I like food rolls, like Egg Rolls, Spring Rolls, and particularly Sushi Rolls in their many forms. Up here in Snohomish County we got a big new vegetarian roll - the Savannah Roll .Really they're just those new-fangled hay rolls one see's these days in place of old-fashioned hay bales. Wrapped in white plastic, they have the appearance and dimensions, of a giant roll of toilet paper in a wrapper.

Arriving on the scene of Fields Riffle (just downstream of Snohomish) on June 28 I found the hayfields there newly mowed and rolled up! I'd been warning the local Savannah Sparrows about this annual event, since on recent trips there I noted that this beautiful patch of grass - I call it a Savannah in honor of the local sparrows- was due to be mowed. "Hang on to your tail feathers because your hood is about to be rolled!" I told those birds. I do wonder how tuned into this event the Savannah's are, since they are here every year. Maybe they have their first brood done in time- probably, since they prevail here.

Anyway, it was all mowed, rolled and bagged. In the fall cutting in October last year, I was also around just after the fact, and reported on Tweeters on finding the field "full" of Ravens (more than 20 ) stalking, and eating, the many newly exposed Voles (AKA meadow mice) after their nice sheltering meadow done got rolled. I thought that was somewhat exceptional for the general area. So I had that in mind, but kind of thought that I wouldn't find Ravens this time of year. But I did- three Raven's flew up as soon as I arrived, then flew off. There were also Crows out in the field, 10 or so, and they stuck around, hunting the field. Last year the Ravens were hauling out many full grown Voles, but the Crows were getting smaller stuff. One Crow did hit a mouse "mother load"- a vole nest, and glorked down several baby mice like Corvid sashimi (furry, with tails). Interestingly, every single Corvid out there, Raven and Crow alike, were panting, mouths open even in flight. It was barely 70 degrees, but I suppose warmer on the ground out in the field. That got me to thinking about what the evolutionary benefits of being a black bird are. It's sort of a downer on a warm day, being such a great solar collector. But of course Raven's live quite well in the desert.

What with the white-wrapped Savannah Rolls and all, looking like a field of giant T.P. rolls, I did come up with a great Tourist scheme for the County ag boosters: Paul Bunyan's Outhouse. Doing some simple landscaper math in my head (the only kind I'm capable of) I figured that based on the size of the Savannah Rolls that Paul's outhouse would have be about 90 ft tall. It could be built out of recycled barn wood from all the many ancient , and failing, barns around here. But this would'nt just be some tacky cornball tourist deal, it would also double as bird habitat! Just think of it: each corner of the structure could incorporate hollow tubes - four 90 ft Vaux's Swift roosts! Add numerous holes, shelves, and grottoes and imagine the swallows, barn owls, woodpeckers etc that could nest there! Not only the worlds largest outhouse, but the worlds largest birdhouse! To make it even more Green, neighboring Riverside Topsoils could extend their composting facility to the base and make it the worlds largest composting toilet. Just sayin.

On the way out of the field ( Lazuli Buntings still there) the farmers were back on their tractors, and I got to see how they wrap those rolls. With a slick rotating roller attatchment to the tractor the oparation works remarkably like an Orb -Weaver spider wrapping its prey in wide swaths of spider silk. Well, sort of. I haven't witnessed how them rolls are made- yet.

Jeff Gibson
rolling down the river road near
Snohomish WA