Some road ditches and fields are displaying yellow flowers which are attracting a lot of bees. Birdsfoot Trefoil is a plant used in agriculture as a forage plant for pasture, hay and silage and used as an alternative to alfalfa in poor soils. It has become an invasive species in some regions of North America.
The flowers develop into small pea-like pods or legumes. The name ‘bird’s foot’ refers to the appearance of the seed pods on their stalk. There are five leaflets, but with the central three held conspicuously above the others, hence the use of the name trefoil.
The wheat and oats are ripening and you can see combines in the fields but once in a while you can see an image from the past.
Typically, grain binders, invented in 1872, were most common in the humid Midwest where the grain dried unevenly, and it was necessary to have additional drying before it was threshed. Early grain binders were all ground-driven and pulled by a team of horses around the field. As the horses pulled the grain binder forward, the driving wheel was rotated, which powered the sickle and reel of the grain binder. As the reel rotated, it bent the grain stalks inward towards the sickle, and the sickle cut the grain stalks off a few inches above the ground. A cloth canvas then conveyed the grain to a gear driven knotter which tied several stalks together into a small bundle. After the grain bundle was tied, it slid onto the bundle carrier, and was dropped onto the field. Following close behind, field workers picked up the tied grain bundles and placed several of them together to form a small shock. The grain bundles were placed in shocks so that the unripened grain would have a chance to dry, and so that they would easily shed water if they were rained on.
When I walked down to the pond this week, I scared a frog and it hopped from the shore into the water. Walking closer to the edge of the pond in an attempt to see the frog, I heard a bigger slash and the next thing I knew, a green heron was flying up with a frog in its beak. So my curiosity caused the death of a frog but some baby herons probably enjoyed a frog leg supper.
At least this frog was smart floating out in the middle of the pond since the green heron stays on the shore line.
The milkweeds are blossoming and some people eat the blossoms when they are small. The shoots and pods are also eaten but I think I will leave the milkweeds for the Monarch Butterflies to enjoy. Native Americans employed the stalk fibers for making string and rope as well as using it as a food source.
