Raising Sparrows In My Deck at Pacific Gardens

Every morning I am awakened by the loud chirping of baby birds. This is usually around dawn and then goes on for the rest of the day. It is quite a chorus and they are very persistent in making their needs known…more food please!! This is the second family of house sparrows being raised in the birdhouse on our deck. I have been fascinated watching the various comings and goings of the parents.

Dad, the more colourful one, often sits on the top of the birdhouse or on the eaves of the house and seems to keep watch. As there are some cats around, I think this is a wise move. Mom comes flying in with some tasty morsel and as soon as she does, Dad flies off. They seem to come and go in rotation. I have found that they work amazingly well as a team. Both are feeding the young and take their responsibilities very seriously.

I am now learning of their different calls. The parents have a more mature kind of chirp and Dad seems to show off with a variety of very melodic tones. Sometimes he is very loud and boisterous. Other females have been hanging around, so I’m not sure if he is trying to attract them, or say keep away from my babies!! The babies are not melodic, just loud and wanting attention. It is just like the young of all species, that they cry or make lots of noise when they are hungry. So interesting to watch what happens in nature, and see that humans behave in the same way.

The babies kept inside the birdhouse for the longest time and I could only hear them. Now I see a beak peeking out every once in awhile, but as soon as they hear me open the door, they retreat and there isn’t a peep out of the babies. I am always amazed how they learn to keep quiet when they perceive danger. Who taught them? The Pacific Chorus Frogs do that as well. They can be making a huge racket and as soon as a car drives in or our footsteps crunch on the gravel, there is total silence. Amazing co-ordination!

I realized that in this hot weather our pond has dried up, so there isn’t fresh water readily available to the birds. I put out two water dishes with rocks in them, so they can drink and bathe while tending to the babies. I envision a very tall bird-bath in my garden, one that cats can’t access, but it will serve all the birds, bees, butterflies that regularly visit my flowers.

These baby birds are lucky that both parents are able to take care of them and keep feeding those hungry bellies. When one or both die, it probably means the death of the babies. That is one reason I don’t like to see domestic cats killing birds, as the cats don’t need the food, but they are having a devastating effect on the world-wide song bird population.

The most vulnerable time will be when the babies are flopping around, sometimes on the ground, while they exercise their wings and try to get air-borne. It is still summer, who knows, maybe this romantic couple will try for another family as soon as these babies leave the nest. They were certainly amorous when they found the nest box. It has been so much fun raising a family on my deck. I hope they make it!

Susana

How Community and a Tree-Climbing Cat Cured the Post-Election Blues!

It's hard to believe that it was more than a month ago since I've posted here...but fortunately Myriam has kept everyone up-to-date with what's happening with her beautiful pics of Pacific Gardens in bloom and its newest residents!

I could tell by the number of viewers that politics is not the favourite topic of those who read this blog, so that's a cautionary note for me that not everybody shares my passion for this topic.

I will say that I was both happy and unhappy with what happened, mostly unhappy.  I spent a few days trying to avoid feeling depressed about the election results, without much success.

It didn't help that Nanaimo city council had voted five to four to destroy Colliery Dam Park, one of the jewels in this city and certainly of the Harewood neighbourhood.

So I decided to give up and just wallow in negativity and get it out of my system.The best way to do this, I thought, would be to catch up on all the housework I had neglected during the election campaign.

I tussled with the dust bunnies, tossed out the garbage, sorted the recycling, and scrubbed the ring out of the bathtub. And you know what?  I started feeling better.

It was a case of if you can't clean up the world, you can at least clean up the grunge in the kitchen sink. And while I was vacuuming the grit out of the patio doors, I noticed something.

It was a beautiful spring day, and outside my window, the kids were swinging on the hammock and playing on the lush green grass, and the flowers were starting to bloom again in Susana's garden.

Some robins had built a nest in one of the old apple trees, and their song filled the air of the early evening, fragrant with the smell of grass and blossoms.  But something even  better happened - although it didn't seem that way at first.

A few months go Mykl and Laura had acquired a little tabby kitten, who is now at the stage of prowling outside.  The cat saw those robins, and immediately made a bee-line for the tree.

Up the trunk the feline scooted, tail switching, while the robins flew about in terror trying to protect their nest. The little cat went higher and higher until it was almost at the top of the tree, and then the robins began dive-bombing it.

The cat couldn't go down, and the robins wouldn't give up.  What to do? I rushed outside and got Mykl, who with the help of Kaj, put up the long, tall ladder we use for pruning and gleaning.

Mykly quickly clambered up the tree, and stretched his arm out as far as he could to haul down the recalcitrant kitty, who, despite the dive-bombing birds, was still determined to get at that nest.

So what was it about this little tableau that heartened me?  The coming together of the community members to rescue a cat up a tree?  The determination of the robins to protect their young?

I'm not sure. But it made me happy, and banished those post-election blues.

Kathryn

Mouse in da house

Eeek - we have mice at Pacific Gardens!  Actually, we've always had mice at Pacific Gardens, so you can get off the kitchen chair now.

It's only that we have just become aware as a community that we have several of the little critters living with us.

Folks here were happily - or unhappily as the case may be - dealing with them on an individual basis, before they found out that this was a collective problem.

As usual, we were alerted to it by an e-mail from our intrepid Mia. "I have the distinct feeling that our building is over run with mice. Mice getting ready for a mating spring ritual with babies, " she wrote.

"We need an all out response to get rid of those lovely little creatures and send some to heaven, wherever that may be."

And as usual, that resulted in a flood of e-mail responses.  It seems the mice had infiltrated almost everywhere, all the way to the top floor and down again.

I learned more about mice demise than I had ever learned before.  With traps - wood, dollar store or sticky?  (Wood not good; dollar store effective; sticky effective but icky.)

Peanut butter or cheese?  And when and where to place the tempting tidbits?  One strategy was to place them on a trap a couple of nights in a row before setting them.

Others swore by the mousing ability of cats.  Michelle offered the loan of her feline friend, whose favourite nighttime pastime was capturing the pesky rodents.

Then the heavy-hitters from the Building and Maintenance (known as BAM) weighed in.  People should clean more, keep food in containers, block off all holes where they may enter.

Chad pointed out that while preventative measures were good, they obviously hadn't worked. And since we believed in shared resources, we should buy good traps and loan them out.

The debate raged on while the mice played and people at PGCC borrowed cats, filled holes, bought containers for food, and became fanatic crumb-sweeper-uppers.

The final words of wisdom came from our elder Doris. "I think that mice are a fact of life, at least when you have all the close to nature features that we are so proud to show to prospective residents.

"People who live in the country have always had to use both prevention and control.  But all control measures have their limitations and neither prevention nor control can ever succeed completely.

"We just have to be watchful and use all reasonable measures in their proper context."

And my view of the solution to the mice conundrum? I'm not sure. I don't have any mice in my unit - yet!

Kathryn

Kids, Cats and Birds

I am grateful that my cohousing community allows pets as I am and have always been a cat lover. My beautiful black cat is shy with strangers, especially ones bearing vacuum cleaners, but he is very warm and social with me and likes nothing more than sitting on my lap when I relax, and sitting on my keyboard when I try to type.

I placed another cat, this one molded out of plaster at my front door to greet visitors. The plaster cat used to have a plaster mouse partner to keep it company until a boy in our community who shall remain nameless, accidentally, in the throes of play, knocked the mouse off of a ledge causing it to fall and break. I was very impressed when the same young man showed up at my door to apologise and take full responsibility for his actions.

What a great teacher this brave, principled young man was, quickly reminding me that we live closely together, we are likely to bump into one another or into one another's things, sometime causing harm and breakage, but that times like these can be opportunities to deepen friendships, grow, and build trust. His act of courage and doing the right thing instead of the easy thing allowed me to remember that one of the reasons we choose to live in communities is that we can learn and be inspired by small actions of others.

This incident happened at least a year ago and I had all but forgotten about it until the other day when I found a small bag at my door with a card that read:

Dear Sharon,

I'm sorry for breaking your mouse such a long time ago but here is a replacement. It's a bird that I painted.

It is delightful when your children perform acts like this, it is even more delightful when your neighbour's children do. Luckily, my cat likes birds even more than mice!

Sharon

The bird that landed on Sharon's doorstep

The Cat Didn't Come Back

Capi the Concierge Cat

Capi, Pacific Garden's concierge cat, is no more. He has gone to the great cattery in the sky, where, no doubt, he will be checking everyone who arrives and deciding whether they are fit to enter.

Capi (short for Capulet), in case you didn't know, was the feline who kept close guard over our parking-lot. Although somewhat small and scrawny beneath his leonine coat, Capi sauntered between our cars and on our sidewalk as if he were a beast at least three times his size.

His favourite spot to snooze was on the hood of a newly-arrived and warm car.  He seldom budged until he absolutely had to. It was not uncommon to open your car door, get into the driver's seat, buckle up, turn on the engine - and only then would Capi bestir himself, stretch, and ever so slowly, slide off the hood, all the while giving you the most irritated of looks because you had the temerity to disturb his well-deserved sleep.

Capi insisted on displays of affection. He simply would not let you pass until he had received a scratch behind the ears, and a word or two of murmured conversation. You would think that would be annoying, but he actually provided quite a therapeutic service.

There was something very soothing about communing with a cat after a difficult day at work or school, and his obvious delight in your attention was very affirming. Like most cats, he had a good understanding of human psychology, and knew what he could demand, and also what we needed.

Alas, Capi grew more frail in recent weeks, and began to show his age.  The bones underneath his coat became more prominent, and his fur became matted and dull. He seldom greeted people, and was content to lie in the middle of the parking-lot, forcing people to drive around him.

It was obvious he was tired and wanted to leave us, but just couldn't let go. Finally his owner, Shawna, had a chat with him, and gave him permission. That night, Capi walked away, and was never seen again.

I know what you're thinking - he was just a scruffy, beat-up old pussycat, so why the fuss? It's hard to say, but I think it's because he had become such a fixture of our lives here, we saw him as part of our community.

We'll miss him.

Kathryn