Backyard Nature Wednesday: Two beautyberries

I have two varieties of beautyberry in my garden.

The purple variety, which is the kind that is seen in Nature.

And a white cultivar.

Now, in past years, I have found that the birds in my yard generally wait until a bit later to start hitting the beautyberries for their daily snacks. They would usually exhaust the softer elderberries and the pokeberries which I also have in my garden before they started on the beautyberries. The beautyberry is a harder fruit and it will last longer on the shrub, right into winter. That's mostly when I've noticed birds eating them in past years. But this must be a particularly delicious year for these berries because the birds are already devouring them with great relish.

Also, in the past, the birds usually started with the white berries and stripped all of them before they moved on to the purple. Not this year. They are showing a distinct preference for the purple. Mockingbirds, robins, cardinals, grackles, even wrens and chickadees have been observed eating them. So far, I haven't noticed a single bird eating the white berries.

But they sure love the purple ones! Especially the mockingbirds.

And the robins.

I don't think these berries are going to last until winter this year.

Among the Mad by Jacqueline Winspear: A review

Among the Mad by Jacqueline Winspear
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

It's Christmas Eve 1931 in Maisie Dobbs' world, more than ten years past the end of the Great War that was to "end all wars."

The war goes on though for so many of those who participated in it. Millions of men and women who were grievously wounded either physically or psychologically - or both - continue to struggle with their wounds and with trying to make a place for themselves in the world. Maisie Dobbs' work as a psychologist and investigator often seems to bring her into contact with these desperate people and that is the case once again in Among the Mad.

It begins with Maisie walking down a London street with her assistant Billy Beale, on their way to meet with a client. Suddenly, Maisie gets one of her premonitions. She orders her assistant to go back as she walks forward toward a disabled man sitting on the street. He has one missing leg and the other injured and Maisie feels the distress coming from him. As she approaches him with her arm outstretched, he detonates a hand grenade, blowing himself up and injuring some of those on the street. Luckily, Maisie is not seriously injured but she is deeply affected by the event.

The next day the prime minister's office receives a letter threatening a massive loss of life if the writer's demands are not met. Curiously, the letter mentions Maisie's name which leads her to be investigated by Scotland Yard's elite Special Branch. She is cleared and then seconded to the Special Branch as a part of the team investigating the letter and trying to prevent a terrorist attack on the city.

While Maisie is involved in this case, she is also trying to help Billy, whose wife has descended fully into the abyss of melancholia following the death of their small daughter several months before. She is finally deemed to be a danger to herself or her two living children and she is committed to an institution for the care of the mentally disturbed, but this particular institution turns out to be a chamber of horrors and Maisie and Billy work to get her moved to a more humane facility.

Meanwhile, an incident at a veterinary facility results in the death of several dogs from some sort of chemical attack and this is followed by the killing of a number of birds by, apparently, the same means. Further letters received at Special Branch warn that the next victims will be human. And, indeed, a young government official is then killed. The letter writer warns that the next event will be a mass killing.

Maisie and the rest of the team race to find the writer of the letters and to stop him before he can accomplish that killing. They each follow different leads and Maisie investigates those who have been involved in research into chemical warfare. Her inquiry leads her into the world of shell-shocked men, a world of the darkness that she first encountered as a nurse during the war.

Jacqueline Winspear once again explores the theme that she has adopted as her main topic in this series, which is that of the treatment of those who fight a country's wars when they return home, often battered and damaged, from those wars. It was an issue after the First World War and every war since and it is still an issue today. We can read it in the headlines of any of today's newspapers. Winspear, through her character Maisie Dobbs, is an advocate for the humane treatment of such victims of man's inhumanity. These novels seem very timely in that regard and they give us pause to think about how far our treatment of shell-shock - now called PTSD - has come in a hundred years. Or not.  


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Gentlemen of the Road by Michael Chabon: A review

(Note: This summer I'm featuring some of my old book reviews that have not been posted here before. This is a book that I read in March 2009 and my review of it was published on Goodreads on March 4, 2009. Although I read it in winter, it would be a good - and quick - read for summer.)

Gentlemen of the Road by Michael Chabon
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

It is circa 950 C.E. in the Caucasus Mountains area, the Khazar Empire.  Zelikman, the Frankish scarecrow of a man, and Amram, the Abyssinian former soldier, both Jews and brothers under the skin, make their way in the area by serving as blades for hire, thieves, bamboozlers - whatever happens to come their way.  They are, in fact, Gentlemen of the Road or, as Chabon says he first titled the work, "Jews with Swords."

This is a short novel full of Chabon's trademark sardonic style of writing.  I had previously read The Yiddish Policemen's Union and thoroughly enjoyed it and I was anxious to try out his latest work.  I was not disappointed.

Zelikman and Amram are quirky and attractive characters, full of humor, much of it sarcastic.  Their tale hangs upon their half-unwilling drafting into the service of escorting and defending a prince of the Khazar Empire whose family - a royal family of the empire - had been killed and his father displaced as ruler by the prince's uncle.  The prince, who has many secrets, burns with the desire for revenge and Amram and Zelikman are drawn into his plots.

This is a swashbuckling adventure that compares favorably with many of the past's most famous and beloved buddy adventures.  The twist at the end is something that I might have seen coming, but it was delicious nonetheless.  It is a page-turner of a book, one that goes quickly and ends before the reader wants it to - a fun read.



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Poetry Sunday: These are the days when Birds come back

A robin taking "communion" at a beautyberry shrub in my backyard yesterday.

Birds are always on the move it seems. North, south, moving with the seasons or with the climate or the availability of food and water. The fall migration is already well under way now and the birds are passing through my backyard on a weekly or daily basis.

The American Robin, though, has been here all along and has raised his family here this summer. Just this past week he has been escorting a new family around the garden, teaching them where to find food.

One place that many of my backyard birds find food these days is at the beautyberry shrubs. No one enjoys them more than the robin as he shows in the picture above, receiving his communion wafer and wine in the form of purple berries.  

These are the days when Birds come back—

by Emily Dickinson

These are the days when Birds come back—

A very few—a Bird or two—

To take a backward look.

These are the days when skies resume

The old—old sophistries of June—

A blue and gold mistake.

Oh fraud that cannot cheat the Bee—

Almost thy plausibility

Induces my belief.

Till ranks of seeds their witness bear—

And softly thro' the altered air

Hurries a timid leaf.

Oh sacrament of summer days,

Oh Last Communion in the Haze—

Permit a child to join.

Thy sacred emblems to partake—

Thy consecrated bread to take

And thine immortal wine!

This week in birds - #122

A roundup of the week's news of birds and the environment:

Redhead Duck, photographed on our autumn trip to Big Bend National Park in West Texas two years ago. Some of these beautiful ducks winter in our area and they will soon be winging our way once again in their fall migration.

*~*~*~*

The ongoing extreme drought in the West has resulted in the loss of some 63 trillion gallons of groundwater, scientists estimate. That, in turn, has had the effect of causing the surface of the earth in those areas to rise about 0.16 inches over the last eighteen months.

*~*~*~*

Ospreys returned to Cumbria in England in 2001, after an absence of about 150 years. Now, a pair have produced chicks at a nest in Roudsea Wood Nature Preserve in Cumbria. Since Ospreys return to the same nest year after year, it is hoped that this will be a new beginning for the birds in that area of their former range.

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Beetles are among the most diverse and interesting of insects. "Beetles in the Bush" has a fascinating post, with pictures, of the intimidating-looking staghorn beetle. 

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There is a myth about magpies that they are inexorably drawn to shiny objects and will steal them if they can. Some scientists set out to test that myth and found that it seems to be entirely false. In fact, it appears that magpies are afraid of shiny objects!

*~*~*~*

The Bird Ecology Study Group has some beautiful pictures of a Southeast Asian bird, the Purple Swamphen. It is closely related to our own summer visitor, the Purple Gallinule. 

*~*~*~*

As a gardener who tries to use native plants whenever possible in her garden, I was interested in this article in the Chicago Tribune. It seems that some of the cultivars that are sold as "native" are not so native after all and do not necessarily have the characteristics that we are looking for in that plant. However, some cultivars do. The message here, I guess, is "Buyer beware!" One should attempt to educate oneself as much as possible before purchasing such plants. 

*~*~*~*

A Bronx resident has reclaimed an area that was once reduced to an open-air drug market along a weed-choked street and has created a bird sanctuary. It is also a sanctuary for the people of the area. What began as a private project has now been taken over by the Parks and Recreation Department. It is called the Dred Scott Bird Sanctuary because as the daughter of its founder, Troy Lancaster, said, they all "worked like slaves without pay" in creating it. Where drug dealers once reigned, Wild Turkeys are now sometimes seen. Never doubt that one person with a dream and persistence can make a difference.

*~*~*~*

Glossy Ibises are occasionally seen here, although they are not as common as the very similar White-eyed Ibis or the common White Ibis. But they are also seen in Europe, especially around the Mediterranean. Now, the climate seems to be pushing them farther north. This summer a pair were seen building a nest in Frampton Marshes in the UK. Although they completed the nest, they never laid eggs. It is possible they were a young and inexperienced pair, but it is hoped they will have better luck in another year.

*~*~*~*

Rainforest frogs seem to be under attack on every front these days. In India, they face challenges to their existence because of the selective logging that is going on in forests there.

*~*~*~*

There are only 114 Hawaiian Crows left in the world. They are extinct in the wild, but scientists conducting a captive breeding program that hopes to someday reestablish a wild population announced that they have hatched nine chicks at the Keauhou Bird Conservation Facility on Hawaii Island.

*~*~*~*

What would you imagine that a wasp mantisfly would look like? It's an insect that carries the name of three distinct species. Well, it is a unique and interesting critter and "Bug Eric" found one at Colorado Springs recently and he is excited to tell us all about it.

*~*~*~*

Sometimes attempting to save an endangered species can mean killing some of the animals that prey on them or encroach on their territory - as the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is currently doing with Barred Owls that have moved into the territories of Northern Spotted Owls in the Northwest. Now, some Double-crested Cormorants along the Columbia River in Oregon will suffer that same fate as scientists try to save the endangered salmon on which they love to feed.

*~*~*~*

When scientists were able to sequence the genome of the chicken in 2004, they found that the species did not have the gene for tasting sweets. Other birds, it seems, also lack that proverbial "sweet tooth." Except for the hummingbird. Although they, too, lack the particular gene that relates to the tasting of sweets in other species, they have developed other means of being able to taste sugary stuff. They love nectar and that sugar water that we put out for them. The sweeter the better!   

Yum!!!

The last days of summer

Days are getting shorter. Just a month ago, at 7:00 in the evening the setting sun would still be above the tops of the tall pine trees that spread across the western horizon prospect from my backyard. Today, by 7:00 the sun will be well behind those trees, just about down to their bases. 

Moreover, the sun has started on its long trek to the south for winter. After reaching its northernmost point in the sky several weeks ago, the sun is now several degrees farther south, looking from our planetary perspective. And so the seasons change.

There's only a month left in this season, but it is likely the most miserable month for us. The heat and humidity now are just about unbearable for outdoor activities of any extended period. And the plants which must stand out there all day under the broiling sun are looking wilted and tattered, much the worse for wear. A few leaves are already dropping, harbinger of the deluge to come.

The bottom line for gardeners is that it is almost impossible to keep the garden looking good at this time of year and some of us just surrender and wait for the cooler days of fall. The main attraction in the garden these days is the wildlife but even they are rather quiet. Except for the cicadas, of course.

Most of the backyard birds are still molting and they tend to be fairly silent during this period, almost as if they are embarrassed to call attention to their disheveled appearance. Silent though they are, there are plenty of them around, both adults and juveniles.

Just this week, I've seen a pair of robins escorting a couple fledglings around. There's been a whole tribe of wrens, including four or five fledglings, scouring the shrubbery for bugs. 

A young Carolina Wren looking for a snack in a 'Pride of Barbados' shrub.

And the yard is virtually overrun by cardinals. In the late afternoon when the cardinals come to the backyard feeders, one can see twenty or more of the beautiful birds of all ages as they gather for their late day snack.

A molting male Northern Cardinal eyes a feeder containing sunflower seed.

I can't say how many hummingbirds are in the yard these days. They zip around so fast that I can't count them, but I know there are at least three.

Most of the hummers that I am seeing now are Ruby-throated males like this one sitting just outside my office window.

I see posts on other birding blogs of hummingbird feeders that are being visited by large numbers of the little birds, and I wonder, how do they do that? Maybe my birds are just especially intolerant, but they will not share. If another bird comes around while one is feeding, the chase is on. They do not peaceably feed together. Admittedly, the chases are very entertaining, but it would be nice if they would all sit down for a meal together. At least then I could count them!

There are also plenty of butterflies in the garden in these last days of summer.

The little yellow Sulphur butterflies are ubiquitous in the garden at this time of year.

Milkweed is not just for Monarchs and Queens; Pipevine Swallowtails like it, too.

 

Gulf Fritillaries are very active at this time of year and they love these flame acanthus blossoms.

A Giant Swallowtail nectars on milkweed.

I've mentioned here before that the numbers of green anoles in my backyard are down this summer compared to previous years. It's likely that the cold snaps last winter reduced their numbers. Last summer they seemed to be everywhere, but this year I can sometimes walk through the garden without seeing a single one.

There is one little guy that I can count on seeing regularly though. He's my patio buddy.

Just about any day that I sit on my patio I'll see him there, checking the pavers for insects.

And, of course, displaying his impressive throat pouch for all to see.

He's looking around to see if anyone noticed his display.

The plants in the backyard are looking rather sad as summer winds down, but the critters are always entertaining.



  

The Dirty Duck by Martha Grimes: A review

The Dirty Duck by Martha Grimes
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Superintendent Richard Jury of New Scotland Yard is visiting a friend in Stratford-on-Avon and hoping for an encounter with the intriguing Lady Kennington whom he met in the last book in the series, The Anodyne Necklace. His friend Melrose Plant is in town, too, along with Aunt Agatha, seeing Shakespeare plays and waiting - in Agatha's case - for some visiting cousins from America.

It is summer and the town seems full of visiting Americans, including a group traveling with Honeycutt Tours. This particular group, however, does not stay intact for very long. After having a drink at a pub called "The Dirty Duck" one night, one of the tourists, Gwendolyn Bracegirdle from Sarasota, Florida, is killed in a public restroom behind a church. Her throat is slashed ear to ear and another slash rents the body from sternum to pelvis. There are no clues and Miss Bracegirdle was a quiet sort who did not seem to have any enemies.

The local constabulary take advantage of the fact that they have a Scotland Yard Superintendent in town and ask for his help in investigating. Jury reluctantly agrees - without informing his superiors in London.

Soon, though, all of the police have as much as they can handle because a second member of the tour, a seventeen-year-old beauty from Georgia named Honey Belle, is killed in the same manner. There doesn't seem to be anything to connect the two victims other than the fact that they were both with the same tour group.

Meanwhile, another member of the group, a young boy, has gone missing. He is Honey Belle's stepbrother, James. He has been known to disappear and reappear before so no one is concerned at first, but days go by and he doesn't turn up. It appears the police may have a kidnapping on their hands in addition to two murders.

But that is not to be the end of it all. Honey Belle's mother, James' stepmother, makes a trip to London and there she, too, is killed in the same way as the other two women. As the body total climbs, Jury gets assistance from D.S. Wiggins and his friend Melrose as they race to find a murderer, a missing boy, and attempt to protect the other members of the tour group who may be in danger.

Finally, a man on the tour, a Christopher Marlowe fanatic, is also killed - once again by being slashed. It seems the killer may be branching out from targeting only women.

After the last killing, Jury begins to put it all together. He develops a theory that perhaps only one of the victims was a true target and the others were only window dressing. Red herrings, as it were. The trick is to figure out which one was the target. That may lead him to the motive and to the murderer.  

The Dirty Duck is another wonderful stroll through the villages of England and, in this case, along the streets of London as well. It is written with Grimes' typical light touch and is full of interesting characters, which, of course, include a couple of charming and precocious kids and a couple of cats who play their roles. It is a lovely lazy summer read that whets the appetite for more in this series. I suspect I'll be cracking open the next Richard Jury novel on my Kindle very soon.


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