.edu/hort/Tulip-Poplar" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">grow 70 to 90 feet tall </a>and have a 35- to 50-foot spread. It is also a <a href="https://owlcation.com/stem/Tulip-Poplar-Tree-Facts-Uses-and-Planting-Tips" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">fast-growing</a> hardwood tree, which might explain why it was planted here.</span></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhyaXMBND-sv86U9FS1Vj5TKqtcrRrfnZJRofJSxpUHsrxIv4H3s4Mc-4nHgEQ-i_8xiZE31ZVs4JqXh8x5rJGjpJudTvdZtMpP0DoA7izSfO8bv1YZeVoS1eLBqY2fu49yxf8lbCTqYEJ6muNyV_USOXasJh3lLH1kLTOoTTE4zSHkhAwsObqJdA/s3264/saplings%20at%20Greystone%20Nov.%202021a.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2448" data-original-width="3264" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhyaXMBND-sv86U9FS1Vj5TKqtcrRrfnZJRofJSxpUHsrxIv4H3s4Mc-4nHgEQ-i_8xiZE31ZVs4JqXh8x5rJGjpJudTvdZtMpP0DoA7izSfO8bv1YZeVoS1eLBqY2fu49yxf8lbCTqYEJ6muNyV_USOXasJh3lLH1kLTOoTTE4zSHkhAwsObqJdA/w400-h300/saplings%20at%20Greystone%20Nov.%202021a.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Saplings, November 2021<br />(Margo D. Beller)</td></tr></tbody></table><p><span style="font-size: medium;">I can't remember exactly when Morris County put in the saplings. It could've been after <a href="https://backyardbirdingandbeyond.blogspot.com/2012/12/hurricane-sandy-and-birds.html" target="_blank">hurricane Sandy</a> blew through in 2012 and toppled trees in this field, once part of a <a href="https://asylumprojects.org/index.php/Greystone_Park_State_Hospital" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">working farm</a> associated with </span><span style="font-size: large;">the </span><a href="https://backyardbirdingandbeyond.blogspot.com/2015/10/the-end-has-come-goodbye-at-last.html" style="font-size: large;" target="_blank">old Greystone hospital</a><span style="font-size: large;">. </span><span style="font-size: medium;">The saplings could've been planted as part of the work the county did when it took over the land to turn it into a multi-use park.</span></p><p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqAlvGI-hsWh58gmZVaf2caVUKW_Q0Ffj1Li5NtmBi5u3h_dcyFd7Er_xsHN3X8Hrs5OjB8Ze4BVJM4ZLO4BYw7EgKRuIUTzvWbVRoWCdiHPIfKrtPpfGnGz4LriIku0GGapyhK1U6nnIW90m_818pFgDzaxKeT4Tb-cm46Z8CJ3qaTJ_Sqizg2A/s615/fallen%20trees.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="461" data-original-width="615" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqAlvGI-hsWh58gmZVaf2caVUKW_Q0Ffj1Li5NtmBi5u3h_dcyFd7Er_xsHN3X8Hrs5OjB8Ze4BVJM4ZLO4BYw7EgKRuIUTzvWbVRoWCdiHPIfKrtPpfGnGz4LriIku0GGapyhK1U6nnIW90m_818pFgDzaxKeT4Tb-cm46Z8CJ3qaTJ_Sqizg2A/w400-h300/fallen%20trees.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The field in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy in 2012,<br />which might be the reason more trees<br />were planted. (Margo D. Beller)</td></tr></tbody></table></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">During that time, the old hospital buildings including the wards, the farm and the <a href="https://backyardbirdingandbeyond.blogspot.com/2016/02/the-road-to-nothing.html" target="_blank">Kirkbride administration building</a> came down. Old or damaged trees came down with them. (Many other trees that came down in a different area were neither sick nor damaged. They were in the way of a very large planned <a href="https://backyardbirdingandbeyond.blogspot.com/2012/09/seeing-forest-for-tax-ratables.html" target="_blank">soccer field</a>.) </span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">This old farm field usually draws a lot of birds depending on the season. In past years I've found different types of sparrows, warblers, vireos and thrushes. But now I have to wonder what will happen when the trees grow to their full height. The area is already changing. The grasses around the saplings have not been cut and have become very long and weedy. This is good for some birds but not for others. </span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">Once the trees have grown and darken the area it will change even more. Will there be more forest dwellers? Bird that look for insects or build nests in treetops? I fear the sparrows and other grassland birds that prefer wood edges to deep woods will go elsewhere. </span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">I'll just have to see what happens when those trees throw shade.</span></p>Margo D. Beller http://www.blogger.com/profile/11132733081191328601noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1002156758794571993.post-20256774354841546432023-06-11T15:40:00.002-04:002023-06-11T15:40:59.063-04:00Catching Up in the Garden<p><span style="font-size: medium;">Last week, New York City had the dubious distinction of having the<a href="https://www.nj.com/weather/2023/06/new-york-city-had-worst-air-quality-in-the-world-due-to-smoke-report-says.html" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"> dirtiest air in the world</a> because of the smoke blown on winds out of the north from <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2023/06/07/canada-wildfires-weather-air-quality/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">wildfires</a> that continue to rage throughout Canada. At its worst, the smoke made the sun look deep orange, kept the temperature to the mid-60s (F) and turned the sky brownish-yellow. The smell of burning wood was thick.</span></p><p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiAkQvRB6xmjc1GexbZjTOvIwIk5Jop3mQMJ0yWsoMq7MTujDIAjlZdG9ohx-y9Df0j7II68_X82y-a_r0td6SoqA_zqm-Fj2UpTXl5OTLO1FCLzkE74a5Z6aU8qVSpfwxLCA6CUI922KC0bOfVDbCwLdXce9xsNYs9lAHPB1oZJ6I3cug-yqBGpw/s1619/stargazer%20lilies.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1421" data-original-width="1619" height="281" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiAkQvRB6xmjc1GexbZjTOvIwIk5Jop3mQMJ0yWsoMq7MTujDIAjlZdG9ohx-y9Df0j7II68_X82y-a_r0td6SoqA_zqm-Fj2UpTXl5OTLO1FCLzkE74a5Z6aU8qVSpfwxLCA6CUI922KC0bOfVDbCwLdXce9xsNYs9lAHPB1oZJ6I3cug-yqBGpw/s320/stargazer%20lilies.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Stargazer lilies, supported by a tomato<br />cage, protected by deer fencing.<br />(Margo D. Beller)</td></tr></tbody></table></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">Living as I do 35 miles or so due west of the Big Apple, I could not avoid this manifestation of the continuing harm of what is now called "<a href="https://climate.nasa.gov/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">climate change</a>," but I still refer to as <a href="https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/features/GlobalWarming" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">global warming</a>. (I know there are differences between the two terms but the overall destructive effect is the same.) There has been very little rain anywhere in my area, and apparently the same is true of Canada.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">This is not the first time smoke has filled the skies over my part of New Jersey. Usually the smoke comes from wildfires in the southern part of the state, such as in the Pine Barrens, during extremely dry periods during the <a href="https://backyardbirdingandbeyond.blogspot.com/2023/05/summertime.html" target="_blank">summer</a>. The smoke is blown north on hot winds from the south. This year will likely be no exception because with the lack of rain those fires <a href="https://www.msn.com/en-us/weather/topstories/two-wildfires-in-burlington-county-over-50-contained-officials/ar-AA1clvgx" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">continue</a>, unfortunately.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">But this thick yellow smoke from Canada was unprecedented. A persistent low off the eastern coast kept pulling the smoke into my region until the air was toxic to breathe for those of us in "vulnerable" groups, who were urged to stay inside with the windows closed. I was under house arrest, for the most part. If I absolutely had to go outside, I kept it short and wore a mask. </span></p><p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjrWTgw31l62FE5zAl54b3NJOlWrZKEdjWNM5EzdaAPS7sJoJ_SwdydUHHR2q_GT_6vgF_LlCNu2mpHCAZdqQ0a4z7Sw0uYpwxnjJTFJwpsZFxY0evYZ9x3X3rLPssGbuM-tIHv9AYh8Aa9w0oi-Tqn9XHJFGlGgkEuTda2u0X_9h1zFvBuIpmiWQ/s3264/blooming%20viburnum.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2448" data-original-width="3264" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjrWTgw31l62FE5zAl54b3NJOlWrZKEdjWNM5EzdaAPS7sJoJ_SwdydUHHR2q_GT_6vgF_LlCNu2mpHCAZdqQ0a4z7Sw0uYpwxnjJTFJwpsZFxY0evYZ9x3X3rLPssGbuM-tIHv9AYh8Aa9w0oi-Tqn9XHJFGlGgkEuTda2u0X_9h1zFvBuIpmiWQ/s320/blooming%20viburnum.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Blooming viburnum (Margo D. Beller)</td></tr></tbody></table></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">The world continued on without me, of course. People were urged to limit their pets' time outside but the wild animals - including birds - were still out there foraging for food, both for themselves and for their young. Somehow they managed, but I have to wonder about <a href="https://time.com/6285655/wildfire-smoke-affects-plants-animals-wildlife/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">the effect</a> of that poisonous air.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">When the smoke finally cleared, literally, it was with relief I could go back outside. I walked around the yard and found some flowers had faded - the rhododendron, irises and the peony - while others were blooming (viburnum, salvia and stargazer lilies) or growing to the point where they would soon bloom (butterfly weed).</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">Meanwhile, what I thought were peppers growing from the seeds I'd planted a few months ago are not peppers. I'm not sure what they are. I've moved those pots to make more room for the pots of marigolds and zinnias that are definitely growing from seed. </span></p><p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEix7wK01dCJnaQNZrN0d4OHREpVJyZPqxdPDX50xaIXHLEVgVSFQanmRcqeciem55sIsf_P6G8iK5dxy5qsVwNq1D19rTxmytOastttivsn9Mv5KkX0v65o4QW-IjZLEBTuDu9KSCdmw20KU3Uq-zgKl52qcG-0w022ebn4MIXsjYocB5ukFHBGFQ/s3264/mystery%20pot.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3264" data-original-width="2448" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEix7wK01dCJnaQNZrN0d4OHREpVJyZPqxdPDX50xaIXHLEVgVSFQanmRcqeciem55sIsf_P6G8iK5dxy5qsVwNq1D19rTxmytOastttivsn9Mv5KkX0v65o4QW-IjZLEBTuDu9KSCdmw20KU3Uq-zgKl52qcG-0w022ebn4MIXsjYocB5ukFHBGFQ/s320/mystery%20pot.jpg" width="240" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">I don't know what this is but it isn't<br />a pepper. (Margo D. Beller)</td></tr></tbody></table></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">The <a href="https://backyardbirdingandbeyond.blogspot.com/2023/01/an-inconvenient-tree.html" target="_blank">apple tree</a> is filled with growing fruit that has been getting knocked to the ground, still too raw to be usable. I'm not sure if the squirrels are searching for ripe apples to slack their thirst of if the tree is dropping apples to save energy because of this drought. Maybe both. </span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">I also took note of the birds. One of my few trips outdoors was to make sure the water dish was full. It drew a pair of goldfinches, a song sparrow and a jay. (I'm sure there were others, including squirrels, but I didn't see them.) Every so often I would see the resident cardinals and catbirds hunting around the yard. Overhead I heard cedar waxwings and chimney swifts, hunting for seeds or insects. </span></p><p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjFJ4wIZRJ5v1ms8welS_nJG9DqbLzjSgADiyKBRVq0vYcSogHjv0bA-Gg75vWKFdrhrrXo-ywZbBFnBF9d9_jIHwnW_bPKhpAOTeVOqE1skIhrC8OsHvZ4I7v9Qgi5H_RRHDYpux2Q4BckcRsc9NX_FxhOmyQ7YboC_oxL_sExP2E6WM7ycBCl_g/s3264/apples.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3264" data-original-width="2448" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjFJ4wIZRJ5v1ms8welS_nJG9DqbLzjSgADiyKBRVq0vYcSogHjv0bA-Gg75vWKFdrhrrXo-ywZbBFnBF9d9_jIHwnW_bPKhpAOTeVOqE1skIhrC8OsHvZ4I7v9Qgi5H_RRHDYpux2Q4BckcRsc9NX_FxhOmyQ7YboC_oxL_sExP2E6WM7ycBCl_g/s320/apples.jpg" width="240" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Apples in tree (Margo D. Beller)</td></tr></tbody></table></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">And, of course, I was able to see what was happening with the house wrens. Based on their activity the eggs had hatched but the young were still small enough for either parent to go inside to feed them. When the young get bigger they will jostle for position and the parent will only be able to feed the one or ones that can push to the nest box opening. Right now the parents go in with food and come out, sometimes with chick poop, which must be removed to keep bacteria out of the nest. I estimate two or three young are in the nest.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">As I watch the wrens following their instincts to feed their young so they will one day (soon?) fledge, feed themselves and continue the cycle, I have to wonder why it is that humans, the top of the food chain and the only creatures capable of creating weapons - and now weather conditions - to destroy themselves, are considered to be so damned superior.</span></p><p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh5wq5e0rLQIAYWekdTzLjcFhuGs-oUcrY4BS-EI5q1Lv3n53qjp_uwcuj2uBHvhVC0xZIboBJMU3XoHOYfxi4CltjjdQMtidAPY3GT2Q8WqOPYRrCCrEP38V9mWs4idSK71WCyOSkJsZH8XZOZkZUuZqFdzAqaMPS6sv5-Y3Y3bbZSfc49n8XX5w/s1583/wren%20on%20box.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1583" data-original-width="1195" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh5wq5e0rLQIAYWekdTzLjcFhuGs-oUcrY4BS-EI5q1Lv3n53qjp_uwcuj2uBHvhVC0xZIboBJMU3XoHOYfxi4CltjjdQMtidAPY3GT2Q8WqOPYRrCCrEP38V9mWs4idSK71WCyOSkJsZH8XZOZkZUuZqFdzAqaMPS6sv5-Y3Y3bbZSfc49n8XX5w/s320/wren%20on%20box.jpg" width="242" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">This cropped picture was taken through my porch screen. if you look<br />carefully you will see the parent wren over the box. Less<br />obvious is the wren looking out from inside.<br />(Margo D. Beller)</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>Margo D. Beller http://www.blogger.com/profile/11132733081191328601noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1002156758794571993.post-59384988247423802252023-05-29T15:57:00.000-04:002023-05-29T15:57:13.114-04:00Summertime<p><i> In summer, the song sings itself.</i></p><p><i>-- <a href="https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/william-carlos-williams" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">William Carlos Williams</a></i></p><p>Since I<a href="http://backyardbirdingandbeyond.blogspot.com/2023/04/life-and-dying-in-backyard.html" target="_blank"> last wrote</a>, we've had a roller-coaster month of May. There were days of rain so heavy it flooded my favorite walking trail. There were days that were much colder than usual, including one when I needed to protect my plants from possible frost. Then it turned hot and very, very dry. My husband and I did some traveling. I was downsized out of a job. Many of my early plants bloomed and faded, only to be replaced by others including the rhododendron, the irises and the peony. I accomplished several big garden projects - including weeding, creating a border trench, and removing and replacing deer netting and fencing - to my physical detriment. The lawn grass became very long but it was cut before any pregnant deer would want to drop a <a href="https://backyardbirdingandbeyond.blogspot.com/2013/06/the-fawn-on-lawn.html" target="_blank">fawn on the lawn</a>, which has happened in the past around now.</p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgFsqlDu_3E2RiZbUoTVrkAZQWxF-lSgpe1ic7GiM63HmiQ2-fC2pwx3QYRfq4ShE6YsyW1uFChz4GJCQzqYOUu-4FoZWyb5viQhGW0_ZOLYUibcSzPbCegB-0VaazuUsvLj8GBTmNyYg88sB-6JXt6rc1TaT8cITosGNAiSW6LElD7agDdxGpSAw/s3264/rhod.%20May%2028,%202023.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3264" data-original-width="2448" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgFsqlDu_3E2RiZbUoTVrkAZQWxF-lSgpe1ic7GiM63HmiQ2-fC2pwx3QYRfq4ShE6YsyW1uFChz4GJCQzqYOUu-4FoZWyb5viQhGW0_ZOLYUibcSzPbCegB-0VaazuUsvLj8GBTmNyYg88sB-6JXt6rc1TaT8cITosGNAiSW6LElD7agDdxGpSAw/s320/rhod.%20May%2028,%202023.jpg" width="240" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Rhododendron (Margo D. Beller)</td></tr></tbody></table><p>And spring migration came to an end.</p><p>It is always with sadness that I acknowledge it's over. I think of what birds I found and what I didn't find. In my part of New Jersey the northerly winds in late April into early May seemed to have kept down the number of migrants passing through. The radar I looked at showed the birds flying north, bypassing most of my state, taking the path of least resistance. When we visited family in New Hampshire and stayed at a motel by Lake Sunapee it was a pleasure to sit on the screened deck at dawn and listen to the birds I had missed in my area. Except for our annual trip to <a href="https://backyardbirdingandbeyond.blogspot.com/2020/06/the-early-birder.html" target="_blank">Old Mine Road</a> to listen for the birds that breed in the high terrain of the northwestern part of New Jersey, the only birds I have found lately are local breeders.</p><p>When it finally became warm enough I planted my pepper seedlings and moved the house plants to the <a href="https://backyardbirdingandbeyond.blogspot.com/2017/05/my-corner-office.html" target="_blank">enclosed back porch</a>. In the backyard I went from two seed feeders and one suet feeder to one seed feeder and the <a href="https://backyardbirdingandbeyond.blogspot.com/2019/06/watching-for-hummingbirds.html" target="_blank">hummingbird feeder</a>. But there were nights it got cold and one when it got very cold, and that night I covered the pots and the peony, which had flower buds about to open. </p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-PP6hdCVhNI7HqHHuL7DJhtwiJSDPmEFnVbxZWbn_7e7XrSeGnNBzz8liLFLgenaa7eNxMNKqKMypezzSNDqkJxQP2u7M7aJ4v2nYwQpy9xV0VmqT-H_39cqayklMeW-k2WQFovswNoTkIvgsT7Bdd2Q7ekvCOSHcVZDgO8r5G1UcbssDkmYO_w/s3264/peony%20May%2028,%202020.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2448" data-original-width="3264" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-PP6hdCVhNI7HqHHuL7DJhtwiJSDPmEFnVbxZWbn_7e7XrSeGnNBzz8liLFLgenaa7eNxMNKqKMypezzSNDqkJxQP2u7M7aJ4v2nYwQpy9xV0VmqT-H_39cqayklMeW-k2WQFovswNoTkIvgsT7Bdd2Q7ekvCOSHcVZDgO8r5G1UcbssDkmYO_w/s320/peony%20May%2028,%202020.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Peony, when the buds opened (Margo D. Beller)</td></tr></tbody></table><p>Now, on Memorial Day, the so-called start of summer, it is hot. Yesterday I took in the last seed feeder and washed it out. Until then it had been drawing pairs of white-breasted nuthatch, cardinal, jay, goldfinch, house finch and song sparrow, the last one an unusual feeder bird for my yard. Now, the yard is quiet except for resident birds including the <a href="https://backyardbirdingandbeyond.blogspot.com/2017/05/5-ways-of-looking-at-catbird.html" target="_blank">catbird</a>. The birds should be either sitting on eggs or ready to do so.</p><p>That brings me to the <a href="https://backyardbirdingandbeyond.blogspot.com/2013/05/return-of-wren-again.html" target="_blank">annual saga</a> of the <a href="https://backyardbirdingandbeyond.blogspot.com/2016/05/another-year-another-house-wren.html" target="_blank">yard house wren</a>.</p><p>Every year the story is different. This year I hung the nest box in a <a href="https://backyardbirdingandbeyond.blogspot.com/2022/06/a-lesson-relearned.html" target="_blank">different area of the dogwood tree</a> than last year. In the past it only took a few days for a bird to come. But with this year's winds it took several weeks for a house wren to even show up in the yard, much less investigate the box. Early in May, just before we went on vacation, I saw a wren with a stick in its mouth go into the box. If it was a male, it was "dressing" the potential nest site to show its mate. Its mate would decide if she liked the location. If she did, she would bring in more sticks to create the nest. So I don't know if the wren was a male or female because they look alike.</p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiInnePaK2icJEPyD-DoKphTNfE4_eUC_HWRsJLte1wVZ6j_jEuVVLF-itjcbGg9jRexJ7AJAfQPJs4_gxgdsBNEcYnSts1TpUABZbQc-FMPFgcPGrw8NKD-H-62T0sYqaWBWksyZUgJ3kSVAhrpDNQsG_Gna0q9RPBxhB6RYR7FPBoLCwy-o6kaw/s3264/20230501_063818.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2448" data-original-width="3264" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiInnePaK2icJEPyD-DoKphTNfE4_eUC_HWRsJLte1wVZ6j_jEuVVLF-itjcbGg9jRexJ7AJAfQPJs4_gxgdsBNEcYnSts1TpUABZbQc-FMPFgcPGrw8NKD-H-62T0sYqaWBWksyZUgJ3kSVAhrpDNQsG_Gna0q9RPBxhB6RYR7FPBoLCwy-o6kaw/s320/20230501_063818.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">My favorite walking path under water after<br />two days of very heavy rain. It has <br />since dried. (Margo D. Beller)</td></tr></tbody></table><p>Fast-forward 10 days. I returned to work only to learn I and a number of others were out of a job. I spent time on the porch. What I saw from there were two house wrens actively shuttling back and forth with food to the box. According to the <a href="https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/House_Wren/lifehistory" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Cornell Ornithology Lab</a>, incubation is nine to 16 days and the nesting period is 15 to 17 days. Maybe I had misjudged when the nesting period began?</p><p>Then, something happened.</p><p>We had a few cold mornings, including that very cold morning I mentioned when I had to protect my plants. The shuttling stopped. I didn't see much of the wrens. Recently, as I listened to the male singing from a nearby bush, the female came out of the nest box. But there was no active shuttling. She would return with food and go back inside. She would not come out again for a long time. </p><p>I have no camera in the box so I can only guess at what is happening. </p><p>Scenario 1: The young they had been actively feeding got big enough to fly, left the nest and the pair started a second brood.</p><p>Scenario 2: Something killed the young - the cold, a predator - and the pair immediately started a new brood.</p><p>Scenario 3: This is an entirely different pair of house wrens.</p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhLrmo_ERAUupUMP9EaWwnD3pfxyr1bYO9yT7Qp32LvF7mkSMmTwpU8fyqyVece1EyAn4JxuQwLD4_p0f2fvrrSgBmm47B_g15hsPg8QexXJ1W_LejYIKgKIQ5iNC6OqSvmzKjmvM4gTdFmBdFRQ3z_jMvMFJAf1veXUSnc1-R91pAJg5UJvoohsg/s3264/wren%20box%202023.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3264" data-original-width="2448" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhLrmo_ERAUupUMP9EaWwnD3pfxyr1bYO9yT7Qp32LvF7mkSMmTwpU8fyqyVece1EyAn4JxuQwLD4_p0f2fvrrSgBmm47B_g15hsPg8QexXJ1W_LejYIKgKIQ5iNC6OqSvmzKjmvM4gTdFmBdFRQ3z_jMvMFJAf1veXUSnc1-R91pAJg5UJvoohsg/s320/wren%20box%202023.jpg" width="240" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Wren box in its 2023 location<br />(Margo D. Beller)</td></tr></tbody></table><p>In all the time I've put out a nest box I have never had a pair of wrens have one brood, raise the young, get them to leave the nest and hunt for themselves, and then the pair start a second brood. There would not have been enough time for that process, or for an entirely new pair of wrens to have found the box and lay eggs.</p><p>I lean toward scenario 2. Most likely the young had grown too big for the female to get inside the box and sit on them when the temperature dropped to the low 30s and so they died of the cold. Less likely is a predator getting to the young. One of the advantages the nest box provides is the small opening - too small for a <a href="https://backyardbirdingandbeyond.blogspot.com/2018/09/why-i-dont-like-cowbirds.html" target="_blank">cowbird</a> to drop in an egg or admit a predator any larger than an extremely small <a href="https://backyardbirdingandbeyond.blogspot.com/2020/06/my-friend-mr-slither.html" target="_blank">snake</a>. </p><p>However, it would not have deterred disease from entering and sickening the young birds fatally. That's another possiblity.</p><p>At present I go outside in the morning when it is cool. I hear the male wren singing his territorial song. The female appears with food and goes into the box. After a while, when the male sings, perhaps telling her it is safe to do so because he is nearby, she will leave the box to hunt and then fly back and enter the box. The male stays in the area.</p><p>Perhaps in a week the pair will be shuttling to and from the box to feed young. This summer I'll have more time to watch for it. </p>Margo D. Beller http://www.blogger.com/profile/11132733081191328601noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1002156758794571993.post-67206149146561977962023-04-30T16:31:00.001-04:002023-04-30T16:31:30.448-04:00Life and Dying in the Backyard<p><span style="font-size: medium;">Every spring I am surprised by my plants <a href="https://backyardbirdingandbeyond.blogspot.com/2016/04/just-add-water.html" target="_blank">coming back</a> after the winter. This year is no exception despite temperatures that reached the 80s in February and the 30s in April, with very little snow but lots of rain. Although some plants did not get as tall or as showy as usual, they did flower. The same is true of the trees and the shrubs. Both the <a href="https://backyardbirdingandbeyond.blogspot.com/2020/06/apple-tree-watching.html" target="_blank">apple </a>and the pear trees have flowered, despite being severely <a href="https://backyardbirdingandbeyond.blogspot.com/2023/01/an-inconvenient-tree.html" target="_blank">cut back</a> early this year. Where there are flowers there will be fruit, albeit fruit too high for me to easily pick.</span></p><p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjtD6mYSM2_NDur1hafldSeaKik_8Bs2SWPUB1ioIIJxxWpI5BAyEI-bJiJ70NfF8Zlr04Ljho14hSBdhAXwtmF6yWiuWgMXYb9kVqjvm_wNyLWRS01FZfkEf26MiXzg7vX6sp1tI8pePHzbIF-Nbgdz4QqDAkWxhC59Lk6GFYuzhzEJmOERrU7-A/s400/dogwood%20flowers.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="300" data-original-width="400" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjtD6mYSM2_NDur1hafldSeaKik_8Bs2SWPUB1ioIIJxxWpI5BAyEI-bJiJ70NfF8Zlr04Ljho14hSBdhAXwtmF6yWiuWgMXYb9kVqjvm_wNyLWRS01FZfkEf26MiXzg7vX6sp1tI8pePHzbIF-Nbgdz4QqDAkWxhC59Lk6GFYuzhzEJmOERrU7-A/s320/dogwood%20flowers.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Dogwood flowers in 2016 (Margo D. Beller)</td></tr></tbody></table></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">This post will focus on one particular tree.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">I have lived in my house for over 25 years. In my suburban neighborhood "woods" means trees on the property border. Any trees planted in the front or back yards have been put in by the homeowner. Over the years I've had to cut down yard trees for various reasons. I have, however, planted two trees - the blue spruce we nicknamed <a href="https://backyardbirdingandbeyond.blogspot.com/2023/03/spruce-bringsgreen-speaks.html" target="_blank">Spruce Bringsgreen</a> and a flowering dogwood.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">I planted the dogwood because in the fall it is supposed to produce red berries for the birds. Since that tree was planted in 2007 I've learned berries are not guaranteed. Like the other flowering plants, it depends on the weather. Some years there would be lovely pink flowers on the dogwood. But that did not necessarily mean berries would follow. Some years yes, some years no. The fresh green leaves would go red in the fall. </span></p><p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjMEMXK82cd2sFjjqy9BszhiBQskXDydUBu-87ll3LSTw-DfP772A7Hr7McalVcxghn6vKoDgNhucH17CMrjnadh0Vm9WEXjs7XHVNaqoVSuyzPH_Sl5iV24c4sfBHqkGlPxJj5lelIFhwjLARD9Opb1sMd2VnYbQ22LGjBdWyVtigBXFbB10vQLA/s400/dogwood%20berries.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="300" data-original-width="400" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjMEMXK82cd2sFjjqy9BszhiBQskXDydUBu-87ll3LSTw-DfP772A7Hr7McalVcxghn6vKoDgNhucH17CMrjnadh0Vm9WEXjs7XHVNaqoVSuyzPH_Sl5iV24c4sfBHqkGlPxJj5lelIFhwjLARD9Opb1sMd2VnYbQ22LGjBdWyVtigBXFbB10vQLA/s320/dogwood%20berries.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Dogwood berries, 2019. Note the discoloration<br />in the autumn leaves. (Margo D. Beller)</td></tr></tbody></table></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">Since planting that tree I took it as a given that once established it would always be there. But like any other living thing, trees die. Sometimes they are killed by man, who <a href="https://backyardbirdingandbeyond.blogspot.com/2020/04/a-hole-in-sky.html" target="_blank">cuts them down</a> or pollutes the air. Sometimes they are killed by insects, as was the ash tree I had to cut down because of the emerald ash borer. Sometimes, however, they are killed by bacteria or fungus.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">I don't remember when during the winter I first began to notice one branch was missing some of its bark but I did eventually notice, especially when more bare patches began to appear. I became alarmed when the apple and pear trees, the viburnum, the forsythia and the lilacs started leafing out and the dogwood remained bare. I thought the tree was dead.</span></p><p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqbqczsmRQsD5AOJfUp7vZtfBEd2ldQSLheusZbeJM3tDzycaaGE7vCjrA_kz7GF8llJdJgxnWjIVk_AwcQHT3bMiBGqLN3KiANkNxs4f8ck2wZnuGlkVaxIIQHTtkLkhd8am05Pmw_dIUVNMTMllQdHkIa0D1kpGUq7WB8s5ltEL4GbifR8_H2g/s2175/dropping%20bark.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2175" data-original-width="1632" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqbqczsmRQsD5AOJfUp7vZtfBEd2ldQSLheusZbeJM3tDzycaaGE7vCjrA_kz7GF8llJdJgxnWjIVk_AwcQHT3bMiBGqLN3KiANkNxs4f8ck2wZnuGlkVaxIIQHTtkLkhd8am05Pmw_dIUVNMTMllQdHkIa0D1kpGUq7WB8s5ltEL4GbifR8_H2g/s320/dropping%20bark.jpg" width="240" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">My first indication something was wrong.<br />(Margo D. Beller)</td></tr></tbody></table></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">I was going to write about it here. I even had a name for my post - Dead as a Dogwood.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">But reports of the dogwood's demise were premature - after a recent heavy rain it started to leaf out.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">Not everywhere, however. The part of the tree where the bark has come off remains bare, as are a few of the lower branches. </span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">I did some research into dogwood diseases, and to my horror discovered there are <a href="https://gardenerspath.com/plants/landscape-trees/dogwood-disease/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">quite a few</a>. The one that appears the closest to what is happening with this tree has the awful name of "crown canker."</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">Hoping for the best, I wrapped the lower part of the tree to prevent the bark that was just starting to flake from getting worse. I used my lopper on some of the lower branches and will have to use a saw or chainsaw on other parts. Because the tree went straight to leafing there will be no flowers. The leaves are small and I doubt there will be fruit. I don't even know if the tree will be alive next year.</span></p><p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhD_MsHAu457r_U15_5h0aBCZFN0XHmLIKR1UHf06L44NvpKMKuH2WCt74X0eJAg5FOT-4ml2f4e-hfQT9Je0WJBxs9Ljuvg2XJt33OxCnUgw05Na_PkdZHKh-4Y8cQoclGeC3nroksh3W4SWAc4y8plj_Skc6EgC6uRih_E1jD_7CCpRKWwlFnJg/s3264/dogwood%20trunk.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3264" data-original-width="2448" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhD_MsHAu457r_U15_5h0aBCZFN0XHmLIKR1UHf06L44NvpKMKuH2WCt74X0eJAg5FOT-4ml2f4e-hfQT9Je0WJBxs9Ljuvg2XJt33OxCnUgw05Na_PkdZHKh-4Y8cQoclGeC3nroksh3W4SWAc4y8plj_Skc6EgC6uRih_E1jD_7CCpRKWwlFnJg/s320/dogwood%20trunk.jpg" width="240" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">(Margo D. Beller)</td></tr></tbody></table></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">As I looked at some of the pictures I've taken of this tree over the years I realize the signs were there: discoloring in the leaves, the irregular production of fruit. It was not until the bark started falling off that I realized this tree is sick. Should I have used the sprinkler last year instead of letting the grass go brown and deprive the tree roots of water during the summer drought? Should I have added more mulch to what I had already put down at the base of the tree? </span></p><p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbbuemIiZ9h9OtuTtWUJ0coKn_3jgjyKjK56mRW9bXVVVUbfz3u_VxUiGAD7ggQtt64VciitTWWscbmXL1w2B14vmtln-UFNmk6ai4UczzK1HGtvFmI2JNnz6JB2IplGXeNaMHOs7aFT4MhNNyBx1czDk-yF7aUB1Jxsg_4SaGjras6uf8YtJK3Q/s2175/dogwood%20leaf%20closeup.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2175" data-original-width="1632" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbbuemIiZ9h9OtuTtWUJ0coKn_3jgjyKjK56mRW9bXVVVUbfz3u_VxUiGAD7ggQtt64VciitTWWscbmXL1w2B14vmtln-UFNmk6ai4UczzK1HGtvFmI2JNnz6JB2IplGXeNaMHOs7aFT4MhNNyBx1czDk-yF7aUB1Jxsg_4SaGjras6uf8YtJK3Q/s320/dogwood%20leaf%20closeup.jpg" width="240" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Dogwood leaves, 2023 (Margo D. Beller)</td></tr></tbody></table></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">I don't know. This year I'll use the sprinkler more and I'll use my saw on the dead branches. The tree may be disfigured but I hope it will recover. Or it may die. Living things die, even trees.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">In the meantime, as I have for the past two years, I have put up the <a href="https://backyardbirdingandbeyond.blogspot.com/2021/05/location-location-location.html" target="_blank">house wren nest box</a> on one of the living dogwood branches. I heard a wren singing the other morning as I put out the feeders. The bird investigated the box, then flew to another yard. Will it be back? That, too, is unknown.</span></p>Margo D. Beller http://www.blogger.com/profile/11132733081191328601noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1002156758794571993.post-40536077239733821792023-04-09T14:16:00.008-04:002023-04-09T14:34:19.396-04:00The Ladies Who Sing<p><span style="font-size: medium;">It is finally spring. Trees are <a href="https://backyardbirdingandbeyond.blogspot.com/2017/04/signs-of-leaf.html" target="_blank">leafing out</a>. The daffodils are at their peak. The lawn has greened, the lawn services are out and the pollen is flying.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">And there is birdsong, lots of birdsong. As light comes into the sky the dawn chorus begins - robins, cardinals, titmice, song sparrows.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">This is my favorite time of the year. At any moment a migrating bird may stop in my yard to visit the feeders or hunt for insects in the trees and shrubs. The light comes into the sky around the time I wake up and by the time I get outside the birds are singing.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">The other morning I was outside with my coffee, listening to the dawn chorus. There was a <a href="https://backyardbirdingandbeyond.blogspot.com/2017/09/cardinal-rules.html" target="_blank">cardinal </a>singing particularly close by and for once I wanted to watch him sing. I walked along the path to get a better look and stopped when the song seemed to come above me in the <a href="https://backyardbirdingandbeyond.blogspot.com/2023/01/an-inconvenient-tree.html" target="_blank">apple tree</a>. But where was the distinctive red male cardinal?</span></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjKT-f_3-aDCs4JW9NiLVxiZ-AesTFVtDGe5Hnq7OuddOzeK1SxdDsUCn8kbjKRfVYug_oR_g2msteJ2gNLsaK4UMyvHMjd5B6jgvheWMEDkPrQly07ZSAce2HEuuEtQsICIWPjE6beI9UOU4voM8_anNKSlcShlsyrHs1hZmG-8Xprx4e8QKLXQA/s542/femalecardinal.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="535" data-original-width="542" height="395" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjKT-f_3-aDCs4JW9NiLVxiZ-AesTFVtDGe5Hnq7OuddOzeK1SxdDsUCn8kbjKRfVYug_oR_g2msteJ2gNLsaK4UMyvHMjd5B6jgvheWMEDkPrQly07ZSAce2HEuuEtQsICIWPjE6beI9UOU4voM8_anNKSlcShlsyrHs1hZmG-8Xprx4e8QKLXQA/w400-h395/femalecardinal.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Female cardinal (Margo D. Beller)</td></tr></tbody></table><p><span style="font-size: medium;">There was no male. The singer was the brown female, whose dull coloring allowed her to blend into the bare tree branches near the very top rather well. </span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">I had been fooled, but I'm sure I am not the only one who has made that mistake.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">Here is the common thinking about birds: The males, brightly colored to attract a mate, do the singing to either draw a female or defend its chosen territory, its song warning other males of its type to stay away. The duller females mate, choose a nest site, then build the nest for the eggs she will incubate.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">But that thinking is wrong, I've learned. Female cardinals sing just as often and as loud as their male counterparts. It turns out female birds of quite a few species do, too.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">How have we managed to miss all these female singers? There are a number of reasons, some of them literally man made.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">I did some research and it turns out the study of female birdsong has been increasing, and there have been quite a few articles on this very topic.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">One problem with knowing if a female is singing: It is hard to tell the male from the female of many types of birds. For instance, I can't tell if the titmouse singing "peter, peter, peter" in my tree is a male or not because the males and females look alike. They are the same size and color. Some singing birds have only the most subtle difference in shading, such as the black head of the male <a href="https://backyardbirdingandbeyond.blogspot.com/2018/02/the-robin.html" target="_blank">robin</a> and the dark gray head of the female. </span></p><p></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgyGbPlt7rmOAcvi8LX8tMfJcb-hqm4LFGnYwOnHHji5Okp3lYe3ISLneKat9R8-WhFr58u-UtB0_3Zlc_H7gyhqACR7sIYOqxy2F2XFGWtp3DD5vEjrUTNfkR-0YgzBt-7zChy0kSV8rZ9C36B5LTENznnyEGDnWw-jNzpAHuQqZas2TeboSVulA/s220/titmouse%20at%20water%20cooler.webp" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="220" data-original-width="191" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgyGbPlt7rmOAcvi8LX8tMfJcb-hqm4LFGnYwOnHHji5Okp3lYe3ISLneKat9R8-WhFr58u-UtB0_3Zlc_H7gyhqACR7sIYOqxy2F2XFGWtp3DD5vEjrUTNfkR-0YgzBt-7zChy0kSV8rZ9C36B5LTENznnyEGDnWw-jNzpAHuQqZas2TeboSVulA/w347-h400/titmouse%20at%20water%20cooler.webp" width="347" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Male or female titmouse?<br />(Margo D. Beller)</td></tr></tbody></table><p></p><span style="font-size: medium;">Another problem: There have not, historically, been a lot of studies of birds beyond those of temperate zones in the U.S. Most of the birds that have been studied come north in the spring and go south for the winter. But there are many more birds, just starting to be studied, that stay in those South American rain forests and jungles and do not migrate because they have all the food they need. These female birds sing all the time, to protect territories or draw a mate. (Of course, there is an even greater universe of birds living and migrating in Europe, Asia, Africa and Australia.)</span><p></p><p></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><span face=""source sans pro", sans-serif" style="background-color: white;">According to <a href="https://www.allaboutbirds.org/news/many-female-birds-sing-beautiful-songs-all-we-have-to-do-is-listen/#" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">what I found</a> on the Cornell Ornithology Lab site, a 2016 study pointed out that in a sample of more than 1,000 songbird species from around the world, </span><span><a href="https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fevo.2016.00022/full" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">64% had females that sing<span face=""source sans pro", sans-serif" style="background-color: white;">.</span></a></span><span face=""source sans pro", sans-serif" style="background-color: white;"> Many tropical species and some temperate-zone species, such as female cardinals, "sing regularly; while others sing during specific parts of the breeding season," according to Cornell.</span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><span face=""source sans pro", sans-serif" style="background-color: white;">Take the song sparrow. A 1943 - yes, that far back - study by <a href="https://www.audubon.org/news/get-know-margaret-morse-nice-pioneer-bird-study" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Margaret Morse Nice</a>, found <a href="https://blog.nature.org/2016/08/08/battles-song-sparrows-scientific-outsider-changed-study-birds-ornithology-margaret-morse-nice/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">female song sparrows</a> sing early in the breeding season, mainly to warn other females away. But she also found female singers among temperate-zone birds </span><span face=""source sans pro", sans-serif" style="background-color: white;">including northern mockingbirds, Baltimore and Bullock’s orioles, white-crowned sparrows, European starlings, cedar waxwings and house finches.</span></span></p><p><span face=""source sans pro", sans-serif" style="background-color: white; font-size: medium;">To me that is impressive - her study covered nine years of observations - because in many of these birds the males and females look identical.</span></p><p></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2KKDDBJ7ITfNzE2jhLDstWWQuseizLsr1j6sS0uQ4ORvoAAlWgwQGWXwBfN8kryEjG8SO1CmwmJOPz-DBI-aTIApcUkuRx0su1KkqNO_1uLm81K345Kadst4GzH-82LYySAgeeMEdmWaAJR0jAiJ803QsDYaTZ8-D49QzBB3HzcZNB6ToAum4gg/s220/cardinal%20pair.webp" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="220" data-original-width="201" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2KKDDBJ7ITfNzE2jhLDstWWQuseizLsr1j6sS0uQ4ORvoAAlWgwQGWXwBfN8kryEjG8SO1CmwmJOPz-DBI-aTIApcUkuRx0su1KkqNO_1uLm81K345Kadst4GzH-82LYySAgeeMEdmWaAJR0jAiJ803QsDYaTZ8-D49QzBB3HzcZNB6ToAum4gg/w365-h400/cardinal%20pair.webp" width="365" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Both of these birds will sing very<br />sweetly for you, if you have ears to listen.<br />(Margo D. Beller)</td></tr></tbody></table><p></p><p><span face=""source sans pro", sans-serif" style="background-color: white; font-size: medium;">That study is impressive to me for another reason - it's a woman doing the research. Bird research, as in most of the scientific fields, has been a male domain. Most of the researchers have been men and, back in the day, not many of them were interested in traveling outside the United States and were even less interested in dull females, much less whether they could sing. As in so many areas of our western patriarchal society, <a href="https://phys.org/news/2020-08-reveals-gender-bias-bird-song.html" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">gender bias </a>determined what we all believed.</span></p><p><span face=""source sans pro", sans-serif" style="background-color: white; font-size: medium;">That, however, has been changing, slowly. </span></p><p><span face=""source sans pro", sans-serif" style="background-color: white; font-size: medium;">Here is a sampling:</span></p><p><span face=""source sans pro", sans-serif" style="background-color: white; font-size: medium;">The Auk, now known as <a href="https://americanornithology.org/publications/ornithology/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Ornithology</a>, is the peer-reviewed scientific journal of the American Ornithological Society. The society was formed in 1884! This is the place for people who go far beyond Sunday birding, the (mainly) men who make the rules as to taxonomy and other fine details of birds and their lives. Even here you'll find a <a href="https://bioone.org/journals/the-auk/volume-135/issue-2/AUK-17-183.1/A-call-to-document-female-bird-songs--Applications-for/10.1642/AUK-17-183.1.full?tab=ArticleLink" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">study</a> on female birdsong, complete with abstract, figures and tables, and references.</span></p><p><span face=""source sans pro", sans-serif" style="background-color: white; font-size: medium;"><a href="http://Femalebirdsong.org" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Femalebirdsong.org</a> goes further: This site provides actual female birdsong calls and gives you a way to be a Citizen Scientist and gather even more data. There are also links to articles on the topic of female birdsong.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><span face=""source sans pro", sans-serif" style="background-color: white;">The <a href="https://earthsky.org/earth/female-birdsong-project/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Female Songbird Project</a> is another </span><span face=""Open Sans", sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #151515;">a Citizen Science initiative.</span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><span face=""Open Sans", sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #151515;"><a href="https://www.audubon.org/news/female-birdsong-finally-getting-attention-it-deserves" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Audubon</a>: The granddaddy of bird preservation organizations puts the spotlight on a study </span>"tackling the gender and geographical skew in avian song research."</span></p><p><span face=""source sans pro", sans-serif" style="background-color: white; font-size: medium;">But wait, there's more: Do a google search of "female birdsong." You'll find all sorts of other articles from mainstream publications including <a href="https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/why-it-took-so-long-to-appreciate-female-birds-songs/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Scientific American</a> and the <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/speaking-of-science/wp/2018/03/14/female-birds-sing-these-biologists-want-you-to-listen/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Washington Post</a>.</span></p><p><span face=""source sans pro", sans-serif" style="background-color: white; font-size: medium;">If you take away anything from this blog post, it should be to keep your mind open as well as your ears and eyes. Or, to quote <a href="https://www.womenshistory.org/education-resources/biographies/abigail-adams" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Abigail Adams</a>, who in many ways was far ahead of her time, remember the ladies.</span></p>Margo D. Beller http://www.blogger.com/profile/11132733081191328601noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1002156758794571993.post-37979002324877977962023-03-25T09:00:00.001-04:002023-03-25T09:00:00.156-04:00Spruce Bringsgreen Speaks!<p><span style="font-size: medium;">Hello again! Margo told me that some of you have been <a href="https://backyardbirdingandbeyond.blogspot.com/2023/01/dear-birder.html" target="_blank">asking after me</a>. It has been a long time [Editor's Note: Nearly five years, to be exact.] <a href="https://backyardbirdingandbeyond.blogspot.com/2017/05/the-world-according-to-spruce.html" target="_blank">since the last time</a> I've written in this blog, so it's high time I tell you what I've been up to lately.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">So far, about 50 feet. [<a href="https://www.thespruce.com/colorado-blue-spruce-trees-2132082" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Colorado blue spruces</a> can grow 75 feet tall in the wild but 30-60 feet in the yard, so I think Spruce might be exaggerating a little.)</span></p><p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiisyHGQi9XU8vUivwQ_gEJN3-u_C9dM-HLQugnB8iNYJrD8m5dTRV7m0NuIN4xZRt5t3Z2PV4zFdDGS7AUfE-ScpgCtGZbVYRU-9j4gBsAR8wqMaN5xGtJccox-EK3FXPwJLCgTYQnTHeaUSq35LWX1Bc8wCYvQsGvnevQ-_vNF35Nt805A5C19g/s3264/stylized%20spruce.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3264" data-original-width="2448" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiisyHGQi9XU8vUivwQ_gEJN3-u_C9dM-HLQugnB8iNYJrD8m5dTRV7m0NuIN4xZRt5t3Z2PV4zFdDGS7AUfE-ScpgCtGZbVYRU-9j4gBsAR8wqMaN5xGtJccox-EK3FXPwJLCgTYQnTHeaUSq35LWX1Bc8wCYvQsGvnevQ-_vNF35Nt805A5C19g/w480-h640/stylized%20spruce.jpg" width="480" /></span></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Spruce Bringsgreen after the Feb. 28, 2023, snow. <br />(Modified photo by Margo D. Beller)</span></td></tr></tbody></table></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">Yes, I've been growing. I put out my first cones so I am now a mature Colorado blue spruce. I'm the pride of Margo's yard and, unlike some of the other trees she had <a href="http://backyardbirdingandbeyond.blogspot.com/2023/01/an-inconvenient-tree.html" target="_blank">cut back recently</a>, I've been left alone to get bigger and spread out. Maybe a bit of tickling of my bottom branches as that guy she now has mowing the lawn instead of her husband works around me. The deer leave me alone because they know I'm prickly and don't cotton to being nibbled on.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">It has been very nice in this yard. We haven't had a lot of snow in a very long time except once, which gave me a thick, warm coat. [See photo.] But that didn't last long. The way I am built, the stuff just slides off once the sun comes out. Soon enough I am my old self again.</span></p><p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2h_8Bhdr39HikwWlcn4ST6ZL03uUACv_NxdN7BrURkLQj8YP5wTuX09Nr8djYOWQguECWoUHthkeBoXlC7tMuBekyX7WN5wd7KAsObn_DhHGcq8FgfZ489-9UMqLG4pspnOlHyg3lhV7XkGV8sMN0253RP_o9VK2ef5g3SjSojkT7UYbn2Z2udQ/s2048/sprucexmas.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1536" data-original-width="2048" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2h_8Bhdr39HikwWlcn4ST6ZL03uUACv_NxdN7BrURkLQj8YP5wTuX09Nr8djYOWQguECWoUHthkeBoXlC7tMuBekyX7WN5wd7KAsObn_DhHGcq8FgfZ489-9UMqLG4pspnOlHyg3lhV7XkGV8sMN0253RP_o9VK2ef5g3SjSojkT7UYbn2Z2udQ/s320/sprucexmas.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Spruce dressed up for Christmas, 2018<br />(Margo D. Beller)</td></tr></tbody></table></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">However, I will say that it has been sad to see some of the <a href="https://backyardbirdingandbeyond.blogspot.com/2020/04/a-hole-in-sky.html" target="_blank">old neighbors cut down</a>. Up and down this block the tree cutters roll by in their trucks and the air is soon filled with the sound of sawing, mulching and stump pulling. I know Margo dislikes it very much because she tells me that. Some of the old guys were sick and had to come down, I guess, but some of them I don't know<a href="https://backyardbirdingandbeyond.blogspot.com/2014/08/leave-woods-hell-alone.html" target="_blank"> why they had to go</a>. Maybe they were in the way. </span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">The cedar I can see by Margo's front door was cut in half by the people who came to do her tree work. That cedar got almost as tall as the roof, and it used to provide shelter for some of the small birds. It also has softer leaves than mine and the deer would get at it, as they get to most things. </span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">[Note: One of the biggest problems in suburbia is people planting trees too close to the house. This cedar, and one on the other side of the front door, I had planted in 1995, when I was a new homeowner and didn't know better, as I was to learn about most of the deer-attracting plants I put in before I put up netting to save them. The other cedar eventually died after an ice storm and I cut it back myself. I needed professional help on this second one because it was too tall. It would almost double over when covered with snow.] </span></p><p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggj49nILDqUCpfSuNtbSMBjQ33KHJey_eqALuAaMCFD-x0bd21_ydhJTU3DLwLdsxu2Gczx_kfQOKgTrVhj7qOsgOfuJL2nv2L9I8nYV2yD-UFiL8lQA-B1QTAi3MIR3IxnDqhuepKcx3sYjwtDMcL4ya-cts8wFKtrqhAbDKAT8A0KB_cKTpvzw/s3264/overgrown%20cedar.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3264" data-original-width="2448" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggj49nILDqUCpfSuNtbSMBjQ33KHJey_eqALuAaMCFD-x0bd21_ydhJTU3DLwLdsxu2Gczx_kfQOKgTrVhj7qOsgOfuJL2nv2L9I8nYV2yD-UFiL8lQA-B1QTAi3MIR3IxnDqhuepKcx3sYjwtDMcL4ya-cts8wFKtrqhAbDKAT8A0KB_cKTpvzw/w300-h400/overgrown%20cedar.jpg" width="300" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The cedar before it had to be cut back.<br />(Margo D. Beller)<br /><br /></td></tr></tbody></table><span style="font-size: medium;">Now the birds take shelter in my branches. Being so tall, they can be high off the ground and away from those four-legged predators that seem to come through this yard with increasing frequency, particularly at night. </span></p><p></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">I don't mind sheltering these birds. The ones that go "dee, dee, dee" [black-capped chickadees] are fine. They stay quiet, fly out for food, eat it elsewhere and then come back to me to hide or get away from the wind or to rest. But those black and white ones [male juncos] are terrible. They fight each other, they fly in and out, they make a lot of noise as they get in each other's way. But they'll be gone once it gets warm.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">Sometimes a redbreasted bird [a robin] will bring bits of material and <a href="https://backyardbirdingandbeyond.blogspot.com/2019/07/family-time.html" target="_blank">make a nest</a> high on my shoulder, but it rarely stays. I don't take it personally.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">It's hard to believe I've been planted in this spot for as long as I have [since November 2007]. It feels good to be rooted. I know Margo comes out to admire me frequently. I've no fear she will be cutting me down. That's about all a tree can hope for nowadays.</span></p><p><br /></p>Margo D. Beller http://www.blogger.com/profile/11132733081191328601noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1002156758794571993.post-77193916295051584632023-03-19T17:28:00.000-04:002023-03-19T17:28:11.151-04:00The Woodpecker Story Continues<p><span style="font-size: medium;">The story never ends, it just enters another chapter.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">It was <a href="http://backyardbirdingandbeyond.blogspot.com/2023/02/a-knocking-at-tree.html" target="_blank">over a month ago</a> I heard the knocking of a <a href="https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Pileated_Woodpecker/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">pileated woodpecker</a> excavating one of my neighbor's trees. At that time I wasn't sure if it was digging out a nest or just hunting for carpenter ants. If the latter that meant the tree might decay and die in a matter of years.</span></p><p></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEis7IxIffORBG5xU4UREJR_5WhREqsWIeg4I_XDfsg6rpC1cBOhSf0sKfo3fV4MIoVRPJHs5-etUndzSE22NManA-MclxRLFggkk9f4WSeXP8IrnGNY56FStiNbed1qyFkjFaqHImx-5YZMrwdw4O7P94qAE-nrZLYAY7FaRGgacQitct0pG24DLw/s2005/pileated%20March%2019,%202023.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1334" data-original-width="2005" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEis7IxIffORBG5xU4UREJR_5WhREqsWIeg4I_XDfsg6rpC1cBOhSf0sKfo3fV4MIoVRPJHs5-etUndzSE22NManA-MclxRLFggkk9f4WSeXP8IrnGNY56FStiNbed1qyFkjFaqHImx-5YZMrwdw4O7P94qAE-nrZLYAY7FaRGgacQitct0pG24DLw/w400-h266/pileated%20March%2019,%202023.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Pileated trying to hide from a sharp-shinned hawk. <br />(Margo D. Beller)</td></tr></tbody></table><p></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">When a squirrel climbed too close the woodpecker flew off. It was then I saw two holes so it was looking for a meal. I later learned February is not when these birds build nests and breed.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">And now we get to today.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">After spending some time outdoors in the cold and wind I returned home and made some hot tea. When I finished my drink I went into the kitchen to wash the mug. Through the open curtain, at eye level, I could see a male pileated whacking at a different tree in the same neighbor's yard.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">Was it the same bird as a month ago? Could be. This one continued to whack at the tree until it could put its head into the hole and use its long tongue to pull out an ant to eat. Even then it kept using its long beak to chop further into the hole.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><span>(According to the </span><a href="https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Pileated_Woodpecker/lifehistory" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">people at Cornell</a><span>, while t<span face=""source sans pro", sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #0a0a0a;">he pileated woodpecker’s primary food is carpenter ants, it also eats "other ants, woodboring beetle larvae, termites and other insects such as flies, spruce budworm, caterpillars, cockroaches and grasshoppers." I'm glad the bird was getting rid of one or more of these pests.)</span></span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">The woodpecker kept at its work. It did not notice me taking pictures from my enclosed porch. Nor did it notice another neighbor's kids playing basketball, the birds flying to the feeders or the squirrel sunning itself on the flood wall.</span></p><p></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqw-zaxzt32SyztAc42QZ7lNjcugfY6BK39q5A5B_oj05EdxkWsRVDJhXjqfEhcWJhi3c6RPZuIUtxghTkjd4SAwFEHkKIyOfgl8o437lcOovLodhe_yFZll56e8WTZmBTDnlf-aNU9OHiQKFk_0B15lntcKdErnk1uSAgsoQmZZ1_bO9K7HJ3KQ/s1494/Pileated%20and%20new%20hole.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1295" data-original-width="1494" height="346" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqw-zaxzt32SyztAc42QZ7lNjcugfY6BK39q5A5B_oj05EdxkWsRVDJhXjqfEhcWJhi3c6RPZuIUtxghTkjd4SAwFEHkKIyOfgl8o437lcOovLodhe_yFZll56e8WTZmBTDnlf-aNU9OHiQKFk_0B15lntcKdErnk1uSAgsoQmZZ1_bO9K7HJ3KQ/w400-h346/Pileated%20and%20new%20hole.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Pileated rather far along in excavating.<br />(Margo D. Beller)</td></tr></tbody></table><p></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">But what did stop it, suddenly, was the appearance of a male <a href="https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Sharp-shinned_Hawk" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">sharp-shinned hawk</a>. From my porch I saw it fly low to the ground, heading toward the hedge where many small birds roost. The male is smaller than the female, and mature birds have red breasts rather than brown streaks on a white chest. This bird, I could see, was small and had red on the breast. These accipiters are fast, nimble flyers, able to maneuver through a hedge and fly out with a meal. (I can only hope it didn't pick off one of the cardinals or other birds I've seen in the hedge, tho' these birds have to eat, too.)</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">The pileated, meanwhile, had moved from the hole to another part of the tree and flattened itself against it. It did not move for a long time. Pileateds have black backs so perhaps the idea was to be unobtrusive. Whatever the reason, it stayed still. When it sensed the danger had passed it moved back to the hole and continued its excavation. </span></p><p></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjzoi73ve_llKSDs8Nx980owDzdfMvyGviGHeKiUeeB9KNpjJCLUkITRI3gdnnnn0Ki4CVkAS-Qr2SQJhB17mIaRex1h6BUEOMPf-OtNjWw-ENBDdO8pft_Jbwfb9iWO3YLHy1KrnPhuVptio6loXqHmGUWtySX5o5wVhQgqACnFkuwBrwA4CXZYA/s1124/pileated.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1124" data-original-width="909" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjzoi73ve_llKSDs8Nx980owDzdfMvyGviGHeKiUeeB9KNpjJCLUkITRI3gdnnnn0Ki4CVkAS-Qr2SQJhB17mIaRex1h6BUEOMPf-OtNjWw-ENBDdO8pft_Jbwfb9iWO3YLHy1KrnPhuVptio6loXqHmGUWtySX5o5wVhQgqACnFkuwBrwA4CXZYA/w324-h400/pileated.jpg" width="324" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Back at work after the danger is gone.<br />(Margo D. Beller)</td></tr></tbody></table><p></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">As I write this it is still at the hole, tho' when I looked for it out an upstairs window I saw it was briefly spooked by a squirrel climbing the tree. Unlike the February visit, however, it did not leave. It spread its wings to make itself look bigger - pileateds are the size of a crow - and the squirrel left. </span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">I expect the bird will be there chopping at the tree when I go out this evening to get the feeders, at which point it will leave as it gets dark. </span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">It will be interesting to see if the bird returns to another tree in this yard, and which of its meal trees will fall first. (Not into my yard, I hope.)</span></p>Margo D. Beller http://www.blogger.com/profile/11132733081191328601noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1002156758794571993.post-64341161539569188302023-02-11T17:28:00.001-05:002023-02-11T17:28:58.478-05:00A Knocking at the Tree<p><i style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;">A woodpecker's drilling/Echoes To/the mountain clouds.-- Haiku poet <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dakotsu_Iida" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Dakotsu Iida</a></i></p><div><span style="font-size: small;"><i><br /></i></span></div><div><span style="font-size: medium;">Around 4 o'clock in the afternoon during a particularly hellish workday, I went outside into my backyard to get some air and listen to the bird sounds around me as I tried to calm down. That was when I heard the hammering. </span></div><div><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-size: medium;">I looked around but there were no workmen at any of the neighboring houses, for once. So I followed the sound and looked at the nearby trees. That is when I saw the <a href="https://backyardbirdingandbeyond.blogspot.com/2019/03/pill-eated-or-pie-liated-woodpecker-who.html" target="_blank">pileated woodpecker</a>.</span></div><div><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLaB73DNAK0INUYQQ_z4JBvPIOLRW5hs8xZQ1e6KCTJsdmJzzQN_iTE3wFfxHPZD-DSnfUz65xEzONaMvjzgbVcsThjeSmiLKnYlhgX19JoPAjKO2djrPoV95chsVCH8mNbbgdDuvsmelbVrFzktK0bnjLlfo4QcbvrIeWc3y4jD3C6cw5PB4dFw/s1915/pileated%20making%20hole.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1915" data-original-width="1650" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLaB73DNAK0INUYQQ_z4JBvPIOLRW5hs8xZQ1e6KCTJsdmJzzQN_iTE3wFfxHPZD-DSnfUz65xEzONaMvjzgbVcsThjeSmiLKnYlhgX19JoPAjKO2djrPoV95chsVCH8mNbbgdDuvsmelbVrFzktK0bnjLlfo4QcbvrIeWc3y4jD3C6cw5PB4dFw/w345-h400/pileated%20making%20hole.jpg" width="345" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Backyard pileated woodpecker<br />(Margo D. Beller)</td></tr></tbody></table></div><div><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-size: medium;">Back in early December I <a href="http://backyardbirdingandbeyond.blogspot.com/2022/12/a-view-from-bridge.html" target="_blank">mentioned</a> seeing this type of woodpecker - the largest of the woodpeckers in my part of the world - battering a dead tree in search of <a href="https://backyardbirdingandbeyond.blogspot.com/2022/09/ant-maggedon.html" target="_blank">carpenter ants</a>, its favorite food. I stood and watched until it flew off. Now, here was another one digging into what I took to be a live tree in the corner of my neighbor's yard, abutting a corner of mine.</span></div><div><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-size: medium;">My first thought was, uh oh, that tree will be gone in two years or less. If a pileated comes knocking it usually means the tree is infested with the ants and will soon die. The tree <i>looked </i>healthy, but then again so did the ash tree<a href="http://backyardbirdingandbeyond.blogspot.com/2023/01/an-inconvenient-tree.html" target="_blank"> I had to cut down</a> once all the little holes created by emerald ash borers were pointed out to me. This particular tree is not on my property so there is no reason for me to look closely at it. But the pileated obviously saw or smelled something that made it want to stop.</span></div><div><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-size: medium;">But it wasn't alone.</span></div><div><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-size: medium;">For as I was looking at the pileated with my binoculars and saw the red "moustache" that told me it was a male, I discovered that above it and picking at a smaller branch was a second, female pileated. Now I started to wonder, could the male be building a nest? I've had plenty of nests <a href="https://backyardbirdingandbeyond.blogspot.com/2020/03/watching-neighbors.html" target="_blank">within sight of</a>, <a href="https://backyardbirdingandbeyond.blogspot.com/2019/07/family-time.html" target="_blank">or on</a>, my property but not a woodpecker nest hole. </span></div><div><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi77bIOQT9PFHEok9SUsqhIli_UT6zXzuR7anYlLIvwV48QusADQIA0fDlK35ypRuaFx4HaWQu2nQPk8ExxTtvG9oG1TBk4o-JgcnJLMX5Aj6C2B0J3_YAaSWYdbLUPJIOyzKc9F8Bu-Qe4VlN9ndzGUlCph5lvSby0yN34nFEA-e5awGI3KaJFeg/s1888/two%20holes.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1888" data-original-width="1566" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi77bIOQT9PFHEok9SUsqhIli_UT6zXzuR7anYlLIvwV48QusADQIA0fDlK35ypRuaFx4HaWQu2nQPk8ExxTtvG9oG1TBk4o-JgcnJLMX5Aj6C2B0J3_YAaSWYdbLUPJIOyzKc9F8Bu-Qe4VlN9ndzGUlCph5lvSby0yN34nFEA-e5awGI3KaJFeg/w331-h400/two%20holes.jpg" width="331" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The holes left behind<br />(Margo D. Beller)</td></tr></tbody></table></div><div><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-size: medium;">According to Cornell's "All About Birds" information on the <a href="https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Pileated_Woodpecker" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">pileated</a>: </span></div><div><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="background-color: white; color: #0a0a0a; font-family: "source sans pro", sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><i>The male begins excavating the nest cavity and does most of the work, but the female contributes, particularly as the hole nears completion. The entrance hole is oblong rather than the circular shape of most woodpecker holes. For the finishing touches, the bird climbs all the way into the hole and chips away at it from the inside. Periodically the adult picks up several chips at a time in its bill and tosses them from the cavity entrance. Pileated Woodpeckers don’t line their nests with any material except for leftover wood chips. The nest construction usually takes 3-6 weeks, and nests are rarely reused in later years. Cavity depth can range from 10-24 inches.</i></span></span></div><div><br /></div><div><span style="font-size: medium;">So I had to wonder what was going on. Was the male building a nest or just hungry?</span></div><div><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-size: medium;">I went for my camera. By the time I returned the female had left but the male was still hammering away. I took some photos. Then I had to go back to work.</span></div><div><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-size: medium;">When I looked out an upstairs window about 90 minutes later, it was still hammering. But by the time I got downstairs and outside it was gone. My husband had been watching the bird but, he said, a squirrel had spooked it off. In fact, the squirrel was on the next branch. That's when I saw there were <i>two holes, </i>the original one and one above it, slightly smaller because the woodpecker didn't get as far into it before it was spooked off. </span></div><div><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-ugMcH8Ig6H3Pc6iDTiBRcCbtqBLFt4QpBnHxZTtz0S0zifqwm6KrKD7Lx5oL4-CpoJ2BtVGgtiBHIFHt1EKD-VOYcJySAItY-9hPMvEjf3zaxekkXHaAzSng48jUdlJBMr9nN3smu1enJfVwzDCrSOzAuSfpRLxKlVDnk-ItG0-dVRI_c-1n6g/s1596/squirrel.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1403" data-original-width="1596" height="351" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-ugMcH8Ig6H3Pc6iDTiBRcCbtqBLFt4QpBnHxZTtz0S0zifqwm6KrKD7Lx5oL4-CpoJ2BtVGgtiBHIFHt1EKD-VOYcJySAItY-9hPMvEjf3zaxekkXHaAzSng48jUdlJBMr9nN3smu1enJfVwzDCrSOzAuSfpRLxKlVDnk-ItG0-dVRI_c-1n6g/w400-h351/squirrel.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The squirrel on the nearby branch<br />(Margo D. Beller)</td></tr></tbody></table><br /></div><div><span style="font-size: medium;">So it was only looking for food, not making a nest. I checked the tree for the next few days before finally acknowledging it wasn't going to nest in my yard. The Cornell people confirmed that for me with a chart showing pileateds nest between mid-May and mid-July in most of its range, not mid-February. (Its range is almost like an upside-down U, mainly the eastern continental U.S. going up into southern Canada and down into the Pacific northwest.)</span></div><div><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-size: medium;">Now I can watch that tree and see how long before it comes down, and which way it will fall - away from my yard, I hope. In the meantime, maybe some of the smaller yard birds can use one or both holes as a winter roost.</span></div>Margo D. Beller http://www.blogger.com/profile/11132733081191328601noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1002156758794571993.post-4979367056349463902023-01-29T15:01:00.000-05:002023-01-29T15:01:38.511-05:00Dear Birder,<p><span style="font-size: medium;">I don't get questions from my readers, but if I did they might look like this:</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><i>Dear Birder:</i></span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><i>My neighbor has spent the last week having some very tall, very old trees cut down in her backyard and one in her front yard. Why would someone want to take down so many trees at once?</i></span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><i>Perplexed</i></span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPLOZkPWH141PgpRGqCFDnQLMbTk5_8_lsOwNtH-QdtWFK4ANRTS1irDJaxgSHUatpXhgX0xdIaKfWpbX9QatcgWyETWujYuY_Cqs1fqGU3hFXRv8JeZTq8BlnsyNAbwlsozFgj_WkuiLPuAiBOCDxQ4CrRneLMMC5Piz3ZK_Q8Y6zUqWhN5kcnA/s3264/cut%20ash%202023.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3264" data-original-width="2448" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPLOZkPWH141PgpRGqCFDnQLMbTk5_8_lsOwNtH-QdtWFK4ANRTS1irDJaxgSHUatpXhgX0xdIaKfWpbX9QatcgWyETWujYuY_Cqs1fqGU3hFXRv8JeZTq8BlnsyNAbwlsozFgj_WkuiLPuAiBOCDxQ4CrRneLMMC5Piz3ZK_Q8Y6zUqWhN5kcnA/w150-h200/cut%20ash%202023.jpg" width="150" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">My cut tree<br />(Margo D. Beller</td></tr></tbody></table></span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">Dear Perplexed:</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">There could be many reasons why. Perhaps these were <a href="http://backyardbirdingandbeyond.blogspot.com/2023/01/an-inconvenient-tree.html" target="_blank">ash trees infected</a> with the emerald ash borer, the reason I had a dead tree removed earlier this month. Perhaps the homeowner was afraid a strong wind or snow storm would bring one or more of them down on the house. Perhaps the owner is putting in a swimming pool or a deluxe playset for the kids and the trees were in the way. Or the owner got tired of picking up fallen branches.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">It is not YOUR backyard so ignore the devastation. Put up more feeders to attract the birds the cutting down has displaced.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><i>Dear Birder:</i></span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><i>My feeder has two sides but when certain birds come they fight each other over one side. Why can't they share the feeder?</i></span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><i>Wondering</i></span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">Dear Wondering:</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">Far be it from me to decipher the thinking of birds. You do not say what type(s) of bird. There are some that are more territorial than others. <a href="https://backyardbirdingandbeyond.blogspot.com/2018/11/the-upside-down-bird-and-creeper.html" target="_blank">White-breasted nuthatches</a>, for instance. They are small but feisty and if another one or even a larger bird of a different type tries to get to the feeder the first will chase off the second. I have found <a href="https://backyardbirdingandbeyond.blogspot.com/2016/07/the-adventures-of-alpha-and-beta.html" target="_blank">hummingbirds</a> to be the same way when I hang a nectar feeder.</span></p><p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxVqUiQcLyPS9QSG0Wzu32KrFzYaZ_x-DP7YFDYfOX8fL3bvYzzUi1_q3f4yLQ92g0Tzt9dCCS8ULox64IBMN0hM3NT55as4UQ0058wL2BsHlcVi8T-2vZmjpngVXQQab8gXaeil2f-GeBtGGA_WH22HNd_87yJVliMn0qkK0J-ATVU48_f8vW2Q/s460/feeder%20titmouse,%20nuthatch.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="400" data-original-width="460" height="174" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxVqUiQcLyPS9QSG0Wzu32KrFzYaZ_x-DP7YFDYfOX8fL3bvYzzUi1_q3f4yLQ92g0Tzt9dCCS8ULox64IBMN0hM3NT55as4UQ0058wL2BsHlcVi8T-2vZmjpngVXQQab8gXaeil2f-GeBtGGA_WH22HNd_87yJVliMn0qkK0J-ATVU48_f8vW2Q/w200-h174/feeder%20titmouse,%20nuthatch.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Nuthatch on the feeder<br />about to chase off a<br />titmouse. (Margo D. Beller)</td></tr></tbody></table></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><a href="https://backyardbirdingandbeyond.blogspot.com/2017/09/cardinal-rules.html" target="_blank">Cardinals</a> will spend more time chasing each other away than eating, unless it is a pair. A pair, during mating season, will sit on either side of my house-shaped feeder but another male or another female approaching will get chased off. So I can't tell you why your birds fight. Maybe hanging more feeders farther apart will help.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><i>Dear Birder:</i></span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><i>This year I have a lot of juncos coming to my seed feeders. Last year I had very few. Why do I get a lot some year and none at other times?</i></span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><i>Watching</i></span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">Dear Watching: </span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">I wonder about that myself. I think a lot depends on the wind and weather during the migration period. Maybe when the <a href="https://backyardbirdingandbeyond.blogspot.com/2018/04/dawn-chorus-with-junco.html" target="_blank">juncos</a> were heading south from the breeding grounds to your yard (the males stay farther north than the females; in my yard I see only male juncos) the winds were favorable and there was a lot of food (such as from your feeders) to encourage juncos to stick around.</span></p><p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjEmBjSs_at_RxBYDODOpGkv_nvzr1OPTMkFsPa_dJa_rd32R7sZgiQ7HAwgXCrtTweXQiLSFAxjGuwBY1CYG-VLJM3Sm7__9LXN7u99f4zpywDR06Dipy4Zw7Td_xZUsdFJTc6n_Ve0HtvbYaVZtDnFm3n7rEpFQQeGDCDZFh-aq20NNMbTPRN5w/s346/junco.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="317" data-original-width="346" height="183" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjEmBjSs_at_RxBYDODOpGkv_nvzr1OPTMkFsPa_dJa_rd32R7sZgiQ7HAwgXCrtTweXQiLSFAxjGuwBY1CYG-VLJM3Sm7__9LXN7u99f4zpywDR06Dipy4Zw7Td_xZUsdFJTc6n_Ve0HtvbYaVZtDnFm3n7rEpFQQeGDCDZFh-aq20NNMbTPRN5w/w200-h183/junco.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Junco (Margo D. Beller)</td></tr></tbody></table></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">I have been seeing fewer cardinals and white-throated sparrows and more house finches, at least those few times during the workday when I can look outside. But as we used to say in Brooklyn, wait til next year.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><i>Dear Birder:</i></span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><i>How are Spruce and the apple tree doing? We haven't heard from them in a while.</i></span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><i>A big fan</i></span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">Dear Fan,</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">Earlier this month, when I was writing about the trees I had trimmed back or cut down, I wrote about the <a href="https://backyardbirdingandbeyond.blogspot.com/2020/06/apple-tree-watching.html" target="_blank">apple tree</a>. She had not been pruned back in about a decade. I think she looks better now. Gone are the web of lower branches where I <a href="https://backyardbirdingandbeyond.blogspot.com/2021/05/location-location-location.html" target="_blank">used to hang the house wren nest box</a>. Gone are the very high branches where I'd leave the apples for the squirrels.</span></p><p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9_uaMWEsV4Jg0175Hv8P31TsfsKypV14Cz6VpAUIQk_VZJY4IxmpuS_o8Uo4MIgWWVsvs1GDno74rWn6BEzU6A09vWP9W-Pb4iZc91I6O1XSqkDW9sdupZ1SUeEgamtDVerOcZDYa9GaGAEmWD3DZ0O9Ovg0GZcMLWB_66xcLQFJBVtBV8CMg5Q/s3264/cut%20apple%202023.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3264" data-original-width="2448" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9_uaMWEsV4Jg0175Hv8P31TsfsKypV14Cz6VpAUIQk_VZJY4IxmpuS_o8Uo4MIgWWVsvs1GDno74rWn6BEzU6A09vWP9W-Pb4iZc91I6O1XSqkDW9sdupZ1SUeEgamtDVerOcZDYa9GaGAEmWD3DZ0O9Ovg0GZcMLWB_66xcLQFJBVtBV8CMg5Q/w150-h200/cut%20apple%202023.jpg" width="150" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">How the apple tree looks now<br />(Margo D. Beller)</td></tr></tbody></table></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">However, she has not <a href="https://backyardbirdingandbeyond.blogspot.com/2017/06/chatting-with-apple-tree.html" target="_blank">talked to me yet</a>. It will be a few months before any apple blossoms appear, and with the blossoms will come fruit. The last time she was cut back (not as drastically as this time) she provided a lot of apples. This time, with fewer branches, I don't know. I hope she will talk to me.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">As for Spruce, he is standing tall and looks very healthy. He provides winter roosting spots for juncos, chickadees and titmice. It is too early to know if a finch, for instance, will try to nest in him this year after I cut back the arborvitae, where I always seemed to disturb something when I opened the front door.</span></p><p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjnsIobB7s3gifbrpPd7SttZD15usPxwAstqZb9jDnr0Nb5b3tniE7dNx7gO-jXMPPsKsf6Ipe32hX2IWoux0nrThunEiDP89rCZArixKI20X1GjRDtGscJmAESmew1FzcSUkvj4Ekdx1LUP1e-wBu9rGpu8GH4AUFeTELyR_q3MX2XaQiRFPOw6Q/s3264/spruce.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3264" data-original-width="2448" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjnsIobB7s3gifbrpPd7SttZD15usPxwAstqZb9jDnr0Nb5b3tniE7dNx7gO-jXMPPsKsf6Ipe32hX2IWoux0nrThunEiDP89rCZArixKI20X1GjRDtGscJmAESmew1FzcSUkvj4Ekdx1LUP1e-wBu9rGpu8GH4AUFeTELyR_q3MX2XaQiRFPOw6Q/w150-h200/spruce.jpg" width="150" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Spruce Bringsgreen<br />(Margo D. Beller)</td></tr></tbody></table></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">I will pass along your good wishes. Maybe he will write <a href="https://backyardbirdingandbeyond.blogspot.com/2017/05/the-world-according-to-spruce.html" target="_blank">another post </a>for me soon.</span></p>Margo D. Beller http://www.blogger.com/profile/11132733081191328601noreply@blogger.com0