Saturday, November 21, 2009

The berry tree
















I went strolling with another birder during the morning. We went to the stream. Nothing. we stopped in the field. Nothing. We walked around pine trees. Nothing. We checked the huge berry trees. Nothing. We both commented on all the nothing. Our last stop was at Turtle Pond. By the entrance to the little pier there is a small berry tree and that's where all the action was. Cedar waxwings, downy woodpecker, gorgeous yellow belly sapsucker, finch, cardinal. There had to have been something in those berries to make them special. Peak of ripeness? The waxwings eat the berries whole. The finch, cardinal and sapsucker eat the berries bit by bit. The sapsucker was the most fascinating, took berry, stashed same in a crevice in tree and ate daintily, bit by bit. And then the squirrel arrived. Nothing dainty there. Berries by-the-clump.
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