more critter talk; was: Hi Tom~ Oregon chat

[Guest guest]

, " Tom " <antipreophogistiii>

wrote:

>

> Yes, I'm still in Ashland. My sleeping place is back up in the

> woodlands again. There have been bears going by, and my first night

> back a fox was barking at something on the hillside.

 

~ That sounds wonderful! You are very blessed to

live so close and in harmony with nature.

 

> It worries me,

> though, that there are no manzanita berries left.

 

~ i have never even seen a manzanita berry.

What do they look/taste like? Also, why do you

think there is a shortage of them this year?

 

> In the past, I've

> nibbled on those into the spring, but now they're totally gone. The

> bears and foxes both count on those. The bears are desparately going

> after what's left of the blackberries now, where they normally avoid

> those because of the briars. They're also eating acorns more now.

> I'm not sure how the foxes are going to cope.

 

~ i sure hope they can manage the winter.

Often this type of thing forces them to wander

into town to raid rubbish cans, and then people

get all upset, and you know it never ends well

for the wild animals.

The talk of foxes reminds me of another fact

i learned [new to me] about the grey fox.

i didn't know that they are the only canine species

that can climb trees. They often live up in trees

up to 30 ft. high. i have a little grey fox living around

my home here in GP, and i have noted in the past

how cat-like it appears.

 

 

> Sounds like a good visit from the folks. It's a funny concept:

> construction around what is still a living volcano.

 

~ Yeah, pretty funny really. We were lucky to find

something to eat up there as the only place serving

food was the hotel's restaurant, and we were

counting on eating lunch at the cafeteria in the

tourist lodge gift shop.

There was a really delicious portabella mushroom

sandwich on the menu.

 

Have a great day.

namaste

 

~ pt ~

 

A sacred being cannot be anticipated;

it must be encountered.

~ W. H. Auden, 'The Dryer's Hand'

[Guest guest]

, " ~ PT ~ "

<patchouli_troll> wrote:

> ~ That sounds wonderful! You are very blessed to

> live so close and in harmony with nature.

 

I definitely feel that way. Some people are puzzled about me moving

out of that place near downtown Ashland to my tent up in the

woodlands, especially this time of year, and in part it is this

being in the flow of natural life that I missed....

 

> > It worries me,

> > though, that there are no manzanita berries left.

>

> ~ i have never even seen a manzanita berry.

> What do they look/taste like? Also, why do you

> think there is a shortage of them this year?

 

Manzanitas are definitely like what their name means: Little apples.

Here, they're small and in clusters. Down around Mount Shasta

they're bigger and more singular. (A picture of one variety, more

like what's around Shasta:

http://www.bahiker.com/pictures/eastbay/losvaqueros/071700/websize/07

6manberries.jpg) They're akin to salal and mesquite, with those

pretty little vase shaped flowers in the spring. Mostly, they taste

like sweetened iced tea with lemon, though last year they got more

fully ripe and they had a taste that was very apple like. The

berries aren't juicy, and they're full of seeds, so the way to eat

them is to get a handful in your mouth at once and chew them lightly

to break them up, and then suck on them for the flavor. When the

flavor is gone, pick a spot where you might like to see more growing

and spit out the seeds.

 

I think it was a false spring last winter that got all the manzanita

trees to blossom early, but then there was a wind storm that

stripped off most of them. We are also just getting more bears, so

they may be just cleaning the trees off that much quicker. I'm also

wondering if they sprayed up there out of fear of west nile

mosquitoes, but getting the pollinators in the same swoop.

 

> Often this type of thing forces them to wander

> into town to raid rubbish cans, and then people

> get all upset, and you know it never ends well

> for the wild animals.

 

This is already happening here. Last year, from what I could piece

together from different sources, a momma bear was killed because she

was standing her ground with people. Her cub was resorting to

raiding garbage cans, pulling bags of garbage to under a tree and

going through them, with laden manzanitas just a few feet away.

Apparently the cub hadn't learned about eating the manzanita berries

yet - the scat of all the other bears were jammed packed full of

leftover berry bits. Cubs stay with their moms about two years. It's

clear to me that bears are very sophisticated animals with a

culture...

 

Last night, I was up towards my campsite. I happened to have my

laptop with me, so I stopped at a spot to see if I might be able to

find a wifi hotspot there (two networks showed up, but I wasn't able

to connect to them). While sitting there, a fox barked east of me

some ways off. Before I knew it, a fox barked to my more immediate

west, giving me a startle. I was blinded by the screen glow, so I

couldn't see it, but I held my hand out and spoke welcomingly. The

fox was satisfied, apparently, and went off. A little later, I was

going up to my site. I clap to let mainly the bears know I'm coming

through to avoid close encounters. I ended up startling a bear cub

who was up an old apple tree and came down with a crash, startling

me. It ran off across the field away from me - I could see it in the

moonlight. I looked warily around for a mom, but I didn't see any

sign of one. Otherwise, I got up to my site just fine, and it was

mostly quiet until some bird landed on my tent and called around

this morning....

 

> A sacred being cannot be anticipated;

> it must be encountered.

> ~ W. H. Auden, 'The Dryer's Hand'

 

Nice quote...

Peace and love,

Tom