Looking back it almost embarrassing how much time I’ve let slip by, sense my last post. This is also an all-too common entry that I find myself jotting down whenever I get around to making entries in my Garden Journal.
It’s not that there’s been a lack of things going on in the garden or events to attend. Rather it seems as though the gardening year has been racing past, and I find that I am constantly trying to play catch-up between what needs to be done and the progression of Spring into Summer.
Everything that I’d planned on getting into the ground had been planted. Most all to the woody plants that perished over the past winter (and there’s been a lot, more so than I can recall previously), had been removed. I have kept up with the weeding, at least that was the case until we returned home from the ACS (American Conifer Society) Central Region’s Annual Meeting earlier this month. The rapidity with which the weeds shot-up made it look as though we’d been away for a couple of weeks rather than the 3 days we’d spent in Dayton, Ohio with fellow Cone-Heads.
But the jungle of weeds was tamed, nearly all of the new conifers found a home in the garden (after all I did have a lot of vacancies to fill), and besides, back in early June it was still relatively cool and rains were still plentiful. Then the Summer’s heat got turned on!
Being homeowners of an old house means there’s never a lack of things that need doing, so as Andreas’ school year had ended, she set her sights on organizing the basement (and by she I mean “we”). It was fine really, I mean I’m of an age where I can not work outdoors all-day like I used to. Despite the temperatures being in the mid-to-upper 90’s and matching humidity, the basement was a refreshing mid-60’s, so it was working out pretty well all in all.
Then one afternoon around 3:30 (just when it was really getting toasty outside), and I was walking some trash to the bins I happened upon this:
A Norway Spruce tree, that I’d topped and stripped of branches year’s ago, so that I would have a place to hang another nest-box for the smaller owls (Screech & Saw-Whet’s) had fallen over, and it wasn’t even a breezy day!
Of course there was a large rock that has been laying-in-wait for just this day, as the nest box landed squarely on it, smashing it to pieces! As I gently lifted some of the larger sections, I was surprised not by an owl or owlets but a very strange looking squirrel. Its’ small size, somewhat over-sized, black eyes and fur color, clearly made it a Northern Flying Squirrel. We’ve had Flying Squirrels in other nest-boxes on the property.
The strange part to me, was the very wideness of her body as well as a somewhat clumsy and labored gait as she made her retreat downhill and under the cover of a large Hosta. This was either a very pregnant mom-to-be, or she was making her escape with her young tucked up and under her sail-like flaps of fur. As I stood there trying to think of all of the bad things that could happen to her and young, my eyes were attracted by movement overhead. Papa-F S. came sailing down from above, flared and landed on the trunk of another large Norway Spruce and then quickly scurried up out of sight into the branches above.
OK, I guess I’m putting up another Nest-Box on this tree. Certainly not something on my list of things to do today, but certain calamity awaited this now-homeless family and I wasn’t even sure I had all of the supplies on hand.
First thing was to get out the ladder remove all of the branches from the section of trunk above and below where the box was to be mounted. Ideally the box should be mounted a good 20ft or more up off the ground, however my ideal weight for climbing up that high into trees is years behind me, and they were just going to have to make due with less than ideal.
As I had no plans to preform any tree-topping, that meant I would have to place a metal collar around the trunk several feet above where I would hang the nest-box, in order to prevent out many resident Red Squirrels from climbing down the trunk from above, and making a meal of my intended occupants as well as taking over their new home. After I’d secured the metal flashing, I decided I needed to remove several additional branches (above the collar) to stop marauders from safely leaping from those branches and grabbing the tree trunk below the collar. So down I went, and higher up the ladder got extended, to a height taller than what’s shown here, and off went more branches.
Then I needed to round up the wood and fasteners, haul out the saw horses and required tools and get busy. This nest-box came together rather quickly, and I had a bag of wood shavings on hand (from my Good Buddy Don), so I added a generous 5-6″ worth into the box.
I returned to what was left of the old box hoping Mom might have gone back to her former place of security, and coax her into the new box (I had not attached the roof yet) but there was no sign of her or any youngsters.
Living with Red Squirrels for 3 plus decades, I’ve come to know them as persistent, to say the least. I thought of one more thing I could add as a deterrent, and that was a covering the roof with aluminum This would prevent the “Red Villains”, from gaining any purchase, in the event one felt embolden enough to jump down off the tree trunk (above the upper metal collar) and land on the nest-box roof. A feat probably done only once as they’d go sliding right off!
Confidant that I’d done the best that I could, to give my charming if rarely-seen “Honey-Glider” co-residents, a snug (and Red-Squirrel proof) home, I looped a rope around the new box, and grabbed the drill to rebore the holes to bolt the box to the tree.
And got the new box hung, all in about 3-4 hours. As I said earlier it was a hot day (wicked-hot), and I was completely oblivious about the fact that Andrea had been taking any pictures of any of this. Fortunately she did or as with every other thing of interest that’s transpired of late, I’d have nothing to post about. I did place another metal collar around the lower part of the tree (to keep the Red Pillagers from climbing up the trunk) but by the time that happened Andrea had already had enough of my nonsense and retreated indoors.
The other thing I need to mention, is that I don’t want to convey that I was anything less than thrilled, to be able to watch an actual Flying Squirrel fly! I’ve seen them poke their heads out of a nest box entrance when I’ve rapped on the tree trunk down below. But to see one in action was a lifetime moment for me. I think I’ll have to get a Game -Cam and mount it on a neighboring tree, as Andrea’s never seen one, and such a pic would have added a lot to this post!