One of the tasks of spring as the yard is uncovered from its winter slumber is to clean the birdbath. The 30 year old garden feature has a crack in it so I have to check to see if it needs sealing before the summer bathing season. What I found surprised me and presented an interesting mystery. 113 seeds were sitting in the birdbath. 60 of one kind and 53 of another. A seed Cache? Bird droppings? There were no seeds on the ground and I can't imagine seeds remaining there too long. They do represent food for many bird species but there they where in plain sight. Does anyone else have a similar mystery? Jerry ( photo / image / picture from Jerry Sullivan's Garden ) ( photo / image / picture from Jerry Sullivan's Garden )
Maybe something blew into it for the whole winter and of course the seeds would drop to the bottom and remnants of flower would flow out with the rain and there you have it. Seeds. I would try to grow them and see what they are. They look like very soaked apple seeds.
The seeds in the second cup look to be apple seeds, 53 of them. More than one or two apples. I don't think the first picture has apple seeds. An awful lot of seeds in one place, not coming from one fruit. Somehow they would have to be separated from the fruit. Jerry
Yes Jerry. I guess they went through a crows digestive system while he was sitting on the edge of the bird bath. That sounds even better.......
All my chipmunks are well trained, they take their seed storage seriously and all seeds go down into their burrow. Leaving seeds somewhere else is asking another chipmunk to fatten his stash Jerry
Strange...I like the idea of planting a couple & see what you get. But what about putting the rest back & see what happens? Oh, but wait,where was this bird bath? Was it in storage? Could it be mice?
Despite the height of the birdbath, a mouse could have stored food there while snow was on the ground during the winter. Since mice do not hibernate they have many caches of food to get them through the winter. As the snow melted access to the birdbath would be prohibitive. While mice can jump about a foot and are excellent climbers, they would need climbing gear now, to get out and around the bowl. The stash would be rendered inaccessible. Good timing had me there before the birds. Jerry
They look like apple seeds in the one, and pear seeds in the other. Both look a lot alike. They are from some kind of fruit, and you may like to have more fruit trees around. Apples do not breed true to the cultivar, but you will still get apples. I am not sure about pears. I do have two pear trees growing close to each other that are the same as the pear scraps I tossed there years ago. Pear trees get thorns, so if your new trees get thorns after a few seasons, they are pears. Likely a rodent of some kind used your birdbath for his stash.
I will plant the birdbath seeds along with the 'Time Machine' seeds the first week in May. Anyone with an eye for containers, the seeds are in a 'rescued from the re-cycle bin' container. (just to keep things in the limelight) Rescued Re-cycle stuff: http://www.gardenstew.com/about28168.html Time Machine seeds: http://www.gardenstew.com/about28679.html Jerry
Very mysterious Jerry,..something went through a lot of work to collect all those seeds and hoard them,..poor bugger either died or forgot about them,..still love to know will they become seedlings,..fingers crossed.
