But he had some words for me:
Hi, I’m Crispin.
Time for my Christmas dinner. I know that little seed in front of me doesn’t look like much, but there are more in the jar.
I’m just saying grace before I eat this special meal. See how I put my hands together to say grace? I don’t care for turkey so I’ll stick to sunflower seeds for this Christmas. All you turkeys out there, you can thank me later.
You can hear the great horned owl shrieking, trying to scare the rat (or anything that moves). He’s hard to see in the dark, but watch to the end and you’ll hear him screeching back and forth to his girlfriend, telling her to come over and have supper with him.
Turn on your sound. If you click to make the video clip full screen, it will look better.
Of course you know this kind of talk is all for the birds.
In a couple of weeks, this black walnut tree will get a good pruning, as it is getting quite leggy. But first I wanted to harvest this year’s walnuts. The tree was loaded this year. Unfortunately, these “black” walnuts are not the same as the ones we find in the stores near Christmastime. Those would be from the English walnut tree – different leaves and different nuts.
The black walnuts are very thick shelled and hard to crack, and even then, quite bitter to eat. But the squirrels like them.
In order to save the squirrels from breaking their teeth, I collect the walnuts, take the husks off them, and crack them a few at a time to put in their food dishes in the woodshed.
This is what they look like on the tree, encased in a thick green covering.
Below is a picture of the English walnut tree which has the kind of walnuts we are used to eating. Notice that the leaves are quite different from those of the black walnut tree.
But this day I was dealing with black walnuts. I wore gardening gloves to handle the nuts as I hit them lightly with a short-handled axe to split the husk and stockpile the walnuts in a separate box. Then, I took the axe and whacked each nut harder – much harder – to crack them open so the squirrels could get at the inside and I put some of the cracked nuts in a couple of shallow jars for the squirrels to find in the woodshed. A nutcracker would not open these nutshells. They are so thick and tough!
The squirrels really like them and these nuts are free food for them, so everyone is happy.
The birds have found out about them and wait for the supply to be freshened up daily too.
But what a surprise I had when I went into the house to get cleaned up. I mentioned that I wore gardening gloves. Still the stain from the walnut husks went right through the gloves and now I have hands that look like those of a heavy smoker. And it doesn’t wash off!
So if you want to dye some furniture, just grow some black walnuts and you can do your own furniture restoration.
The geese are moving in from places farther north where they have enjoyed warmer weather until now. They sense that the season is cooling off and have come to visit the fields of southern BC to fatten up on leftover grain, bits of corn, and anything else that looks good. Once they have met up with their friends in ever greater numbers, and they have rested and feasted and done little test flights during this staging time, many of them will fly farther south where the winter is not as harsh. A few smaller flocks will settle in to spend the winter here on Vancouver Island, in the hope that the coldest weather will be bearable and not last too long.
The eagle watches and waits. He will take advantage of any stragglers or injured birds to supplement his diet. Once the spawned out fish carcasses are cleaned up by scavengers like seagulls, crows, and eagles, it will be time for a new food source. For the eagles it will often be crippled waterfowl of many kinds.
This bald eagle has a good view of a cornfield that often attracts ducks and geese. If any of them are not able to keep up with the flock, they will make an easy target for a predatory bird.
Little songbirds like these chipping sparrows will be targeted by hawks who sit silently in the nearby trees, waiting for an opportunity to swoop down and scoop up a little snack.
This broad-winged hawk would be happy with a songbird or even a careless squirrel. Patience and alertness are what it’s all about.
The merlin doesn’t mind picking up a songbird either. He’ll happily take down a flicker that might be almost the same size as him.
The red-shafted northern flicker had better be alert. It’s a dangerous world out there.
The general rule for non-predatory birds, especially in the autumn, is “heads up or be eaten.” It’s the raptors who are the meat eaters, while the gentler plant- and insect-eaters need to fear them.
And I haven’t even mentioned the owls yet. Rabbits and mice beware!
wordsfromanneli 