Agave | Mark Lindsay
Regular readers of this blog know of the Pyracantha Caper. For some time, someone had been decorating an agave plant along the old rail bed near our home with pyracantha berries. The berries were placed onto the thorny spikes of the agave in a somewhat festive manner. I decided to augment this clandestine activity with a flourish of my own berry decorations. It was a good way to spend that otherwise dull week between Christmas and the new year. I'd hoped others would participate in this secret, suburban art project. Alas, no one did.
I revisited the agave plant a week after my lonely decorating party, my heart bursting with expectation. Not only did no one add berries to the thorny plant, someone or some creature removed all of them that I'd applied. I'm officially blaming the smart-alecky birds that terrorize these parts and I'm accusing them of being the perpetrators. And, it's not only the crows. One would expect that kind of misbehavior from those bad boys. The truth is that there are lots of birds of all kinds around here that eat the fermenting pyracantha berries and then dive-bomb my truck with their berry-stained poop. I can deal with the red plops on the truck. But, did they have to eat my suburban art project?
See for yourself. I have photographic evidence. Those birds are lucky that all the shooting I do around here is with a camera. Thanks to the drunk birds (some who have flown into our picture window while inebriated) all the berries are gone from the art project and the trees. Therefore, readers take note: there will be no more suburban pyracantha art projects until late fall.