Pug-noses - for Maple Trees and Fun

Pug-noses - for Maple Trees and Fun

All my friends called the maple tree seeds pug-noses when I was growing up in Brooklyn. We would open the sticky pod and affix it to our nose. Sometimes we would grab a handful of seeds and toss them into the air creating a pug-nose storm. We’d watch the pug-nose wings spin and flutter to the ground. Then we’d do it again. We would usually end up twirling around ourselves in our pug-nose imitations until we were too dizzy to stand. It was lots of fun.

But that was then. Before having grown up with a lawn to care for. Now pug-nose storms precede an abundance of new maple trees. If we leave them to grow we will have a forest in no time. Maples grow fast and I find seedlings in the most improbable places: poking out from cement seams on our driveway, in the flowerpots on the patio, up in the gutters, and, of course, everywhere in the lawn. We have several maple trees that planted themselves in the backyard and are now full grown. What used to be a gently shaded garden has turned into a deeply shaded one, which requires new shade-loving plants.

Still, the pug-noses backlit by the sun are beautiful. It is easy to appreciate their form and numbers while they remain on the tree though some have already fallen, blown by the windy spring days in their own flights of freedom. No doubt roots will start to spread any day now and I will find myself getting exercise as I bend down and try to manage their spread.

I have to admit, though, that I probably will end up reverting to my younger days when these pug-noses whirl down. If the neighbor’s children come outside and ask me what I’m doing, I’ll show them how to open the pods to stick on their noses and how to make a pug-nose storm and we can twirl around together.

Want to know about the variety of maple trees?

http://www.aboutmapletrees.com/

The Redbud Tree is All Heart(s)

The Redbud Tree is All Heart(s)

The ornamental Redbud tree is a delight to see. At every stage it draws you in to appreciate its color, flowers, and leaves. The flowers are now an attention-getting purply pink that last for weeks. The leaves, when they appear, start out as maroon, turn deep green, and eventually yellow. And you have to love the shape of the leaves – they look like hearts!

It is an understory tree, which means that it thrives under the canopy of taller trees, usually growing between twenty and thirty feet. Yet it is adaptable. It can grow out in the open and pretty much in any soil (even clay, hooray!) though it does prefer some drainage.

The Redbud is an early blossoming tree and stands out against the slower developing trees. The fruit hangs in pods like peas and is edible. The flowers can be used in salads. Native peoples used the bark to make a medicinal tea to treat fevers and congestion like whooping cough.

Quite a multi-purpose tree. It nurtures in a variety of ways. Did I mention that bees are attracted to its pollen and that hummingbirds like its nectar? Without a doubt, this is a tree that deserves to be valued. Whenever I look in my backyard and see the spring Redbud, I can feel my spirit expand. And all summer long its heart-shaped leaves will remind me to keep looking for the spirit in all life forms.

About the Redbud:

http://plants.usda.gov/factsheet/pdf/fs_ceca4.pdf

http://www.arborday.org/programs/nationaltree/redbud.cfm

Pictorial details:

http://www.duke.edu/~cwcook/trees/ceca.html

Bird Seed Experiment

Bird Seed Experiment

Last week I wrote about Starlings. One of the links suggested discouraging them from the feeders by using safflower seed instead of sunflower seed. It said that the other birds would love the safflower seeds but all the blackbirds – starlings, grackles, and redwing blackbirds – would leave it alone.

As the blackbirds, grackles in particular, were eating most of the seed, I decided an experiment was in order. So I bought some safflower seed. These seeds looked different, a stark white instead of black. We filled two of the feeders with it and left the sunflower seeds in the other feeders until they ran out. Each time we passed the kitchen window we peeked out to see who was munching on what.

At first it seemed that the information was correct; the grackles munched on the sunflower seeds and left the safflower seeds alone. The cardinals shifted back and forth between feeders, as did the finches. Then the sunflower seed ran out. The blackbirds were not happy. They hopped over to taste the new seed and left, disgusted. The other birds were testing it out, too. They seemed to prefer the original meal but most came back. It didn’t seem to bother the tufted titmouse, or the chickadee. We even saw a woodpecker munching away. The flocks of blackbirds that sweep in and decimate the feeders were not present. A lone grackle would show up and soon leave. The experiment was working! And then…

There it was. A grackle was eating the new seed! I thought it would leave once it realized this was not the delicious sunflower seed it was used to finding. It didn’t. The bird took another seed, and another. It didn’t seem upset at all. Now comes the question – Was this an aberration or an adaptation? Would this lone bird alert its flock that the change on the menu was okay? Were we participating in an evolutionary shift?

It’s too early to tell where this will end. All I know is if the blackbirds will eat both kinds of seeds, the sunflower seeds cost less. To be continued…

Starlings are Stars - at Survival

Starlings are Stars – at Survival

According to the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife, “European Starlings were released into New York’s Central Park in 1890 by a small group of people with a passion to introduce all of the animals mentioned in the works of William Shakespeare.” The original specimens took off, literally, until now the birds number in the millions and have established themselves across North America and Canada. A good story of survival and flourishing. Yet it is also a story of problems for homeowners, farmers, and other birds.

These prolific birds are not shy. Starlings nest in cavities so they sometimes get into dryer vents or attics, utility poles or cracks in buildings. They might even take over nest boxes and co-opt nests from native birds.

Starlings are aggressive about food, as well. They may prefer insects but they will eat fruits, seeds, plantings, and are sometime found rooting in garbage pails. They are a problem to farmers, especially as they can show up by the hundreds in freshly planted fields and feast on cultivated fruits – grapes, peaches, cherries, etc. – and may eat sprouting grains. They sometimes even damage golf greens digging for grubs.

To add to the negative profile, these birds are not neat. Their droppings are acidic and can corrode metal plus they carry disease spores that can be transmitted to livestock and occasionally to humans.

So although they are pretty birds, especially in the winter with their speckled feathers, and as they tend to flock with grackles and can deplete feeders rapidly, it might be a good idea to discourage starlings from your backyard. Here is a humane and practical way to do it without driving away the birds you prefer to have visit: http://www.songbirdgarden.com/store/info/infoview.asp?documentid=167

And here is some further info about Starlings:

http://www.wbu.com/education/starlings.html

http://wdfw.wa.gov/living/starlings.html

Worms Deserve Respect

Worms Deserve Respect

Since the weather has been so balmy recently, I decided to get my hands dirty and start cleaning up the garden. I pulled up a clump of dried weeds from underneath the butterfly bush and exposed a host of earthworms. They immediately squiggled for cover; they don’t care for light and they don’t want their skin to dry out. Each time I dug into the earth more of them appeared. It seems to be a banner year for worms.

When I was a kid the boys used to try to scare girls by dangling worms in front of us. The frequent, and expected, response was, “Ewww!” As a mom, I tried to help my own children see the value of worms, without the ewww factor.

Worms aerate the soil. They dig down and churn up the subsoil, allowing air and water to penetrate, a valuable asset especially for any garden with marl or clay. Their droppings, known as castings, contain nutrients that enrich the soil and consequently the plants that are grown there.

And worms are great recyclers. Redworms are industrious creatures. Vermicomposting is becoming more widespread. Why not use worms to eat our garbage and transform it into usable addition to our gardens? It’s a win-win situation.

How intriguing, the variety of life forms – the interaction, support, and sometimes challenge among us. We share this earth, after all. Worms deserve our respect.

Be a kid again with some simple facts about worms:

http://urbanext.illinois.edu/worms/facts/index.html

Meet Mary, the Worm Woman and learn how to make your own worm bin:

http://yucky.discovery.com/flash/worm/pg000223.html

Get serious about worms:

http://www.sas.upenn.edu/~rlenet/Earthworms.html

Oh Dear, Deer

The forest looks barren and lonely in winter. Its trees still hold onto the dried, brown leaves, a memory of more verdant seasons. The wind rustles the crisp foliage in a visual image that would be a good set for a sub-titled noir film. The scene is deceptive, however. Hidden behind the dreariness is new growth, buds emerging from branches with their green promises. And somewhere within the plot and between the trees is new life. Deer are concealed there, beautiful, limber creatures that bound through the self-made paths. If this were a protected and enclosed environment it would be delightful to watch them. But deer cause problems.

This is the suburbs, after all, where houses border the rare patches of undeveloped land and cars zip by even on 25 MPH designated roadways. There is no protection here and deer often emerge at unexpected times, springing across the road into the middle of traffic. If they are lucky, the cars will stop but that isn’t always the case. I saw a dead deer among the edge grasses two weeks ago; my sister saw one this week. Then there was the time when three tiny deer sprinted in front of my car. They were young and small; they almost looked like large dogs. I pressed hard on my brakes and put on my flashers to alert the cars behind. The deer made it safely across into the woods – this time - though it might have ended differently. The number of deer-vehicle accidents is in the thousands across the United States; cars, motorists, and deer are not always compatible.

Suburbs in general, however, and deer, are. The animals prefer the edge of the forest to deep woods so these sparse woodlands are ideal. In developing the land, we have removed the deer’s predators so the deer population has ballooned. Ask landscapers and gardeners how they feel about deer and the response may be less than joyful. Deer damage trees, eat crops, destroy flower gardens. Overpopulation is not controllable by hunting in populated areas. Fences and repellents have varying degrees of success in keeping deer away. And deer are hosts to ticks that transmit Lyme Disease.

It is a shame that people and deer cannot exist more comfortably together. I would rather think Oh! Deer! with a sense of wonder in the sighting than Oh, dear! when I see one on the road. Here is an article about the white-tailed deer, the good, the bad, and the problematic, from the Cornell Cooperative Extension program: http://wildlifecontrol.info/pubs/documents/deer/deer_factsheet.pdf

Have you had any deer encounters?

Robins are Ready for Anything

Robins are Ready for Anything

The robins are here, a visual announcement of spring’s imminent arrival (a more natural indication than Punxutawney Phil’s famous predictions). It is a treat to see them. Several have been hanging out in my backyard for a couple of weeks now. The birds I’ve been watching are having gourmet meals, feasting on the now-plentiful worms in the warm ground. They are patient, standing in one place and turning their heads to better view the field. Before long they jab their beaks into the dirt and emerge with a wiggly prize. Very efficient hunters.

But there is more to American Robins than just their familiar red breast feathers. These large members of the thrush family are flexible birds. They live in a wide range of habitats, in many different environments: in backyards, parks, marshes, fields, wooded areas, and even in the tundra. They are flexible eaters, too. In the warm weather they mostly eat worms and insects, but when it turns cooler or those aren't available they change their diet and eat berries and other fruit. Sometimes they eat seeds from shrubs or trees though they are not bird feeder frequenters. Robins tend to migrate but are not fixated on a date. Their departure depends more on the availability of food than of the time of year or the weather. Some robins stay put and don’t migrate at all.

I think that this flexibility has helped the robin to be more plentiful now than when the colonists came. The newcomers found a wooded land in the east, which they proceeded to thin out for dwellings and heat, exposing the land. The robins adapted - there were worms a-plenty! And in the mid-west where forests were sparse, the colonists planted trees, giving robins places to nest and breed.

In our changing world, as the weather shifts, technologies change, and cultures merge, we could use some robin-flexibility. We need to be able to work with the new circumstances and use them to our benefit to thrive. Robins are good examples.

Answers to questions you have always wanted to ask about robins: http://www.learner.org/jnorth/search/Robin.html

And more about the American Robin:

http://www.squidoo.com/robin-in-summer-robin-in-winter#module148013736