September 20, 2017 – Caladiums and black bird migration

        Sunday afternoon we had a beautiful early fall day.  It was perfect for taking up my caladium bulbs.  I have the process down to almost a science.  I plant my caladiums in pots so that I can move them into or out of the sun, and control the water and fertilizer easily.  Also, at the end of the season I simply dump the pots out gently and shake the bulbs from the soil.

        Perfect gardening weather – cool and dry air for the end of season caladium “harvest” is what I consider it.  I move all the pots to a work location and segregate them by leaf color.  I have only red and white. [I keep saying I am going to get some pink ones, but so far I haven’t -  Maybe next year.]

I cut the stems down to about 3 inches and then gently turn the pot out into a shallow wheelbarrow.  I shake the bulbs from the soil, trim off the roots, and cut the stems shorter.  I lay the bulbs on a wire rack to air dry for several days – covering them with a tarp at night to keep the dew off them.  If rain is in the forecast, I toss an old shower curtain over them to keep them dry.  After about a week of drying, I gently rub more soil off them and I single layer them in cardboard boxes.  I mark the color on the inside of the box.  I store them in a 60-70 temperature area over the winter.

        Of course, my husband was watching me stage this project and when he looked at all the pots circling my wheelbarrow and my handy seat he said, “You’ll be there all day.”

        He got up and moved so that I wouldn’t enlist him to help. [Which is a bad habit of mine and he doesn’t appreciate it much.]   His excuse was that he wanted to sit in the sun.  I called to his retreating back,

        “No I won’t – I’ll be only an hour or two.”

        In the cool of the dappled shade, I proceeded to work and noticed incessant chirping of birds in not too distant trees.  Then I noticed the bird noise became louder and glanced around.   The birds were not in the trees within my sight, but were further east.  When I finished the red caladium group, I paused and again searched the tree canopy and surrounding area as the bird noise had now increased triple fold.   It felt like I was in the middle of Alfred Hitchcock’s movie set of The Birds.

        I also noticed our usual birds, cardinals, titmice, goldfinch, purple finch, chickadees, were absent from our feeders yet there was this growing crescendo of bird chatter.

        The white caladium group done [my project finished], I walked down to the large crepe myrtle tree in the lawn and pulled up a chair near my husband.

        I had already missed half the show . . . the lawn near the property line danced with starlings, or grackles or black birds.  [My husband mentioned starlings, then thought they might be black birds and I said, “Or, they could be grackles.”  I finally decided I would have to look them up in my bird book because I was not certain.

It was a glorious show – the birds kept coming and drifting further down the lawn into my neighbor’s yard and into the trees to roost a bit and then a dozen or two would fly off in a group.  I spent this time studying their silhouette in flight and on the ground.  That long thin tail had to be the key.

They were coming down the properly line on the backside of the shed from the large hardwood grove above.  I was fascinated as they flew so low to the ground – a foot to 6 inches as they glided in. They drifted apart to land in groups of 6 to 10.  The flock was eating insects in the lawn and moving quickly.  Then some would fly up into the ancient oak tree in the property line and many more would land to take their place on the lawn.  I tried to count just a patch of them, but as they were drifting in and flying off at the same time, I failed.

There had to be over 100 birds roosting at one time in the oak tree and they were picking at the limbs eating something. Having their fill, groups would fly off quickly replaced by others.  My husband suggested bugs and I suggested acorns.  It could have been both.

The minutes slipped by watching this lovely spectacle and suddenly, they were gone and it was silent again for a few moments.

Then, slowly my everyday birds starting arriving back at our feeders and the soft, sweet bird chatter drifted down to us on the lawn.

What an unexpected treat on a quiet Sunday afternoon. We don’t often get to witness a local migration. 

Later, I checked my Roger Tory Peterson field guide.  I can’t decide if the migrating flock was Common Grackles, Quiscalus quiscula, or Rusty Blackbird, Euphagus carolinus or Brewer’s Blackbird, Euphagus cyanocephalus.  The tail was long and thin, not like a Grackle – so I am now thinking they were one of the two Blackbirds listed.