Sherrieflower's Blog

May 8 2008
May 8, 2008 | 8:18 AM PST
Tags: birds , fox , garden scare-away tactics.

May 8th - this date always stops me in my tracks - like I am supposed to remember something. It's because May 8th was my original due date for when my daughter was supposed to have been born - but she decided to come April 8th instead - a whole month to the day - earlier. So she just celebrated her 23rd birthday last month and I still have to stop and think what am I supposed to remember about May 8th. Weird huh? Anyway - it is overcast and colder today and wet from yesterday's rains.

The goose family is out walking around the front yard. I saw beautiful Indigo buntings yesterday and again this morning along with the colorful cardinals, goldfinches, rose-breasted grosbeaks and red headed woodpeckers. Oh Yes, the Heron is here this morning too. He is keeping his distance from the geese as papa goose tried to run him off the other day. He tends to favor fishing among the bush willows on the west side of the pond. Safer there, I guess. He usually tries to make a complete circle all around the pond, slow and deliberate. I'll have to dig up the poem I wrote about the Heron on here, and the Kingfisher poem too.

Everything is so lush from the abundant moisture we've had and the flowering trees everywhere have all outdone themselves this year. The lilacs are blooming now. I only have 4 coz my little bush is only 3 years old but in town all the flowering trees and bushes are just breathtaking. Anyway mine smells soo good mmmmm! I have to stop and take a sniff every time I pass by it.

I saw our fox coming "home" this morning, so I followed him - first from window to window as long as I could see him and then I carefully opened the door and peeked around the corner and sure enough, he had gone to the terrace garden. I'd say that pretty much confirms those holes up there are his "den". 

Having all this "life" outside my windows almost feels like "family".  I feel so blessed to live here among them.

That is until the deer and rabbits etc start nibbling my garden . . .  Oh I still feel blessed but I want to be able to harvest what I have worked so hard to grow.

I haven't gotten my "scare-away" devices set up in my gardens yet but I know I'd better soon coz I have already harvested some baby spinach. I usually hang some CD's so they twist and flash in the wind. Originally I hung them from lines strung between poles but they have a tendency to wrap around and get all tangled, so I have taken to staking the lines down with garden staples to the ground. That way they still twist and flash but at least they stay put.

My husband got me some zapper stakes but they are kind of expensive and don't really cover much area. I accidentally touched one with my arm while weeding Whoa! that zap stays with you a long time! It is supposed to sear into the minds of deer when they touch it with their sensitive noses that they don't want to do that again [or go there].

I hang mesh bags of dial soap in my orchard trees along with strips of scented dryer sheets - it seems to work fairly well.  The only time I've had trees damaged was when I forgot to do this to a couple new trees I planted - dummy me!  One must be ever vigilant as they can be soo destructive!  This year I am going to try the scarecrow thingee that has a motion detector and squirts water  whenever anything wanders into the garden.  I just hope I have enough water pressure for it to be effective!

I am hoping the fox will deter the rabbits this year.  Last year we had a population explosion of rabbits so this year I'm sure the fox will help bring the balance of nature back in that respect.

A Wren flew into my house!
May 1, 2008 | 6:37 AM PST
Tag: birds

     I guess I need to be more careful when leaving the garage door open, to make sure doors into the house are closed.  I am taking plants in and out of the garage as part of the "hardening off" process and unbeknownst to me, that must've been how the little wren got in.

     anyway, this morning, I walked into our upstairs M. bedroom and heard a rustling noise - then noticed a little brown thing jump onto the floor but it wasn't a mouse coz the next thing I knew it was flying at the window trying to get out -- it was a little wren!  So I guess it has been taking a tour of my house -up through the stairwell into the sunroom and such.  Now the question was - how was I going to get it out?  I decided to prop open the back door then went into the kitchen where the wren had just flown.  The bad thing about interacting with birds like this is that they are so flighty 'coz they get freaked.  It kept flying at the kitchen window.  I got a broom and gently coaxed it  until it found the open door and flew out.  Hurrah! Success!

While cutting wood about a year ago, my husband noticed a hole in one of the logs he'd cut and a hollowed out basin in the segment just below it.  We stacked the 2 back together in the corner by our front door and last summer wrens made a nest in it.  I thought that was a little odd being so close to a door we use a lot.  So whenever we'd open the front door - the little wren would fly out and perch in the burning bush at the edge of the front flower bed and keep a lookout.

One year, not long after we first moved here, one flew in through the balcony door and was flying around the sun room.  I am normally scared of flighty birds but I was actually able to scoop it up in my hands and release it back outside. [We don't leave the balcony door open except for going in and out].    I guess wrens are curious.

In other bird news, I saw the first Rose Breasted Grosbeak of the season at my feeder this morning.  My birdwatcher friend says she's seen the indigo buntings already too.  I've seen a brown thrasher but as I told her, I am too busy messing with plants to do much birdwatching.  I saw a flicker which looked like she was feeding young through a hole in a tree by my garden tho'.  Anyway -- plants are much easier to study coz they sit still and let you look at them.   The indigo bunting are beautiful tho'  - I have seen more birds for the first time since we moved here than ever.  Things like a rufous sided towhee, indigo bunting, blue grosbeak, and this winter a snow goose landed on our pond along with 3 Canadian Geese.  My bird book says it is rare to sight them east of the Mississippi so that was a real treat.  I keep a notebook bird list by my computer which sits next to a large picture window overlooking balcony and pond and front yard birdfeeder.  Most interesting is the migratory seasons coz we get different birds that are just passing through.

A few days before Hurricane Katrina hit the gulf coast a pair of cormorants showed up on my pond!  In 2006 a pied billed grebe showed up and stayed for almost 2 weeks.  That one took me a while to ID.

Right now a pair of goldfinches are at the feeder, papa goose is asleep in the front yard and mama on the nest.  Robins are boppin'  . . and its never completely quiet in the country once spring arrives for the air is always filled with bird song.   Whether we are fully conscious of them or not, the birds add much to the experience of nature.

When my son was 3 years old, we took him on a hike through a forest in NY.  We stopped to rest on some large rocks, common to the area and our little "sage" spoke up and said, "You know?  there's always a song in the forest."  Our jaws dropped as my husband and I looked at each other dumbfounded at the profundity of our little 3-year old.  It blessed me so much - I have never forgotten it.