Published: October 13, 2008 09:18 am         

Take a walk on the wildside

This is the time of ingathering in the Jewish and natural calendar. The high holy days offer a time to gather humans into their fold again, to celebrate and give thanks for a happy, healthy new year. The fall season offers another kind of ingathering: acorns and hickory nuts from every direction seem to take aim at our roof, deck and gazebo. Chipmunks and squirrels seem delirious with all their bounty, though the squirrels are at peril crossing the road these days: they can’t seem to make up their mind which way to go, too late, sometimes. On our walk seven deer appear nearly tame: they take cautious steps, keeping an eye on us, but don’t run away completely. We look at them; they watch us, and we continue our walk while they eat at the edge of the golf course. Migrating warblers, a rose breasted grosbeak and indigo buntings are on the hunt for seeds and berries, smaller species even landing on our hummingbird feeders for a sweet sip.

This year I have a whole new attitude about our deck and its feeders. I finally took the advice of my sister-in-law, Gloria Otto, and had baffles made and installed on all the support poles on our deck. The Ottos have had them at their house next door for years, and it takes the tears out of back yard bird feeding.

Jerry Buckner, who installs furnaces for a living, knew just what to do. He and his associate measured, bought sheet metal, designed a pattern, cut, bolted and affixed the baffles in less than a day. So far, not a squirrel, raccoon or possum has been on my deck for a month. Gone are the night time feeder retrieval and lockup in big garbage cans, and then early morning reinstallation. Gone are the jump-ups from dinner tables to rush home to “take down the feeders” or the early a.m. disappointed discovery that the new cake of suet is gone, sometimes along with the cage, feeders empty, and only messy deposits and muddy tell-tale footprints left for me to clean up. No more rapping on the windows to discourage the squirrels from my suet and peanut feeders or so-called squirrel-proof seed feeders. My life is serene! My deck is my own – and the birds’.

I am not naive; I know those squirrels are out there scratching their heads and scheming and plotting. One of them tried to crawl across our screen porch to get to the deck, but gave up. Then he climbed a tree to the roof, and I could hear him make his way to the deck, but he didn’t jump down. One of these days he will, but I’ll be prepared. I’m taking a watch and wait approach. This is, of course, war. And I think I’m winning right now. But the enemy is out there, and could strike any minute.

In the meantime, it’s a good time to think about planting native grasses, and berry bushes. The sumacs are loaded with rich red plumes that the birds will love this winter. I’m leaving the dried flower seeds in my beds for the birds to eat; it’s so colorful to see the finches landing on the thin stalks, with butterflies and hummingbirds still coming to the late blooming zinnias and cleomes. At wood's edge, purple ironweed draws the butterflies; they favor any flowering plant in the red, orange and purple spectrum. I’m going to think about that for next year’s garden.