WiseAcre Gardens

I’m used to things disappearing in the gardens. The weeds get nasty and hide my tools, the deer help themselves to whatever they want and the wife mows down my ‘wildflowers’. I’ve even had a wheelbarrow vanish. (proving other dimensions do exist) But how do you lose goldfish? And where did all the frogs that were in the pond go? Goldfish and frogs don’t vanish overnight. In fact it only takes a few minutes in the afternoon when you have an unexpected visitor looking for a free lunch.

The pets are great helpers. They knew something was up right away when I headed toward the pond. But that’s as close as any of them were going to get. Pookie always barks up the wrong tree and Kitty Kay realized that was no chicken dinner.

That was a Great Blue Heron snacking on my fish and frogs.

Not too many people can say they have to go to a bait shop to buy food for their bird feeders. But it might be more fun to go to WalMart. ‘I’m looking for something to refill my bird feeder. Where’s the fish and frog mix packed in water?”

 The Woodpeckers and Sapsuckers have returned to the area. They’ve been busy and some of the trees in the yard are showing signs of constant attention.

The sound of Sapsucker romance is in the air.  All week I’ve been listening to the steady tapping of the males sending messages of love and territory. This week the sound went from an organic woody drumbeat to a heavy metal percussion.

 The mystery of why the mailbox is always open has been solved. One bright bird brain has taken his courtship to the next level by using my mailbox. Now it’s rap, tap - bang! All day long, every day this week this courtship drummer has been pouring his heart out by beating his head against steel.

All week I’ve tried to get close enough to take a photo. Everytime I tried to get close enough he would fly off. He must have gotten used to me since I was able to get fairly close yesterday. I didn’t push to hard and took nearly a half hour to approach a little bit at a time.

As best as I can make out this is a Red-Naped Sapsucker. There are quite a few around my property. They seem to like the Basswood trees I hate so much. The soft wood must be easier to work. I know if I had to bang my head up against something for a living I’d pick something softer too. But when it comes time for love and finding a mate I guess theres nothing better than head banging a steel ‘drum’.

At this point I was only 15 - 20 feet away and moving closer every so often by inches afraid I’d scare the drummer away. I must have been standing nearly motionless for 20 minutes snapping these photos when suddenly the bird took flight. I was puzzled only for a second. Following the flight I spotted the reason right behind me. Black Jax had to come see what I was so intersted in.

I’m not sure but that looks like an evil grin on her face. I don’t know if she was thinking how tasty a sapsucker would be or if she was just pleased with herself for interfering with my photo shoot.

We hung out together but she wasn’t interested in posing so we ended up going off on our own ways. I went back to garden clean up chores and Jax had some kitty business that still needed attention. Once we left the mailbox it only took a few minutes before the sound of romance filled the air once again.

Rap, tap - bang bang bang! I sure hope it pays off for the little guy. He does have the loudest beat going on in the neighborhood. His heart is in the right spot but his head must be ringing by now. I can’t imagine any girl wouldn’t be interested by such devotion.