Scrub Jays

Love Those Peanuts!

We've enjoyed watching the Western Scrub Jays that hang out in the canyon shrubbery and visit our suet feeder, so we shouldn't have been too surprised to see one hop on to the top of the peanut feeder we have out in the area behind the fence.

We had just hung up a holder for nesting materials, thinking the hummingbirds and Lesser Goldfinches would find it there, but the Scrub Jay obviously thought we had refilled the thing with peanuts.

We got the hint and moved the nesting materials to a different location and filled the feeder with unshelled peanuts.  Then we hung around and waited to see how long it took for the Jay to reappear.  I hadn't gone ten steps before a Jay appeared in the bushes, and within another ten the bird was up on the feeder.  Within a minute it had pried a peanut out and flown off with it.

When we put peanuts out like this, they're usually gone within a day.  I don't know what they do with all those peanuts, but I don't think they could eat them all at once, so they must be stashing them somewhere to eat later.

We have nightmare visions of rampant legumes all over our hillside from Scrub Jay stashes.

Update:  by the end of the day:  not one single peanut was left in the feeder.

"Clean Up On Aisle..."

Sunday was a coolish, windy day, but Cindy decided to struggle out into the yard to tackle the
Wild Cucumber vine that was contending with the remains of the Eugenia hedge for world domination.

Since she's been fighting off the effects of an infected tooth for the past week, I didn't expect her to be outside for very long.  When I went out to see how things were going, she had removed the vine and some other weeds in the area, although she hadn't yet found the location of the "man root" of the Wild Cucumber.

When she still hadn't come back in after a couple of hours, I went back outside and discovered that she had continued chopping back the Eugenia and the Thumbergia all along the side of the house.

It needed to be done, but that's a lot of work.

The Mystery Continues

Squirrel and Citrus

Most of the evidence in favor of absolving the ground squirrels of the mysterious attacks on the two citrus trees is negative evidence.

First, we've had these three citrus trees for over two years now and we certainly have had ground squirrels in the area the entire time we've lived here.  We've also had skunks, opossums, pack rats and other small varmints in the area, both inside and outside the fence.  So the squirrels have had plenty of opportunity to dine on citrus leaves for several years now and have shown no inclination to do so before this.

Nothing ever bothered the citrus trees until we moved two of them outside the fence a few months ago.  That would seem to indicate a larger critter that either can't get inside the fence or is reluctant to come too near the house.  That would not be the squirrels, because they easily hop through the hedge and they're bold enough to come right up and steal the blueberries off the bushes right by the patio.

The third citrus inside the fence so far hasn't been touched, and as this picture shows, the ground squirrels are around it pretty much all the time as they continue to stuff themselves on our birdseed.  They've gotten so fat on the bird seed that I'm starting to think they're going to blow up like Harry Potter's Aunt Marge someday and float off into the wild blue yonder.  Fantasy aside, that's actually another point in their favor; I'm not sure the thin citrus branches would support the weight of these increasingly rotund varmints and none of the branches has been broken off, they've all be sliced right through, not broken, chewed or gnawed.

If you see a small, furry blimp floating across your horizon someday, it might be one of our ground squirrels, but I'm starting to think they're probably not the mysterious citrus leaf eaters.

Mystery Varmint Strikes Again

Second Citrus Attacked

The mysterious varmint that stripped almost all the leaves off of one of the small citrus trees out behind the  fence has now stripped the last remaining citrus tree in that location.

Just as in the first attack, most of the leaves and smaller twigs are gone from the plant, and the stems and branches appear to have been cleanly sliced, rather than chewed off.  That particular tree wasn't looking too healthy before the varmint attacked it, and we're not sure it's going to be able to recover from this attack.

The first tree, which we moved to the relative safety of the driveway in front of the garage, is looking better, with new leaves unfurling and even a few blossoms setting on.

I'm beginning to think we may have to absolve the ground squirrels for now.  Most of Cindy's Master Gardener friends think we probably have a deer in the canyon that's doing the damage.  Deer definitely like to eat succulent, tender leaves, but I have some trouble accepting this idea because we've never seen any evidence of deer in the area; we're surrounded by freeways and you would think somebody would see them if they were here.

Also, deer are not particularly light weight animals.  The ground in the area behind the fence is still pretty wet, and I would expect to see tracks pressed into the damp decomposed granite if there were any deer here.

Someone else suggested that it might be rabbits.  We know that we've had rabbits in that area in the past, although we haven't seen any of them this year.  The problem I have with this suggestion is that this would have to be a pretty tall rabbit; branches have been sliced all the way to the tops of the trees, which are at least three feet above the top of the soil in the pots.  None of the branches have been broken, they're all sliced.

Invisible deer?  Really tall rabbits?  Some neighbor playing Sweeney Todd with the pruning shears?  The mystery continues...

Beauty In The Garden

Heather Trimlett, my teacher for flameworked glass bead making, has been posting photos of some of her beads in among her garden flowers on her Facebook page.  Her beads are gorgeous, but set among the flowers, they're even more beautiful.

Check out more of her beads at: Heather Trimlett. Glass Beads, Buttons & Jewelry .

Heather's Beads

They're Baaaaack....

Marah macrocarpus

The Marah macrocarpus (Wild Cucumber) vine that we fought off last year has reappeared, and once again appears bent on world domination.  It's currently crawling over the remains of the Eugenia hedge and the Jacaranda tree.

Unlike the ones we accidentally sprouted last year after finding the unknown nuts in the corner of one of the raised beds, this vine appeared on its own, but thanks to last year's experience, we recognized it quickly.

What we don't know is where the root is.  Since these things are also called "man root" for the size of the fibrous tubers they grow from, and since this one has appeared for the last several years, the basic root is probably pretty huge.

One thing is certain, though, and that is that the vine has to go before it chokes out something we actually want to grow here.

Bunching Onions

Bunching Onion Pod

I saw what I thought was a new leek blossom the other day, but Cindy says these plants are really Bunching Onions, not Leeks.

I was hoping for another repetition of the Grinch experience we had last summer when we let a leek blossom flower and go to seed (see: "Did Dr. Seuss Design This Plant?" ).

But this plant's pod was smaller and split open to reveal the flower much sooner than the leek did.  It's not as spectacular, but still looks interesting.

Bunching Onions are apparently from the same family as leeks and bulb onions, and you can use them instead of bulb onions.

Cindy is stealthily educating me to the taste of onion; I used to pick them out of food, and I still find that the taste of raw onion overwhelms the taste of whatever food it's with, but I'm gradually getting more used to the more subtle tastes of other members of the onion family, including the leeks and bunching onions.

Seed Time

We ate the last of the Oregon Giant Peas last night with chicken, water chestnuts and rice.  Cindy only has one package of the Sugar Snap Peas left in the freezer, so today she's soaking seeds to get the whole cycle going again.

We do have plenty of the green beans left, though.

Green Tomato Soup

Green Tomato Soup

Cindy used up some of the mountain of green tomatoes the other day by making them into Green Tomato Soup, which turned out to be quite good.

It's basically just green tomatoes, either beef or chicken stock, water, and Cindy added a pinch of her home-made curry spices, too.

Now it's on to Green Tomato Pasta, Stewed Green Tomatoes, Lemon Green Tomatoes, Fried Green Tomatoes and whatever else Cindy can think of.