Subject: [Tweeters] The Savannah Roll
Date: Jul 1 11:17:13 2012
From: Sherry Hagen - littlebirder at gmail.com


What an imagination but colorful.

Sherry Hagen
Vancouver, WA
littlebirder at gmail.com
On Jul 1, 2012 11:10 AM, "jeff gibson" <gibsondesign at msn.com> wrote:

> 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
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Tweeters mailing list
> Tweeters at u.washington.edu
> http://mailman1.u.washington.edu/mailman/listinfo/tweeters
>
>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://mailman1.u.washington.edu/pipermail/tweeters/attachments/20120701/69653150/attachment.htm