Flicker Feeding Frenzy!
Flicker at Larrapin (This one poking in the ground...)
I got to see an amazing site the other day. A group of five or more flickers in a feeding frenzy! The picture above, unfortunately, is not from that event, but it’s a snapshot I had of one of our local batch of flickers. This is how I most often see them, poking around on the ground under the blackjack oak, the pine trees or the magnolias, foraging for I’m-not-sure-what. (Oh! just read up at the flicker link above and turns out they eat mostly ants and beetles…so that explains the digging…)
The amazing group I got to see was chowing down on the seedheads of smooth sumac, a little tree that often grows along roadsides and fencelines around here. (See images below.) Most folks consider them kind of weedy, even invasive in places although they are a prairie native. But I have a whole new respect for them now after seeing that whole group of flickers flapping and fluttering on top of the little trees devouring the reddish seed heads! I watched for a long while as they would alight on the tips of the thin branches, then flap and flap to stay upright while the branch bent under the weight of the large birds, all while eating at top speed. Fall off. Fly up. Repeat. It was a lovely and unforgettable sight.
Smooth Sumac Via Google Images
Once again, I’m reminded that, to amend the cliche, one man’s trash may be one bird’s treasure. In a wildlife garden, if the birds love it, the gardener probably loves it too, um, with the possible exceptions of poison ivy and poke weed…
I remember living in Western North Carolina and the utility crews would come through every few years and cut down a large stand of sumac growing under the power lines. I always thought a little tree ID would go a long way with those folks, because what better to have under power lines than a plant that never gets higher than about ten feet and often shades/crowds out species that will grow taller? I’d never cared about the sumac-whackings till early one spring when I watched a large group of bluebirds, no doubt hungry at winter’s end, happily eating the seedheads…
So I’m happy we have a small stand of smooth sumac growing at the top of the property and a few along the northern border too, because the birds sure are enjoying it. And I sure am enjoying the birds.
—A Larrapin Garden www.larrapin.us
Posts most wednesdays & weekends. Don’t miss any—you can subscribe by Email here. You can also get bonus links and recipes by “liking” our Facebook fan page at www.facebook.com/larrapin.garden. Geesh, we’re even on Twitter at http://twitter.com/LarrapinGarden. Thanks for stopping by. What winter birds are in your backyard now?
Snow days at Larrapin Garden
The blue chairs in snow
We finally got snow last at Larrapin! Thursday morning dawned with a perfect three inches of crunchy powder on the ground. It was *so* cold I didn’t get out to tromp around as much as usual. But dashed out to snap a few snow pics later that afternoon.
Ada in her element
Ada the farm dog loves, loves snow and appears totally immune to cold. She sprawls in the snow as it it were a fluffly summer yard. In rain, she’ll hide out in the heated workshop where her bed is, but in snow, she’s outside, lounging.
Hibernating Chickens
Then chickens, on the other hand, have just decided to hunker down till spring. They wouldn’t even come outside (at first) to scratch grain (aka “crack” to the hens…). They finally emerged once the temps came up this weekend.
Xmas tree, acting as fig shield...
Underneath the old Christmas tree, the cut back stems of the fig are hopefully cozy and protected. They have a blanket of shredded leaves too.
The sleeping garden...
Underneath that winter sky and layer of snow, there’s a green, green springtime just waiting to appear. And the new/recycled garden bench is ready, as the perfect spot to watch.
As deep winter as it looks, it’s not that long till indoor seed -starting time! This worksheet-calendar over at Organic Gardening magazine looks really handy, and lists some of my favorite veggies. You customized the dates using your spring-frost date.
http://www.organicgardening.com/learn-and-grow/seed-starting-chart
And for an online version, here’s a quick and easy calendar for some basic veggies thanks to Skippy’s Vegetable Garden, one of my favorite garden blogs. You’ll find it here:
http://bioarray.us/Skippy’s%20planting%20calendar.html
Enjoy!
—A Larrapin Garden www.larrapin.us
Posts most wednesdays & weekends. Don’t miss any—you can subscribe by Email here. You can also get bonus links and recipes by “liking” our Facebook fan page at www.facebook.com/larrapin.garden. Geesh, we’re even on Twitter at http://twitter.com/LarrapinGarden. Thanks for stopping by—leave a comment as to what is going on in YOUR winter garden beds!
Some borrowed snow..
We have had a snow deficit here at Larrapin Garden. Actually, it’s a little dry all around. (Universe: I’m wishing for snow or gentle unfrozen rain, not anything with the word *icy* in it or the dreaded ‘wintry mix.’ Just wanted to be clear on that…) As I said last week, several folks have offered to share their snow with us. So pictured above is a loaner from my friend Marianne in Asheville, NC. That’s her sweet little gingko tree in one of their (many) snows this winter.
Maybe there’s been skimpy snow, but the sunsets have tried to make up for it! Nearly every evening we’ve had intensely colored sunsets like the one above.
Meanwhile, my first seed order has arrived from Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds! The year has really begun now. Next post I’ll tell you about a few of the packets that are old favorites and others that are new varieties I’m very excited about. Hope to see you here on Wednesday…unless there’s a huge snowstorm and I’m out taking snow pics… 🙂
—A Larrapin Garden www.larrapin.us
Posts most wednesdays & weekends. Don’t miss any—you can subscribe by Email here. You can also get bonus links and recipes by “liking” our Facebook fan page at www.facebook.com/larrapin.garden. Geesh, we’re even on Twitter at http://twitter.com/LarrapinGarden. Thanks for stopping by— please leave a comment and tell me if you’ve ordered seeds yet!
Bad video of a gorgeous bird! (Pileated Woodpecker)
Hi all! I’m still without internet at home per the prior post…but the local coffeeshop is getting quite used to me working here…even when I’m actually working rather than playing with the garden blog! (Thank you, Perk on Wedington…)
I took this choppy, grainy video at super-zoom out a window. Then tried iMovie for the first time and got that weird “My First Project” frame. But being over my head tech-wise is nothing new for me.
So here is our big, beautiful Pileated woodpecker going to town on what must be a delicious spot in a knotty oak tree. Enjoy it…he sure was!
—A Larrapin Garden www.larrapin.us
Posts most wednesdays & weekends. Don’t miss any—you can subscribe by Email here. You can also get bonus links and recipes by “liking” our Facebook fan page at www.facebook.com/larrapin.garden. We’re even on Twitter athttp://twitter.com/LarrapinGarden. Thanks for stopping by—leave a comment and share what birds are in your backyard this holiday season!
Counting Chickens
Fall is settling in. The leaves are changing and the chickens are molting. Most of them look ragged and rough, some half-bald. It’s an embarrassing time to have your friends see your chickens for the first time! Hopefully their feathers will be grown in by the end of the month when we expect guests… These pics are from when they have their regular feathers.
It’s a motley bunch of chickens but we love them. Except for Hell-Kevin the white guinea, who is available, free, with free local delivery, to anybody who would take him off our hands. Don’t be fooled by his charming demeanor. He has been so vicious to the hens (and even to Handsome, who outweighs him by about 3X but nonetheless succumbs to Hell-Kevin’s wrath) that we had to put him out of the chicken pasture and coop. He free-ranges on the property now, looking for things to beat up, when he isn’t outside the fence yelling at the chickens. We’re kinda rooting for ‘natural causes’ but no such luck yet.
I love the Buckeyes more than ever and plan to raise more. (If you don’t know about Buckeye Chickens you can read about them here at the ALBC website—one of my favorite organizations to support… )
Then there’s our old girls: Little Bit the one bantam and Old Yella who could be six or seven and still lays an ENORMOUS egg every few weeks. It’s so big the top won’t close on egg carton. Chickens lay regularly their first two years, then laying dwindles down quickly. Old Yella has a solid black sister (not pictured) who does the same. These chickens were from my original batch when we bought the place five years ago now, they were purchased as at-least second-year adults from the Centerton poultry auction—a rural and cross-cultural experience you should experience at least once!
We’d been wondering just how old chickens can live to be and I thought it was seven or eight till I read about R. Creasy’s Mr. X who was FIFTEEN!! Most chickens, lets just say, live much, much shorter lives. Even seven is not the fate of most real country chickens….but they all have a good, good life at Larrapin, and the length is almost always MUCH longer than found in nature. Most wild birds don’t make it thorough their second winter…the common lifespan in nature can be startlingly short! Farm chickens are luckier, but still, a Chicken’s list of ‘natural causes’ includes about everything on four legs, two legs, crockpots & freezers, two wings, colds, health issues and the mysterious DFO (a descriptive but distinctly unofficial radio code from Mendy’s policing days for “done fell out”) where the cause is unknown…but a chicken is down for good. For the record, Mr. X was a pet and came in the house every night to a pet-carrier! But our old gals are going strong for now and in chicken-universe, now is what counts!
Finally, there’s the one chicken who causes no problems whatsoever: Herald the metal chicken, yard art we were lucky enough to find down at Daisy’s and Olive’s vintage shop in Prairie Grove, Arkansas. He is well-behaved and good looking year round. We should all be so lucky!
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