Chapter 13: Flying
Friends
In March, the weather
started to turn and signs of Spring were everywhere. Daffodils and crocuses were
coming up, and also the garlic and onions i the garden. Little green buds appeared on the
trees, and flocks of robins suddenly descended on the yard from who knows where.
Rose had given the Katz’ a bird feeder for a holiday gift that winter, and
Johnathan had hung it just off of the front porch. He didn’t want to encourage
pests like the raccoons to come visit the hens again, and he hoped the spatial separation
between the front and back of the house would prevent that. You could see the
feeder out of the front window, and Ellie had begun to watch it to see what
would land there.
Sitting there with a pair of
binoculars and a field guide, she had taught herself most of the common species.
There were cardinals and mockingbirds. There were juncos and wrens. She also
saw blue jays and chickadees, tufted titmice and woodpeckers. Ellie
particularly liked the woodpeckers. There were the little Downy ones, the Hairy
woodpeckers, the flickers, and one day she even saw a Pileated, though he
didn’t come down to the feeder. The Pileated woodpecker was so much bigger and louder than
all the other birds that even Joe was impressed. Yeller frequently joined her,
sitting on the window sill, tail whipping back and forth. You could tell she
would just love to get her claws into one of those juicy morsels. Ellie was
glad she was an indoor cat even if Yeller didn’t agree.
In March, just about the
time the robins showed up, the small grey juncos started to disappear, going
back to their summer home in the mountains. There were also many little brown
birds that Ellie had a hard time trying to identify. She did some sketching
while she watched. Most of the bugs had disappeared for the winter, so she had started
to draw birds instead. Sarah also sometimes joined her and they sketched and
learned about the birds together. It was fortunate that the window was rather
large.
One day Ellie noticed a
woodpecker on a tree nearby that she had never seen before. A serious study of
the field guide led her to believe this was called a red-cockaded woodpecker. She
asked her dad about it and he said that that was a rare bird indeed. One of the
best things about being in the sand-hill pine forests near a preserve was
getting to see the red-cockaded woodpeckers. At first, they don’t look like
much. They are smallish black and white striped woodpeckers with very little
red on their heads. The neat thing about them is how they live, he said. Unlike
most other birds in the United States, these guys live in cooperative family
units. The grown up babies, usually the males, will hang around and help raise
the next batch of babies.
They need mature pine
forests because they make their homes and nests in holes pecked into big long
leaf pine trees that have a little bit of heart rot. They make the hole really
high up and the tree leaks sap all around the hole. The height and the sap are
deterrents to predators such as snakes that are capable of climbing trees to
eat the babies. They are bug eaters, and so dead snags are also important.
Because there are so few mature long leaf pine forests left (we have logged
them all), the red-cockaded woodpecker is endangered and so seeing one was
especially lucky.
The family listened intently
while Johanathan explained all of this to them. He also said that if he found a
family nesting cavity on a tree, he might set a trap nearby because there was
sure to be a snake around who was attracted to all of the fuss those birds and
babies made. Johanthan was getting
geared up to start his work again. It was a bit early yet to set traps, but he
was scouting out potential sites and working with his students to collect the
necessary gear and living arrangements. He had been up to Raleigh at least once
a week to help with all of these preparations and to take care of all of the
paperwork involved.
One day two weeks later, when
Johanathan had been out in the research jeep, he found a red-cockaded nest
hole. He came home and the next day took the four eldest back out with him so
they could see it. They had to walk in off the road into the pines for a bit,
and it was slow going, what with all of the blackberry vines and other bushes. He
had made sure they all wore long pants and sturdy shoes. When they got near the
nest hole he told them to stand very still and make no noise. This was hard to
do, especially for Joey, but they managed it well enough that soon they saw a
woodpecker flit from another tree and land in front of the pine-sap covered
hole. The bird went in and flew out again. It made a loud nasally squeaky chirp
and flew away. Soon they saw several of the birds and they were all squeaking
to each other.
One came and pecked at the
outside of the hole. One went in and kicked some detritus out. Johnathan
explained in low tones that they family group was preparing to nest. There were
likely eggs in the cavity or would be soon and soon they would hatch and the
whole family would have to work to feed them. The dad sits on the eggs, not the
mom. This was an expectant family.
It was a lovely morning. It
was sunny and the air was still cool but not cold. There was something magical
about the open woodland. It was unlike anything else they had seen in North
Carolina. Birds flitted in the underbrush and the lower branches of the trees.
Ants crawled industriously over the ground and there were no mosquitoes yet.
Ellie thought she could probably find some neat bugs in here.
When they got back to the
truck, Johnathan instructed them to check themselves over for ticks. If the
ticks weren’t out yet, they would be very soon. It was another reason for those
long pants and covered shoes. Joe had been carried most of the way, so he
didn’t have anything on him, thank goodness. Jack found a large tick crawling
up his leg, and Ellie did too. She shivered. That was one bug she did NOT like.
Just as they were about to leave, Jack pointed off the road in the distance and
they all saw a heard of deer moving off away from them. “Good eyes, Jack”
whispered Sarah. The deer were really well camouflaged and it took an observant
person to see one, even if it was standing ten feet away.
They piled back into the
jeep and headed home for lunch. Johnathan hummed to himself. Other than loving
to share the places and work he loved with his family, he also thought that
this had been a great learning experience. It’s one thing to read about things
in books and quite another to see them for yourself.
Sarah couldn’t stop thinking
about the ticks. Yuck! It was pretty out here, but she would stay inside all
summer if that was what it took to keep them off of her! Jack and Ellie had
been entranced by the birds and the woodlands. It had been a great morning.
Joey seemed somewhat interested but he was ready for lunch!
When they got back home,
Johnathan had them all take off their clothes at the door and put them right in
the laundry. Sarah started the washer up set to hot water. Hopefully that would
kill any other nasties that had come for a ride! They then needed to check
themselves over again before getting dressed for lunch.
Karen asked him how it had
gone. She would have liked to have gone, herself, except that Emma would have
been too noisy and she couldn’t very well have stayed home alone. It was often
very trying to be the wife of a biologist. The money was always tight, the work
hours were erratic and often very long, but she couldn’t deny the benefit to
her kids. They didn’t need a biology course, they got the real deal almost every
day. Johnathan said it had been great. The birds were there and busy getting
ready for some babies. Unfortunately, the ticks were already out. “Ugg” she
groaned. There was the other bad thing about having a biologist for a husband.
The daily tick-check. They would probably be on the dog and goats as well.
With Spring having been
sprung, the chickens were also in fine fiddle and were starting to lay
prodigious amounts of eggs. There were only about ten chickens, but nine of
them were laying one every other day. It was a bit more than they needed, so every
time Justin or Beth-Ann came over they would send them home with a dozen eggs.
The eggs were good too. The chickens got their feed, but they also spent a good
bit of time rooting around for bugs. Because of this, the egg yolks were a
lovely rich orangey color and tasted really good. There really was no
comparison between these eggs and the ones in the store. If you ate one of these
eggs you would realize how bland and tasteless store-bought eggs are by
comparison. Jack was especially proud. He knew he had a good product, and had
visions of making some money. He just didn’t know how he could sell them. Maybe
he could set up a stand by the lane, or talk his mom into driving him to the
farmers market to sell them some time.
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