Monday, April 29, 2013

Pestiferous Wild Onions

The wild onions we have in the garden are pestiferous to the max.

We are going to experiment with several new ways of getting rid of them but in the mean time, the best way to get rid of them is to dig down to the very bottom of the stem and gently extract the onion bulb and all its bulbils.

If you don't, you leave the big bulb and all the baby bulbs  behind to resprout. It does take longer to get them all out but if you do you are rewarded by not having to get mess with them in the future.



We have new neighbors!

We now have another nest to watch at the garden. Last week I noticed a Carolina wren nest had been built in the corner of the ventilation window on the side of the shed. It actually is a really good place for a wren nest because it has a cool breeze, is totally protected from the elements and has a wide ledge for the nest to sit on.

Wren nests are very hard to peer into to count how many eggs are there. Cavity nesters (bluebirds and American kestrels) and birds such as osprey, great blue herons and peregrine falcon's that nest repeatedly in a particular place, are much easier to observe.

Even though bluebirds nest in boxes, you can wire the boxes with a nest cam and see all the activity in them. Last year my husband and I were addicted to watching an American kestrel nest cam in Boise Idaho.

Nest cams are video systems that you set up to live stream all the activity that occurs at the nest location. Most nest cams only work during daylight hours but some use an infrared camera so you can watch all night.

There are many local nest cams (just search for nest cams in Georgia). One that I know will be active for at least another month is in downtown Atlanta.  The peregrine falcon nest is on the the Sun Trust Plaza building, approximately 50 stories up. Since the nest is on a tall building, it is well lit so it can be seen in the sky. It certainly makes it easy to watch this nest 24/7.  Peregrine Falcon Nest -Downtown Atlanta.

Cornell Lab of Ornithology in New York has two nest cams and links to others (Cornell University Nest Cams). This year they have links to 2 osprey nests, a red-tailed hawk and a great blue heron.  The American Kestrel Nest Cam just went live so there will be activity for the next 2 1/2 to 3 months for that box.

On the Green Meadows Bluebird Trail we have Carolina Chickadees, Eastern Bluebirds, Tufted Titmice and Tree Swallows nesting in the boxes.  There aren't any nest cams on those boxes but here is a link to the Bluebird Blog Nest Cam post if you want to watch bluebird nest cams.