corn, corn, everywhere, but not a kernel to eat

Freddie and his siblings flew the coop a few weekends ago. On Friday night, all four were in the nest. On Saturday morning, there was only one baby bird. By Saturday afternoon, there were none. Thus concludes our short stint as baby bird guardians. I wonder if bluebirds come back to where they were born to lay their eggs?

Just when I think the garden is winding down, my red bell pepper starts fruiting like crazy. I think this was caused by my pinching it back a few weeks ago, I was tired of it growing and growing without setting fruit. I hope there’s enough time for them to mature.

The ‘Black Cherry’ tomato is doing well and still producing lots of little tomatoes. The ‘Roma’, ‘Big Boy’, and ‘Mr. Stripey’ are still producing fruit, but it has been weeks since we were able to harvest a tomato (tomato thief). If they get close, I may just pull them off the vine early and let them ripen inside.

In the last big storm we had, the top of my large Butterfly Bush toppled over; so I had to cut it back and it looks a little unsightly. That hasn’t seemed to discourage any of the butterflies, luckily. I’ll have to do a better job of pruning this fall when I can really see its structure.

The Roses Of Sharon are completely hitting their stride now. At first I was disappointed in the lilac blooms; but now I’m overjoyed because I have three different colors at once. The white blooms which I love and remind me of my grandparents are now flowering alongside the lilac and pink blooming shrubs. It’s a beautiful palate of colors.

The Evening Primrose is STILL blooming, especially now that our evening temperatures are cooling off. That plant has got to be near the top of my “no maintenance required list.” Other no maintenance all-stars include the Oakleaf hydrangea and catmint that I have in the front beds and have basically neglected all season, but you’d never know!

Summer is definitely winding down. We’ve had a few evenings where temps dipped down into the low 60’s! I love the cooler weather, but I’m missing the long days of summer already. However, fall is one of my favorite times of the year; what with grilling out and college football, does sit get any better?

I’ve started reading ‘Omnivore’s Dilemma’, by Michael Pollan. This has been on my ‘plan to read’ list for sometime. I had read Pollan’s ‘Botany of Desire’ years ago and thoroughly enjoyed it. Despite the craze, I had put off reading ‘Omnivore’s Dilemma’, mainly because I thought it was an anti-meat eating campaign. So far though, the focus has been primarily on corn.

Turns out corn is in almost EVERYTHING: it feeds our livestock, fills our gas tanks, creates our processed foods, sweetens our sodas, and on and on and on. Corn and its cheap (government subsidized) products have a lot to do with our country's obesity and diabetes issues too. Not to mention our dependence on petroleum...

And while it’s not altogether new information, it has reminded me why it’s such a good idea to buy organic when possible. I prefer grass-fed beef (I felt like they were probably happier cows than feed-lot steer); but it wasn’t until reading this book that I was faced with the health and ecological consequences associated with the feed lots.

I’m finished with the first third of the book, having mostly to do with corn. The following are some of my notes from the book in the hopes that I may interest others in reading it. If you eat meat, shop in a grocery store, or have concerns about our reliance on fossil fuels, it’s a must read. Needless to say, I’ll be abstaining from chicken nuggets and reading more ingredient labels in the future!

 Government subsidies acct for nearly half of an Iowa corn farmer’s income.
 Without humans to plant corn every spring, modern corn would disappear from the earth in just a few years because it physically cannot reproduce on its own.
 Fritz Haber, the “father of chemical warfare” discovered how to synthesize ammonia while working on dirty bombs for WWI. His discovery, which won him a Nobel Prize, allowed us to fix nitrogen to the soil and completely revolutionized our industrial food chain.
 It takes more than a calorie of fossil fuels to produce a calorie of food in our industrialized agricultural food chain.
 Cargill is the largest privately held corporation in the world; Cargill and ADM combine to purchase 1/3 of all American corn.
 3/5 of our corn ends up on American factory farms, being eaten by primarily cows, who are not corn eaters by nature. Corn fed cows are problematic; this diet makes the cows sick, creates antibiotic and acid resistant bacteria, and creates a toxic waste dump of their feces.
 1/5 of America’s petroleum consumption goes to producing and transporting our food.
 From birth to slaughter (1200 pounds), a cow will consume the equivalent of 35 gallons of fuel, that’s a nearly a barrel.
 1/10 of our corn crop ends up in our gas tanks.
 The chicken nugget, invented in 1983 is the reason chicken has surpassed beef as America’s favorite meat.
 Of the 38 ingredients in a chicken nugget, 13 can be derived from corn.
 The most alarming chicken nugget ingredient: TBHQ; this toxic preservative is derived from petroleum and is a suspected carcinogen and known mutagen, tumorigen, and reproductive effector.

photo credit

a bird in the hand...

The focus of this blog posting is not a plant, but rather a precious animal that came into our lives this week. Freddie, as we have come to call him, is a baby blue bird that I found outside the back door Tuesday night. He was on his back and thrashing about just steps from where I park my car in the driveway. (It should be noted that we aren’t quite sure what this bird’s sex is, but he looked like a Freddie to me so we just went with it).

It took me a few seconds to realize he was a baby bird, because he didn’t even have all his feathers yet. Once I turned him over on to his belly (I was wearing gloves), he immediately fell back on his side, and started making the sweetest chirping sounds I’ve ever heard. Evidently, this little guy could barely even walk. I cradled him in my hands and he rested there, silent and exhausted. I have no idea how long he had been struggling.

I placed him, gloves and all inside the mesh fencing that surrounds the tomatoes, thinking he would at least be safe from most predators until I could figure out what to do. I called Walden’s Puddle*, a fabulous resource for injured and orphaned wild animals in middle Tennessee, and left a message.

Their outgoing message had some extremely helpful information. As per their instructions I looked for a nest but couldn’t find one. (It was getting dark, and there are not many tree branches that could be easily reached.) They recommend bringing nestlings inside overnight, and keeping them in a small box with rags.

When Whit got home, we went to work making an appropriate box/shelter for him and relocating him inside. It’s really important not to handle baby birds very much, they are so fragile. I was surprised at how involved Whit wanted to be with helping this baby bird. I could tell Freddie had gotten to Whit too, and we were both going to do what we could to help this little guy.

[It’s important to differentiate nestlings from fledglings, since fledglings should be left alone. Nestlings are baby birds without all their feathers that spend all of their time in the nest being fed and staying warm. Fledglings are baby bids that are fully feathered and experimenting with flight, while being watched from afar by their parents.]

Have you ever heard that momma birds will abandon their young because of the scent of a human? This is a myth! The only time a mother might abandon her young because of human interference is if she sees her eggs have been tampered with, because this means a predator may be nearby.

I could tell Freddie was hungry; Nestlings are usually fed once an hour. So as per Walden’s Puddle’s instructions, we attempted to feed Freddie soggy dog food. In this way, as Whit pointed out, even Cooper was helping our foster bird child. We put a small amount on the tips of our fingers and Freddie sucked away. Feeding Freddie was one of the sweetest things I’ve ever been a part of, Whit even got a little misty-eyed.

The next challenge was keeping him warm. Walden’s Puddle suggests placing a heating pad under the box, but we didn’t have one available. My electric range top stays warm when the oven is on, so we kept the oven on low all night and set Freddie’s box on top of the electric range. (Whenever I start to tell this part of Freddie's story, people always have the most horrified look on their face when I mention the word oven.)

On Wednesday morning, Freddie awoke with even more energy than the night before. It was surreal to hear a bird chirping in the kitchen. I was thrilled that he had made it through the night. We fed him some more, and I decided to work from home until Walden’s Puddle called me back and I could drop him off there.

But I was still determined to figure out where this little guy had come from, and set out to find the nest once more. Low and behold, I found it! It was in a flower pot about halfway up the Baker’s rack I keep on my deck by the back door. There in the back of the pot was a nest made out of moss, and three baby birds that looked just like Freddie!

This would mean that Freddie fell out of the nest (several feet down), somehow got to the edge of the deck (about 6’ away), and then fell another few feet down to get to where I found him. I was skeptical that he could do all this maneuvering but this had to be his nest! I called Whit at work to let him know and set about reuniting Freddie with his family.

I took a few last pictures of Freddie and then placed him back in the nest with his siblings. I peeked out the window a few hours later and saw what I presume to be the momma bird, worm in mouth, making her way to the nest. I wish the nest was positioned in such a way that we could watch the goings on from inside, but alas we cannot.

A few hours later, Whit asked me how Freddie was doing and I looked out the window to see a little baby bird trying to stand up on the deck floor. I’m pretty sure Freddie had fallen out of the nest again. I quickly picked him up and put him back in his nest and started fretting about whether that had been the right nest, whether his siblings/mom had rejected him.

On Thursday, Whit counted FOUR baby birds in the nest and I was so relieved. Come to find out, blue birds often build their nests about 4’ off the ground. Also, they can have several broods a season and the older siblings typically help care for the new babies. It makes me feel better imagining an extended of family of birds watching over these 4 precious babies.

I’m hopeful Freddie and all the nestlings stay in the nest until they have more feathers and/or start to practice flying under the tutelage of their bird parents. I'm excited and nervous about watching Freddie and his siblings practice flight. I definitely feel like I have a vested interest in this brood and their well-being, and I look forward to updating everyone on their status.

A big ‘thank you’ to Walden’s Puddle* for providing us with the information necessary to help Freddie. It is such a wonderful non-profit organization, which like many these days is struggling to make ends meet. They are actually having a fundraiser this weekend, tickets and information can be found here.

*Walden’s Puddle is a non-profit organization dedicated to the rehabilitation of wildlife by providing treatment and care for sick, injured, and orphaned wildlife, as well as encouraging education which promotes a greater understanding and appreciation for wildlife and its habitat. Walden’s Puddle is unique in being the only professionally staffed non-profit organization and wildlife rehabilitation facility in Middle Tennessee.

Walden’s Puddle is properly chartered as a charitable non-profit corporation by the State of Tennessee and is approved by the Internal Revenue Service as a 501c3 organization. All donations are tax deductible. 615-299-9938 / P.O. Box 641 Joelton, TN 37080