Did you have berries just a few months ago.....or did the berries just never appear this season?

I am noticing the same thing with my flower blooms. they are no where. I guess its too late to give it a fertilizer specifically to make them bloom. huh?

michelle

Sometimes I think alot more is going on in nature than we are aware of. I guess I'm referring more to trees. Last year, we hardly had any black walnuts at all (have hundreds of trees), and hardly any acorns. This year, there are tons of both. I think fruit/nut production waxes and wanes for reasons that we humans can't always understand.
Sorry.....I know that answer doesn't help much. But I'll bet next year you'll have alot again.

Yes, we had lots of flowers and berries this year, they just got gobbled up over the summer, long before now and now there is nothing left for the winter birds when the snow is knee/thigh deep.

I suppose you could be right CathT...could be just a fluke or just some strange rhythm of nature or something. Our trees were more prolific this year than the 2 previous years, particularly the maples (our woods is largely sugar maple) and this past spring we had to literally shovel those maple flower thingies (stringy yellow things) off our roof, eves troughs, patio and walkway. It was almost silly how many flowers they had this year. The previous 2 years there was a fair bit but nothing to what we got this year, it was as if we'd had a yellow, stringy snowfall and boy were they messy since they stain your concrete with black marks.

I walked out to our city's old arboretum today and had one of my very rare brainstorms. I'm going to collect berries from the elderberry, viburnums and mulberry bushes and freeze them to use in home made suet cakes this winter. Just have to find out if they need to be blanced to freeze or if they are ok to just put in freezer bags and straight into the freezer.

Barb

Hi Barb,
Keep this in mind, and see if you have a harder-than-usual winter. Sometimes it seems that animals somehow know what's coming, when we don't.
Or....perhaps their usual habitat has been turned into a mall or a subdivision, and they've all come to eat at your buffet??
I'm sure you can just freeze the fruits. Blanching would probably just turn them to mush and destroy any nutrients. I know when I freeze blueberries for us, I just wash them and pop them in the freezer and they are great.
Try not to worry too much about the birds in the winter. There is lots of natural stuff out there for them to eat.
I quit feeding the birds about 3 years ago, when I got chickens, and was worried that the coons (who come to eat the fallen birdseed), would bother my chickens. The birds still find tons of stuff to eat around here. Weeds are our specialty!!
I think sometimes we humans give more importance to what we do to "help" the birds than is really the case.
We also had tons of ash and maple seeds this year. We talked about something similar to this last year. I believe it was a post started by Dirtgirl. I'll see if I can find it.

I certainly appreciate what you are saying CathT about us feeding the birds beyond their needs. I guess I just feel sorry for them here in my area because our subdivision USED TO BE a sizeable woodlot on the outskirts of the city. Now it IS the city and the woodlot is nothing more than a "remnant" which has taken away the habitat from not only birds stopping over on their migration but quite a few large mammals. Since we moved here 3 years ago, we have had several species of ducks paddling around in mudpuddles which were likely almost ponds before the bulldozers moved in. We've had Canada Geese walking around our front and back yards grazing on the grass, we have a Blue Heron who sits on our fence and rooftops, a sharp shin hawk that seems to have moved away for better buffet areas, several families of ground hog that have slowly been driven out as the number of houses has increased, we've had coyotes running through our subdivision, the usual skunks, rabbits and at least 2 families of red fox. I guess I feel guilty that all these animals are driven from their homes now and that the migrating birds come back to their rest spot only to find that their rest spot no longer exists. We even had a migration of Monarchs that was really cool. All this inside a city subdivision but it's also sad to think that this was once their home and now we are driving them out or that they will be trapped and killed by the city because most residents will see them as a "nuissance" or "danger to their kids". Believe me, the city folk here go ape-sh*t when they see a red fox or coyote running through their back yard. They don't see our lots as the animal's previous "home", they have such a narrow view of things that they actually believe that these animals are "invading human space". It's sad all around. I don't want to encourage the large mammals by feeding them of course but I also don't mind living peaceably with them roaming my yard either (unlike all my other neighbours). But the birds I feel sorry for because they get here and find their rest station habitat destroyed and "lawns in the woods" rather than all the luscious berries that used to carpet the woods floor. Now the migrating birds have next to nothing to eat when they get here and the field beyond our house has been destroyed this year as it has become the next phase in the development. It's still dirt but all the weeds and grasses have been bulldozed away so there is absolutely nothing for the birds to eat.

I've lived here for 3 years now and pondered the idea to start a neighbourhood "gardening for nature" group but I can already see by all the "lawns in the woods" that most all the neighbours couldn't give a cr@p. It's very disheartening.

Barb
southern Ontario, CANADA

Barb, Dont be discouraged by other's lawns. Maybe you are just the person to 'plant the seed' of a new way of thinking. Have you seen the recent movement of "edible landscapes" being planted by volunteers? If you were to gather info that non-animal loving neighbors could relate to, most of your work would be done. Planting a new idea is always hard if not presented right. For example, we like edibles for the animals but some might like it cuz it costs less than all the water, "fertilizer", "pesticides", lawn service bills, etc.

I used to volunteer at the local Wildlife Care Center and learned that with all of the loss of habitat, it is absolutely necessary to feed the birds. All of their food sources are being taken away and most people dont see the what is happening to these birds. It is really sad.

Michelle