Reason for a Change-Mitch’s Blog

The Cooper’s Hawks are long gone from Dunn Woods, I’ve neither seen nor heard them for over a week. The fledglings, at least 3 of them, maybe more, were there, loud and hungry, during the last week of July, but have been gone since the first of August. They would fly back and forth through the trees yelling for food and waiting for the a parents to show up with the latest catch. The juveniles were easy to spot, not only did they call as they flew, but the distinctive white band of feathers at the end of the tail was easy to see as they flew and when sitting on a branch. I think the parents could not keep up at the end, there was quite a ruckus when they showed up with food, and I think they either led the kids out into the wider world, or just stopped showing up with food, but as they all disappeared at once, I get the feeling they could have left together.

A couple of weeks ago I saw one of the parents fly in to the squalling crew and land on a high branch with something in its claws. As the fledglings flew closer, the parent released the prey, but none of the kids flew to catch it as it dropped. I assumed this was their way of teaching the kids how to hunt on the fly, which is what they do best.

During that last week they were especially noisy, and I could hear 3, maybe 4 fledglings calling at once, and my guess is that the parent were coming less frequently, till eventually all the kids got the message and headed out on their own, or followed their parents out of the Dunn’s Woods nursery into the wider world spurred by hunger.

We went to see the hometown crew, the Bleeding Heartland Flatliners, in their match with Louisville this Saturday nite, what a hoot. I know 3 members of the team, X Libras, Truly F Obvious, and Unicoroner, but had never made it to a match.

The match was held at the Sportsplex on West Second St., what an enormous building. We arrived on time, but the parking lot was filled and we had to park at Twin Lakes. Now I expected this to be the rough and ready tattoo and piercing crew, and they were there, but the mix was much broader. To my surprise the first two people I ran into while parking were Michael Hoff and John Fernandez. so I knew something was going. Later I learned that a leading jammer (don’t ask) and soccer star, is related to Steve Fergeson. So the home town crowd was there in full force, the people you see in Bloomington in the summer are the real homers.

Tony Brewer was one of the three announcers, and he explained the rules before the start, but it went over my head, I guess, because once the match started, I couldn’t stop laughing, I just did not understand what was going on, but it was fast and furious, with each two minute “race” starting just half a minute after the end of the previous one, with a new batch of rollergirls off the bench, and new blocker and jammer. (Blockers are self-explanatory, but the Jammers are the one that the team tries to put out front (they start back from the crowd.) Here is a video of a lap or two, you can hear the crowd and feel the bumps. The gym was rocking for 2.5 hours, they even had a halftime show (with $2.00 beer!)

This event is recommended to one and all, there were plenty of families with kids, oldsters, youngster, and everyone in between. This is bread and circuses for the homies, with a very feminist feel to it, quite the show, I felt proud to be a Hoosier, when I could finally stop laughing.

Day before yesterday I was showing Eileen the nest the Cooper’s Hawks built early this spring, then abandoned, or so I thought. There was a big storm with lots of cold wind when they first nested, and I did not see them again for 2 months. But while we were looking, one of the hawks flew to about 20 feet from us and landed on a low branch.

Then last night as I was going home, I heard calls from all over the woods, there must have been at least 3 birds flying and calling, it seemed one was in the nest, the other a few trees away, and a parent or two flying around. I am assuming the the fledglings are just learning to fly, and the parents brought them to the woods for hunting lessons. I’ll be keeping my eyes and ears open in the next few weeks,
Cooper’s Hawk call

After reading about the Three Sisters Garden in James Alexander Thom’s book Red Heart, I decided to give it try this year. I happened to run into Mike Andrews and Nancy Rheinhart, and started talking about the idea as Mike was the person who got me started gardening at the Wild Grove Garden at Rogers and 10th St back in 1980. It was the first community garden in Bloomington, created by and for the westside neighborhood. The lot was (and is) empty, owned by IU and nothing but tall weeds and wild garlic when it started. There was a diagonal path across the garden, everyone who walked downtown from the hill passed through. We did well there for several years, till IU in its wisdom cut down everything, destroying the crops without notice.

So I Mike and I have some history in gardening, and he offered to let me garden at a house near mine, he and Nancy have been caretaking the home for several years, but do not have time to garden there as they live in Canada during the summer. So I took it on, wanting to learn more about gardening naturally. I haven’t watered yet, I always try to get seeds and plants in the ground just before a good soaking rain, this always works. Anyhow, there is no water at the house, so I have little choice.

My 3 sisters garden is doing well so far. I got the corn in quite late it seemed, the rain just keep on coming, but as it is on a hill, it never really flooded. The corn seemed so puny when it came up, but it is now over waist high, and it’s not yet fourth of July. The squash is beginning to send out runners, and beginning to shade out the weeds. I gave it a good start on this with straw mulch, as well as some early weeding and hoeing. I planted Kentucky Wonder beans about 2 weeks after the corn sprouted, and they are just starting to send out vines, they will be climbing the corn by next week.

I’ve had some rabbit trouble, they eat the growing ends of the squash, and they set back the growth of my little Jerusalem Artichoke patch, but once they get established, they will be fine. The neighbors along Hunter warned me about deer in the neighborhood, but I’ve found no evidence of them in the garden. I placed a couple of surprises from Wireless Deer Fence around the property, but I don’t know if they were activated by deer or not.

Eileen, Tim and I went to Nick’s for a benefit for Mother Hubbard’s Cupboard on Thursday night. Raggs has done a great job with the menu, really making their food some of the best in town. The profit from the food and bar, as well as the tips from the waitresses went to the Hubb, they do this each week for one group or another, quite amazing. We filled the back room, folks came and went, and we all had a great time.

We missed the Market last week because of the massive storms and flooding, but are looking forward to it this week. The week before was great, except the new blacktop coating on the lot was tough on the nose. I have been getting out in the crowd more, playing the songs is mostly autopilot, but connecting with the kids, making folks smile, is what it is all about. I’ve learned to smile while playing, people seem to get more from a tune played by happy musicians, and when they get happy, I get even more happy, quite a feedback loop! The coolest part is when I move close to a baby or toddler in a stroller, and they tune in to the fact that I am playing to them, their faces light up, and it is all worthwhile.

Earlier this spring I was walking on the east side of Dunns’s Woods, when I heard some rustling in the woods. I looked around for a squirrel, or maybe a bird in the leaves, but I saw nothing. I then heard the rustling again, and saw the leaves moving, making line of popped up leaves as the creature beneath was moving.

I’d seen a mouse on the other side of the woods by Bryan Hall last year, it was eating a discarded sandwich, but was running under the vines instead of leaves. I kept watching and in a moment, two rodents appeared out of the rather large pile of leaves a few feet from the brick path. I was taken aback as they could not be mice, they were not quite the right shape and their noses were not pointed, but rather squared off like a mole. But they were not moles, I’ve seen them. These animals were scampering after each other, perhaps mating.

I tried to remember their look and first googled mouse and vole, but found the shrew family. I looked at the DNR website and found a listing of mammals in Indiana, and the Northern Short-tailed Shrew, Blarina brevicauda, the largest and most common of North American shrews was surely what I saw. Not only were the pictures I found a match, but even more convincing was that their habitat and behavior were exactly right. I can now see their leaf tunnels and even a larger “house” that I previously assumed was a pile accidentally left by the grounds crew. The shrews were larger than a mouse, and gray all over, with a nose that was squared off at the end. I did not see that they had four toes rather than the five of rodents, but that must have been the case.

I found out that the shrew is not a rodent, but actually a part of the soricidae family, which contains both mole and shrews. This was most evident in the nose, and their body shape and color a much different from a mouse. Here is some interesting stuff from the Smithsonian website:

“Northern Short-tailed Shrews have poisonous saliva. This enables them to kill mice and larger prey and paralyze invertebrates such as snails and store them alive for later eating. The shrews have very limited vision, and rely on a kind of echolocation, a series of ultrasonic “clicks,” to make their way around the tunnels and burrows they dig. They nest underground, lining their nests with vegetation and sometimes with fur. They do not hibernate. Their day is organized around highly active periods lasting about 4.5 minutes, followed by rest periods that last, on average, 24 minutes.”

They live short active lives, rarely getting to 2 years old, and they eat massive amounts of food, up to half their body weights in some species. I’ll try to keep track of them, but if they sleep as much as mentioned above, I may not find them.

On Wednesday, June 4, we had 4 inches of rain in less than an hour, and guess what, the Big Dig did not accomplish its main goal of ending flooding downtown. Apparently the box culvert did not improve the flow, at least not enough to avoid the worst flooding in decades. Cars were floating in the street, people were playing in the street (in the water), and the pace of life slowed just a bit, just for a while.

I put my videos of the flooding on YouTube, here is one:

Here is a slideshow of my pictures of the flood, bigger versions are here

Tim, Eileen and I had dinner at Turkaz on Sunday nite, we don’t have much time to get together, and he is leaving soon for the west coast. Tim has 2 jobs, a bunch of activities, and too much to do before leaving, but I am sure it will all get done.

Last night, Eileen and I attended the Changing Gears presentation at the MCPL, and the Green Drink sendoff party at Nick’s. Melissa and Andy are on a great adventure with this ride, I wish the very best for them.

As I was riding home past Ballantine Hall, and I saw the first firefly/lightening bug of the season, so the official first sighting of 2008 is May 29.