Maggie's Farm

Ever tried growing Blueberries?

I have tried any number of times and man, are they picky. I place them on the list of plants that only thrive where they feel like it. If they aren't happy, there ain't nothin you can do about it.

You just have to admit defeat. 

Even if you have some modest success, without netting I would lose all of the berries to the Robins and Catbirds.

On the farm where I spent my weekends growing up, wild blueberries grew all along the hayfield edges, reaching out from the woods over the barbed-wire fences. They grew up to 8' high, so every age had his own level to pick. They were so productive that it was no problem sharing with the birds. My Mom took coffee cans, made two holes with a nail and strung a string through them to hang around your neck, and painted our names on them with blue paint spots to indicate "berry can." Those cans hung in the barn for years.

I have seen similar wonderful areas of wild highbush blueberries on Cape Cod, but was never there much during blueberry season. Despite what is said about growing them, the wild bushes seem to like boggy edges, or at least lowlands. There is no doubt that they need acidic soil. Not being a Maine guy except during grouse season, I have no experience with the Lowbush Blueberry.

After a picking, my Mom would always make a Blueberry flat cake with hard sauce. Wow. Such memories. It's too bad there are no wild Blueberries on Maggie's Farm, but there are none.

The Blueberry is not a true fruit. Furthermore, it's in the Rhodadendron family. It's in the (marketing) category of "superfruits" because they are supposed to be "good for you," whatever the heck that means (nothing).

With some new full-sun garden space, I was considering trying again with a row of around 6 Blueberry bushes. Problem is, I want the small dark wild ones that look more black than blue with the intense wild tang, and not the fancy, fat, overly-sweet hybrids that you can get at the store anyway. Plus I don't want to bother with netting.

Wiki has a good Blueberry entry. So does the US Highbush Blueberry Council.

"Tobacco netting" for berries. Other ways to keep the birds from eating all of your berry crops.

Also, in the NYT, a little story about a family of Scarlet Tanagers - a splendid bird - getting caught under bird netting. The netting has to be very well-secured to the ground unless you want to build a bird trap.

These Tanagers are not rare in Eastern deciduous woodlands, but they aren't seen often because they tend to forage high and quiet. Here's the CLO bit on them.

How the buffalo (bison, to your foreigners) survived to become the US national mammal:

In the early 1800s, there were more than 30 million buffalo in North America, ranging in massive herds from Alaska to Mexico. By 1890, only about 500 animals were left. By the early 1900s, there were only about 30 genetically pure animals surviving in isolated areas, such as private ranches and the Yellowstone caldera. 

Well, the bison ecological niche was replaced by herds of semi-domestic cattle but sheesh - I thought people were the national mammal.

Might be my favorite. They can sing like crazy, but most of the time they are rarely seen and skulk in thick underbrush on edges. At the farm, for many years we had a pair nesting in a giant overgrown forsythia in the middle of a field. Stick nests with a little soft lining.

Brown Thrasher

I put a large pot of annuals out on the porch yesterday morning. In a half-hour, one little black ant was exploring the rim.

What? How? Why?  It is about time that I read E.O.Wlson's book.  Ants are everywhere. What the heck do they do all day? What moves them to explore a new flower pot?

People worry about honeybee populations, but for no good reason.

Honeybees (Apis mellifera) were imported to North America for agriculture: for honey and to help pollinate the European imported crops (eg apples, pears).  Honeybees are superior to native bees for human purposes because their tribes are larger and tend to stay put longer. Occasionally, a honeybee group will try to go wild but they are usually tracked and caught by beekeepers. They are easy to track down and catch.

There are 4000 species of bees native to North America, and they are all doing just fine. They would do better without vast monoculture farms and with more wild spaces.

(I have spent three weeks hunting and killing - with Raid -the Carpenter bees which want to destroy my house. Big, wonderful bees and excellent pollinators but they eat your house.)

Pic is Hesperapis regularis, a native bee.

Identity confusion?  My trainer took this pic yesterday of a Grey Squirrel (melanistic version) - with a pale tail. 

Fledgling Mourning Dove on my woodpile this morning. Innocent and fearless. I am surprised to see a chick this grown so early in the Spring.

I will endorse this concept. If I were a rich man, I might do something like this myself: The Plan to Create a Giant, Privately Funded Nature Reserve by Selling Beef

The only thing I would do differently would be to permit sustainable hunting, and build a rustic hunting lodge or two. Rustic enough to deter people looking for comfort.

The seal population around the Cape and the Islands has rebounded remarkably since the Sea Mammal Protection Act. Seals attract Great Whites, and when they are around the seals get out of the pool.

The aerial video is stunning witness. Watch it. In summer, we often swim amongst these big guys, up to 600 lbs. Not cuz we want to, but because they seem to like to swim over to say hi.

I think the video is Monomoy Island.

Despite snow today, we are headed towards early Spring. Northward migrating blackbirds have been passing through - Grackles, Cowbirds, and Redwings.  Song Sparrows, scarce in winter, are back. Geese overhead all the time - Snows, Brant, and Canadas moving north from the Atlantic coast. Large flocks of Robins too.

Seen any migrants where you live? (birds, I mean)

(Off topic but re Spring: Snow Peas: St. Paddy's Day is coming. That's when we plant Snow Peas around here, regardless of weather. I have planted them in frozen earth and they still come up.)

Honeybees (the kind of bee that was supposedly dying off, but was not) are not native to the New World. They are indeed an invasive species imported by American colonists from Europe for the honey. Most honey bee colonies are either commercial or backyard hives, but they often go wild until some bee-keeper tracks them down. Clover is their favorite food source. Sow your meadow with peerennial clover seed, and you will get them. I did.

Bumblebees, on the other hand, are more cold-tolerant and are native to the New World - and in fact to most of the world. They do not make much honey, and live in holes in the ground.

Pesticides are lethal for both kinds of bees.

Earliest Beginnings Of Bird Evolution Brought Into Focus With New DNA Analysis

Yes, birds are still seen as essentially dinosaurs. Lots of new interesting evolutionary details though. The Cretaceous Extinction had a major impact on birds (and everything else) with which we are still living.

I almost tripped over a big fat Striped Skunk in my gym's parking lot before dawn last week. I was lucky not to alarm him, and he just scurried away.

About the Striped Skunk

Since you are so interested, here are the species we shot last week in Manitoba, and which now reside in the freezer: Shoveler ("Smilin' Mallard"), Bluebill, lots of Redheads, Canvasback, Mallard, Gadwall, Wigeon, Pintail, and Canada Goose.

The limit in Manitoba is 8/day, any species of duck.

We also had some luck with Ruffed and Sharptail Grouse. I do love huntin' the grousies because you get to walk all day in beautiful places.

Photo of a few handsome Redheads - they taste as good as Canvasback. Tip for fellow duck hunters: forget steel shot. It often cripples and does not kill cleanly. Use heavy-shot or bismuth or anything else -our wonderful ducks deserve the best, despite the expense. I am through with steel shot for ducks and goose forever, as of now.

Birding is America's second-fastest growing hobby.  It's a lot like hunting, but with binoculars. Most birders are not competitors like the ones described: most are people like me who just like to know what's around them and who like to walk and clamber around outdoors. I don't even keep lists anymore, and just enjoy seeing the critters.

It's the beginning, or middle, of hawk migration season in North America, and there are always plenty to be seen on the ridges and shorelines of the Northeast.

Bird guides are not too useful for identifying migrating buteos, eagles, ospreys, falcons, and accipters because the light in nature is rarely perfect, the birds can be quite high and in just dark silhouette, the birds can be immature birds of the year, they could be color morphs, or they might dash past low (like a Sharpie or a Cooper's) without time to get a good diagnosis.

It takes time with an expert to get the hang of it and to get the feel for specific hawks but in time anybody can learn to recognize them as easily as recognizing people.

These three are easy because their details are so well-illuminated in these pics, and because they are not flying at altitudes of 1000-2000 feet as they often do:

In New England, the most common migrating raptor is the Broad Wing, but I rarely see them in breeding season. They seem to hunker down quietly in the woods, like Cooper's, and hunt from a perch. Kettles of Broad Wings can number in the thousands as they ride the thermals to South America for the winter.

A like totally cool site, BirdCast, from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology.

We take the fall and spring migrations for granted, but they are in fact miraculous feats and remarkable adaptations to the climate changes of the ice age era (which we are still in today - and have been for 2.6 million years with lulls and expansions of northern hemisphere ice. If you can apply "normal," this planet normally has no ice).

Ralph Waldo Emerson, an important American figure who I find almost impossible to read, took a train out west partly to visit John Muir.

Emerson was Muir's hero. However, the elderly Emerson, the author of Nature, had no interest in going into the woods with Muir. I think nature was an idea for Emerson, not experienced outside of a park or a farm. For Muir, of course, wilderness was religion.

Life – and Emerson – tried to lure the naturalist John Muir back to the world. But his home was always the American wild.

Pic: Muir with Teddy Roosevelt in Yosemite, 1906.

Reader brought up the topic. I've seen patches of what we called Huckleberries growing on field edges in New England. Never tried to eat one and never heard of people picking them. Next time I see some, I'll try them before the grouse get them.

There are several plants around the country which people term Huckleberries.

At some point, Huckleberry became a term of affection.

Wiki on Huckleberries

Where Do Huckleberries Grow?

Get all the trees, put 'em in a tree museum...iPhone pic sent from a BD daughter yesterday from the Muir Woods in Mill Valley. A magnificent country, isn't it?

A Teddy Roosevelt quote: "When I am here in California, I am not in the West. I am west of the West."

I will have my Cumberland Island travelogue photos ready soon, but somebody mentioned Little Saint Simons Island to me at a big social event last night, so I thought it might be time for a plug for them. Not that they need it. I posted my own pics etc, previously. LSS does have skeeters, sometimes to an unpleasant extent but not as bad as the Everglades. Bugs there are insane.

You may have heard the recent news that the owners of Little St. Simons Island donated a conservation easement to The Nature Conservancy on the entire 11,000 + acre island. For you, our longtime guests and supporters, we're happy to report that you will be unlikely to notice any changes, but we hope you'll celebrate with us knowing that one of the most significant natural areas on the southeastern coast has been preserved for perpetuity.

Learn more about the announcement here:  http://www.naturelssi.com/?p=2108

Yes, that would be the prosperous Mr. Paulson who just gave a half-billion to Harvard. It's my kind of rustic place with Southern food. These two pics are their own photos.

These little guys are found across the US and southern Canada, mostly in deciduous woodlands.We have a pair nesting somewhere nearby, but you never see their nests, which are high and in small holes.

They pretty much always walk headfirst down a tree.

White-breasted Nuthatch

Here in New England, the spring migration is underway. Blackbirds came a month ago, and are still passing through, but the hardy songbirds are beginning to show up despite yesterday's light snow.

The Juncos headed north a couple of weeks ago, and now most of the White Throats have left too. I heard the first Towhee of the Spring this morning.

How quick can bird migration be? Brazil to Pennsylvania in 13 days.

Photo is our Eastern Towhee. Unmistakable, loud call, "Drink your teeeee." Saw my first of the season yesterday, scratching under my feeder. Love those guys.

Here's a chilly male Cardinal. Due to global warming, it was a wicked winter and a cold early Spring this year.