Squirrels

The kousa berries are turning more of a purple color. When I picked one, it squashed in my hands. And surprise! The pulp tastes sweet now!

For several days I have watched this eastern gray squirrel, sciurus carolinensis, helping himself to kousa berries.




The gray squirrels are as common here as anywhere else on the East Coast. They have been getting fat on acorns in the back yard this month.

We also have red squirrels, tamiasciurus hudsonicus.




These guys primarily eat conifer seeds, but that didn’t stop this one from raiding the suet birdfeeder last winter. Unlike the jovial gray squirrels, these pretty little things are solitary and feisty. They are highly territorial and want nothing to do with other squirrels or humans. During the winter I watched this one chase a gray squirrel almost twice his size away from the suet feeder, and I realized he was still living in our yard this past week when he scolded me, quite loudly, for being out on the deck.

Hey bub, the deck is my territory!

Visiting Photographer

Jen Gordy took this picture in our backyard earlier this month.




Meanwhile I took this picture of Jen taking her picture. This is what a serious photographer looks like!

Tragically Beautiful

What a lovely shrub this is.



It’s a shame that we have to kill it. This is the poison sumac, Toxicodendron Vernix, that hangs over the back lawn. I toyed with the notion of keeping it as a beneficial plant for the wildlife, because the berries fed the birds all last winter. But now that we have friends who bring their small children to visit, and our own child who will be mobile in another year, it has become an obvious threat. The bush hangs where visitors could easily touch it, and nothing about this plant looks remotely dangerous.









Right now the plant is somewhat distinctive because it has drupes of white berries, and the foliage is turning a beautiful range of yellow, red, and purple. But during the rest of the year it is deceptively plain and green. Nobody - and I do mean nobody! - knows how to identify this plant. Which is why, I suspect, the previous owners let it grow next to their lawn to begin with. They must have suffered from many mysterious rashes.

Although I have read nothing to suggest this is true, I suspect poison sumac comes in a male and female variety, because there is a second tree that appears to be poison sumac beside this one, but it has not produced berries. I wasn’t sure that the second tree was poison sumac at all, because it is much taller than this one – a good thirty feet, in fact. Poison sumac isn’t supposed to get more than ten or fifteen feet tall.

I’ll know for sure when I test it, assuming I can work up the nerve to test it.

It’s Terrible – Taste It!

I have been inviting everyone to taste the Japanese dogwood fruit. It’s amazing how many people will eagerly taste something when you tell them that it tastes bad.

Here is little Grayson’s reaction.





The neighborhood kids decided a more fitting name for the kousa fruits was “dingleberries”. For the uninitiated, “dingleberry” is slang for poo that’s left hanging from the fur of the rear end of a cat.

Marna suspects that the fruits simply aren’t ripe yet. I hope she is right!

Weekend Critters

I got a better photo of mister groundhog when I took the screen off of the bedroom window.




There were many chipmunks about. This one lets me get within ten feet.

Japanese Plants in our Garden

Our blog-friend Hero, who lives in Japan, inspired me to find out what plants in our garden are from Japan.

Acer Palmatum, Japanese Maple.



I have fond childhood memories of a Japanese maple. These trees have such lovely color!

I would like to trim the branches so that the tree looks more like a bonsai. Also so that I can get to the spigot without hitting my head.


Pachysandra terminalis, Pachysandra



This ground-cover grows where little else will: under our deck!


Hosta





Deer love to eat hosta, but so far they have only nibbled at our hostas a little.


Cornus Kousa, Kousa Dogwood







The flowers were lovely earlier in the year. Now the strange red fruits are even lovelier. They look like katamari. And they are edible! But alas, they have an uninteresting flavor, somewhat bitter, and the texture is unpleasant – rubbery on the outside, and like a gritty orange custard inside. Perhaps the flavor can be improved by cooking.

But I am happy to have yet another edible plant in the yard, even though I don’t like the taste. Perhaps the birds will enjoy the fruit.

Close Encounter of the Deer Kind

Today while Gabe napped I did some weeding out back. I had my back turned to the woods, and I was thinking to myself “wouldn’t it be wacky if the deer snuck up behind me right now?” I wondered if such an encounter would be a bubbly Disney moment, or something more like a creepy horror movie. Attack of the Killer Deer! And I’m not making this up: moments later there was a noise of something bashing its way through the leaves, and our resident fawn walked out of the woods thirty feet away from me.

His mother wasn’t with him this time, from what I could tell. But it is about time he left her, anyway; he is as big as her, and his spots are almost gone. I think he is in his rebellious teenager stage.

So, our rebellious Bambi looked long and hard at me – and walked closer, one hesitant step at a time. He got as far as the swing, which was about twenty feet from me. I crouched down to look less scary, and turned my head to the side so that I would look less like a predator. The only thing between us was my bucket of weeds. Bambi watched me, and nibbled the grass, and watched me some more.

I thought of chasing him off, to teach him to be properly fearful of humans. After all, I have seen both a deer hunting perch and a bow hunter both within a few miles. But. . . I’m greedy. I had this amazing encounter all to myself! I didn’t want to give that up. So I went back to pulling weeds, all the while peeking at the skittish yearling who couldn’t seem to quite make up his mind if I was safe enough to graze near.

After a few minutes, Gabe’s cry came over the baby monitor, and I shot to my feet out of habit. Bambi gave what sounded like an annoyed snort, and he leapt back into the cover of the trees. But he stopped there and looked at me some more. Figuring it wouldn’t hurt at that point to see how he reacted to my voice, I said “you’re beautiful”. Surprisingly – though not much was surprising to me by then - he didn’t bolt. But as soon as I moved, he took off at a leisurely trot. I watched him fade into the swamp.

The encounter was closer to a Disney moment than a horror-movie clip, as it turns out, but thankfully there was no singing.

Our resident groundhog continues to forage near the swing, as well. But he wants nothing to do with humanity, which may have something to do with being caught in our trap. He dives under the porch with silent ninja speed when he hears anyone get close. I have been thinking of transplanting ferns around the porch specifically to give him more cover.

This is the best photo I have of him so far. I took it from the kitchen window.




It turns out that “woodchuck” is just another name for “groundhog”.

Our bunnies continue to be brazen! This young one was grazing right by the front door.