A battle for the raspberry patch

The battle was fierce.

A female Bullock’s oriole had snuck in and was gathering raspberries from my patch as I began to pick them. Suddenly a family of Cedar waxwings decided they wanted the patch for themselves. The waxwings ganged up on the oriole and off she flew dripping berry-juice from the corner of her mouth.

Then a House wren couple thought the waxwings were too close to their youngsters and started an argument with the waxwings not unlike the Republicans and Democrats in the House of
Representatives. I was startled when something hit my shoulder and turned my head to come eye-to-eye with a juvenile waxwing.

It was time to put down the bucket and go get my camera in case someone needed evidence of this for a trial.

As I settled down at the edge of the raspberries I noticed the wrens and waxwings were still at it; the non-berry eating wrens hollering while the waxwings wolfed down the juicy over-ripe berries. A migrating rare Twelve-spotted skimmer dragonfly landed on a dead raspberry stock to watch the show with me. Several times it flew away only to return to the same stock.

A Yellow warbler flew in to grab a creepy crawling bug only to be chased off by the wrens as both are insect eaters. Then things got a little interesting. Almost simultaneously three orioles, a Lazuli bunting, an odd colored House finch with an odd shaped bill along with a pair of Rufous hummingbird flew in.

Trying to get pictures of all the activity was impossible as most buried themselves deep in the thick tangled untrained fruit producing bushes. The finch and two female orioles worked their way to me and I was able to capture them as they kept an eye out for the gluttonous waxwings. A pair of wrens finally drove the male oriole out of cover where he quickly grabbed a berry and headed for a different venue to consume it.

While taking a picture of a ravenous waxwing harvesting a berry I heard the whistling of diving wings – a Merlin had come to get breakfast for her kids down in the Teton River bottoms. While it flew off with a young waxwing a pair of Western kingbirds joined the orioles and waxwings as they attacked the predator as it flew off with brunch for her children.

I sat there for a few more minutes with the dragonfly returning to its perch while the wrens talked quietly in a nearby pile of scrap wood.

With most of the birds gone, I started picking the undamaged ripe berries, leaving the partially eaten ones to be finished off by the birds when they returned. I quit after picking one and a half gallons leaving the rest for another day – if they survive the birds.

Somebody asked why I allow my berry patch to grow wild and become so large. I do it because I can watch some of the greatest shows on earth there and it beats watching the political fights on TV.

The fights in the berry patch are for real and not entertainment for the partisan humanoid tribes.