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Today's installment of 'The Birds'
Jan. 17th, 2014 06:25 pmI had a former coworker gift me with many, many Ida Red apples from her tree. I devoted both produce bins in the fridge to housing them, but the other big boxes that didn't fit had to park in a cool corner of the kitchen. Last week I went through them and pulled out about 7-8 that were more than half rotted (another 6-7 that were less than half rotted I made into crisp. Yum!).
I just threw the discards out the kitchen door in a smaller cardboard box. A couple of days later I hauled them to the edge of the patio and tossed them towards the old cistern (which appears to house a slow-motion black hole, since no matter how much yard waste, dead critters left by the cats, and wormy black walnuts I toss into it, keeps subsiding). They landed mostly on the garden near the stone collar of the cistern, and I was happy enough. They were welcome to rot on the garden, if the skunk or possums didn't want them.
We had had a dusting of snow yesterday, but this morning it was warm enough to start melting. This afternoon I looked out the kitchen window and saw that there were starlings messing with something by the cistern. Realized it was one of the apples. I stayed and watched, and noticed that, in addition to those starlings, there was a small, dun-colored bird poking around the bench area (overgrown with columbine growing through the flagstones). My birding guides are buried somewhere in the house. This bird was so plain I couldn't get a handle for field markings. Short pointed beak, absolutely no patterning on it except for the edges of the flight feathers, visible where the wings were folded over the back. Intriguing.
Then I realized that the starlings had gone and told the rest of their group about the fruit. They were apparantly being watched by a pair of robins, who also showed up. But I looked at the patio again to see the little dun-colored bird, and realized that my wren was back- and it was part of a pair! They were both poking around the leaf litter and overgrown columbine under the bench and the picnic table, and were able to get some crumbs out of the opened but abandoned black walnuts left by the squirrels here and there. I'm guessing they must be Carolina wrens, because I'm pretty sure that's the only ones who spend the year in Ohio. And the little dun-colored bird was pretty much the same size as them, just with a slightly longer tail and shorter beak. Plus, of course, it didn't cock its tail up like wrens do.
So the mob of starlings and robins took care of the apples. The wrens and little dun-colored bird were working over the undergrowth. I feel like whatever harvest might have been available outside my kitchen is pretty much taken care of now.
I just threw the discards out the kitchen door in a smaller cardboard box. A couple of days later I hauled them to the edge of the patio and tossed them towards the old cistern (which appears to house a slow-motion black hole, since no matter how much yard waste, dead critters left by the cats, and wormy black walnuts I toss into it, keeps subsiding). They landed mostly on the garden near the stone collar of the cistern, and I was happy enough. They were welcome to rot on the garden, if the skunk or possums didn't want them.
We had had a dusting of snow yesterday, but this morning it was warm enough to start melting. This afternoon I looked out the kitchen window and saw that there were starlings messing with something by the cistern. Realized it was one of the apples. I stayed and watched, and noticed that, in addition to those starlings, there was a small, dun-colored bird poking around the bench area (overgrown with columbine growing through the flagstones). My birding guides are buried somewhere in the house. This bird was so plain I couldn't get a handle for field markings. Short pointed beak, absolutely no patterning on it except for the edges of the flight feathers, visible where the wings were folded over the back. Intriguing.
Then I realized that the starlings had gone and told the rest of their group about the fruit. They were apparantly being watched by a pair of robins, who also showed up. But I looked at the patio again to see the little dun-colored bird, and realized that my wren was back- and it was part of a pair! They were both poking around the leaf litter and overgrown columbine under the bench and the picnic table, and were able to get some crumbs out of the opened but abandoned black walnuts left by the squirrels here and there. I'm guessing they must be Carolina wrens, because I'm pretty sure that's the only ones who spend the year in Ohio. And the little dun-colored bird was pretty much the same size as them, just with a slightly longer tail and shorter beak. Plus, of course, it didn't cock its tail up like wrens do.
So the mob of starlings and robins took care of the apples. The wrens and little dun-colored bird were working over the undergrowth. I feel like whatever harvest might have been available outside my kitchen is pretty much taken care of now.
