The Magic of Apples

As you probably know, there was a ridiculous apple crop last year. Our Winesap tree made so many that I fell behind on clean up in the fall....I try to get the drops out from under it to help control pests...and the ground is covered with old apples. 

And as you know we saw a big flight of robins last week coming in from the neighbor's fields and landing on our old horse pasture, which is quite grown up to brush.

They stayed around. We saw them every morning over by the barn. I wondered what they were eating. At least part of that question was soon answered. Bird poo on the driveway was full of riverbank grape seeds...thanks, guys, I really needed lots more little grapes planted everywhere. There were sumac berries here and there too, dotting the snow like drops of blood.

Then this morning, Alan looked out the window over the sink and exclaimed, "Robins!"

And so there were. Apparently the whole flock, and there truly are at least a hundred, had stopped by for applesauce. I guess I'm glad I didn't get the apples cleaned up after all. It was funny to watch them surfing over the fruit, beaks dripping apple mush and chirping so melodically. Plumb made my day.

Hairy woodpecker taking the sun and banging on the dead boxelder behind the house

Resident red-tailed hawk in a cottonwood down by the river