FreeLists / birdky / [birdky] Bird Report/ 8-8-02

["joyce porter" <joycelporter@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

This is a report for yesterday the 8th:

Osprey
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher

Osprey: seen 1/4 mile W of the RRSP airport NW Grayson Co.
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher:
was gleaning insects from a 9 ft tall bushy Pokeberry
plant(Phytolacca americana) Short Creek Community NW Grayson Co.

My admiration for the pokeweed is growing. This is the plant that
my mother used for greens in the early spring.We were farm people
and my mother was quite knowledgable about wild plants. As a young child she 
took me into the woods and fields and pointed out
edible wild plants . My father taught me the identity of trees in the woods.

Back to the poke greens. She used only the young, tender sprouts of
the poke plant which she mixed with Mustard greens that were grown in
a Hotbed.The hotbed she prepared and seeded in Jan or Feb.The cooking
of the poke was an elaborate procedure with parboiling and lots of rinsing 
in cold water. It was only after that when she added the fresh
mustard leaves and the cooking procedure began.

But this is a birding report .I watched a male and a female Cardinal,
each with a fledling in tow, come to the area of the feeders in the
lower yard a few years back. The female was flying up to the sunflower
tray , taking a seed, cracking it and giving it to her charge. The
male in the meantime was 30 feet away plucking the ripe pokeberries
and feeding them to his youngster.

So I leave several pokeberry plants about the property. They are colorful 
with their red stems and black berries and they attract
birds. How did I grow such a tall poke plant? It came up under my
the bird feeders at the upper yard which I can see out my kitchen
window. All that mulch and ferilizer. Joyce Porter Falls of Rough, Ky

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