Maggie's Farm

A re-post from May, 2006

Japanese Wisteria blooms in May in New England. 

It's a sentimental Victorian plant that is perfect for shading pergolas, arbors and porches.

Once established, it grows like a weed, up to 10' per summer. It takes work to keep it under control.

Robins love to nest in their tangles: I have a pair of robins nesting in mine right now, so I cannot trim it until the babies leave the nest.

Like many exotic, introduced plants, it can be very invasive and aggressive: eliminating wild stands of wisteria is a tough job.

I grow sweet-smelling Autumn Clematis up my Wisteria vines, so the vine serves double duty. Autumn Clematis is another one of those strong vines that grow like crazy, with amazing September perfume.

With all of the exciting news about wildfires, I want to make a pitch in favor of wildfire. Wildfire is part of nature, and it's a good thing.

Fire suppression makes natural fires worse when they occur, because kindling builds up on the floor of the forests.

Why is wildfire good? Not just because it is "natural." I am not a pagan who believes that whatever is "natural" is good. But fire is nature's way of creating swaths of ash-fertilized space for plant succession on the land, and new habitats for the species that like newer growth. In fact, mature forests probably have the lowest biodiversity of any non-polar habitat. For one example, the Elk and songbird populations of Yellowstone took a huge jump after the big fires.

Smokey the Bear was wrong. Wildfire is part of the creative destruction of nature. Suppressing it is little more than sentimentalism combined with a subsidy to logging business. Whether millions of taxpayer's money should be spent, and lives risked and lost, to support that sentimentalism and that industry is a political question (to which my answer is "No").

We have written more about the virtues of wildfire and clear-cutting before. 

Why are we getting repeated Google searches for "removing pachysandra"? We have never posted on that subject, although I guess we have posted on pachysandra.

Since there appears to be interest out there, here's my method.

(But first, even though I have some pachysandra beds adjacent to the house, I do not really approve of it near houses or buildings. It belongs at a distance, in full shade - if you must have it at all.)

I am an expert at pachysandra removal. You take a good sharp spade - not a shovel - and with it cut deep parallel lines in the pachysandra bed, about 14" apart. Then you use the spade to cut those stretches into 2-3' lengths. Use the spade to begin to undercut those strips a couple of inches deep, and then you can peel the whole thing up like a slice of carpet.

If you want to replant it somewhere else, just lay those lengths of carpet down, and, with some watering, they will grow in.

Our truant contributor Gwynnie emailed this photo to us from her place in the California mountains south of Lake Tahoe. Took the photo this morning. Message: "This fellow was as interested in me as I was in him." (No word yet on how the pig hunt went, but I know Gwynnie will return to Yankeeland with a ton of wild pig sausage. Always does.)

Our tiny Yankee pal is around in both summer and winter. Often, in winter, he is the only bird you will encounter in the woods, searching for bug larvae in bark and rotten wood. You can read about our Chickadee here at CLO. Their springtime song - pheee-beeee - is a sweet delight. Photo by Gwynnie, yesterday:

Department of Things You Always Wondered About: How does a snake swallow a larger snake? Live Science

North America's handsome King Snake is best known as a snake-eater, hence its name. He is immune to the venom of poisonous snakes.

In the US, there are a number of varieties of King Snakes, including the stunning eastern Scarlet Kingsnake, but the taxonomy is unclear. I have only seen one wild Scarlet King Snake in my life, and I tramp the woods, fields and marshes as much as I can.

Image is a King Snake subduing a Copperhead by constriction, preparatory to dining on it.

Am. Goldfinch, WB Nuthatch, Carolina Wren, Red Wing Blackbird, Purple Grackle, BC Chickadee, Cardinal, Blue Jay, WT Sparrow, House Finch, English "Sparrow," Cowbird, Tufted Titmouse, Tree Sparrow, Red Bellied Woodpecker, Downy Woodpecker, Mourning Dove (large numbers, fighting over the seeds), Song Sparrow.

I get a kick out of the way the Grackles are always keeping an eye on the sky, for Sharpies. They understand "enemies."

All of these birds are probably local breeders. The large flocks of Jays and Grackles have passed through and moved north. The Juncoes are gone, too. The Red Wings now are locals. Most of the WT Sparrows, with their brilliant breeding-season bright yellow on their heads, have left for the north. We have had the first two warm days of the year, and I expect to see the cheerful Box Turtles clomping around soon, begging for tomatoes. The tree buds are finally swelling up here in Yankeeland, but it is a week or two late this year.

Soon, we will have the wonderful insectivore migrants to watch and to find. Not at the feeder, of course, but everywhere else. Good clean fun.

Now back to the gardens.

The photo below, taken by our friend Chris in his backyard in Connecticut this week, raised the subject of the opossum.

The Virginia opossum, aka possum, is the only marsupial in North America. These strange, nocturnal, tree-climbing, omnivorous critters have been expanding their range north for many years, and seem to find ways to survive even in suburban neighborhoods. I know the Dylanologist has one living in his backyard in Tennessee, because I saw the big fellow scurrying through his tomato plants at twilight.

Primitive and adaptable, they are also said to be good to eat by our Southern friends. I have never tried one as a meal. I once saw a female with babies clinging to her back, crossing a road at night. What an odd sight.

You can read about their habits here. Yes, they do "play possum."

Photo: "Dirt-drifts" in South Dakota, caused by corn farming on unsuitable and marginal lands. Shades of the Dust Bowl. That mean old Law of Unintended Consequences will get you every time: first we see corn prices rising so high that Mexicans cannot afford to make tortillas, and now this mess. Plus it's a political scam anyway.

The full report on land conversion in the northern plains is here. The Ducks Unlimited press summary below:

From Ducks Unlimited:

BISMARCK, ND, April 12, 2007 - Home, home on the range where the deer,
antelope and ducks play may become a thing of the past if the rapid loss of America's prairie grasslands isn't stopped. Ducks Unlimited (DU) believes a new Congressional report will help Congress focus on solutions to the loss as it writes the new 2007 federal farm bill.

The report says the country's few remaining native grasslands in the Great Plains are being plowed under. The Prairie Pothole Region of the Great Plains is the world's most productive duck breeding habitat.

"It is encouraging to see that the issue of grassland conversion in the
Northern Plains has the attention of Congress as it prepares to write the
2007 farm bill," said Scott McLeod, DU's farm bill lead for the Great Plains
Region. "This issue has greatly concerned conservation groups, hunters and ranchers across the country for several years.

This photo of a Maggie's Farm buddy with a big Texas pig, from a post last summer, elicited a comment from a reader saying that they had them in Wisconsin. Wisconsin? That was news to me. I thought "razorbacks" were more of a Southern and Western thing.

Happily, they have not invaded New England yet.

I knew about Texas, California, etc., and I checked his link. Yup. They are now found in 23 states. They are basically wild domestic pigs, but, depending on their location, the urban legend is that they may have some "Russian Boar" blood from game farms mixed in - but the domestic pig and the wild European boar are the same species: Sus scrofa. When breeding wild, feral pigs devolve into their natural form and habits. Unlike wild horses, they attract little sympathy, and they are not cute.

In many areas of Europe, boar is extinct or endangered. In the US, these adaptable invaders are spreading fast, which is bad for forests but fun for hunters.

Omnivorous, destructive of their habitat by aggressive rooting with their snouts, raising up to 4 litters per year, and ranging from 70-400 pounds in adulthood, these hardy, non-native critters are environmental destructos from hell. And their only real predator, to keep their numbers in any control, is man.

To make things more difficult, their shoulders, where you might wish to place a bullet, have very dense tissue which is difficult to penetrate. They are also potentially dangerous beasts who use their tusks as swords: they can easily kill a dog or seriously damage a human. On the plus side, they are highly edible.

Because most states have an open season on pig, hog hunting is increasingly popular - and environmentally necessary - whether with bow, shotgun, rifle (or even handgun, for the very brave or reckless).

Here's a piece on boar hunting in Ohio. Here's one from California.

Giant gypsum crystals in a cave in Mexico. Note the man in photo on the left. More about the cave, and more photos, here. (h/t, David Thompson)

Why is the overfishing of sharks leading to a serious decrease in scallops on the East coast? Explained here.

I think shark fishing is stupid anyway. What's the point? People chum for them, catch them, kill them, take a photo, and throw the thing overboard. Not sporting, not manly. People - not the government - should decide to quit it.

Image: A Sea Scallop, the source of those big "scallops" at the fish market.

In the snow, today: Fox Sparrow, Tree Sparrow, Song Sparrow, White Throated Sparrow, Tufted Titmouse, Cardinal, Blue Jay, Mourning Dove, Goldfinch, Slate-Colored Junco. Plus a very cold-looking Robin taking the last few holly berries.

Not too exciting, but it's good to see them all enjoying the free lunch. And you never know when you might see something unusual.

Image: Fox Sparrow. Our eastern version of this large sparrow is rusty red, and likes to scratch on the ground.

We aren't into cat blogging (or cats), but we'll make an exception this time. This pussy cat was haunting someone's back deck in the snow in Mason, Texas recently, trying to get a better look at two young kids playing on the floor inside. (Thanks, BL.) Read this, if you like to hang out in Mountain Lion territory.

I stepped outside to do some chores today, and a Killdeer flew over the house, calling his name loudly. It is the time of year when they are on the move north, but the snow and sleet we have coming today will slow the migrants down a bit.

Killdeer is found across the entire US and most of Canada. He is a large plover - technically a shorebird - but more often found in inland fields that at the shore. I have always enjoyed these birds, probably because they are so easy to identify. They are famous for their broken-wing deception - the original victimhood scam.

Read about Killdeer at CLO here.

The large Barred Owl, like our Great Horned Owl, is hooting, nesting, and laying eggs about now, up here. You can hear his deep "Who cooks for yoooo? Who cooks for you-all" across the frozen nighttime moon-lit marshes.

It's tough being on the bottom of the food chain. In the uplands, rodents have to deal with the Red-Tail during the day and with the Great Horned at night; in the lowlands with the Red Shouldered during the day and the Barred Owl at night.

More about Barred Owl here at CLO.  Also, somebody made a Barred Owl Cam. It seems that they will use large nest boxes, but I have only seen them using old hawk or crow nests. Their range and numbers are expanding. They are the same species as Spotted Owl, since they interbreed. Different races.

Visiting the bird-feeder today:

Purple Grackle, Tree Sparrow, Song Sparrow, White Throated Sparrow, Mockingbird, Cardinal, Blue Jay, Slate-Colored Junco, Mourning Dove, Goldfinch. Not very exciting species, but all welcome. Usually a few Nuthatches, Downies, and Titmice, but not today.

READ THIS SPEECH, if you do nothing else today.

Fascinating, and full of examples and images. I won't quote from it because it the link contains all sorts of frightening copyright warnings. It is from 2005.

In my opinion, getting speeches like this distributed and read is the best thing blogs can do: it's the magic of the link, which we already take for granted.

(Thanks, reader, for letting us know about this speech.)