I’m very sorry to have to report that Ginkgo Jr., Blithewold’s fledgling red-tailed hawk died this week. Veterinarians at The Wildlife Rehabilitators Association of Rhode Island treated him for a traumatic head injury which left him permanently blind in one eye and unable to eat solid food. Because he would never have been able to fend for himself and because a lifetime of tube feeding is not a stress-free option for any animal in captivity, a difficult decision was made. I am certain that he received the very best care, that all of the options were thoughtfully weighed, and remain so grateful to everyone who was involved in his rescue.

I hope Ginkgo Jr. is cruising the heavenly thermals with all of the awesome grace and dignity of his species restored; and that his parents, Rose and Ginkgo Sr., will continue to call Blithewold home and go on to rear many more chicks here.

There’s really no need to check the calendar. It suddenly feels like going to the beach and that can only mean one thing. It’s July. I’m inclined to think that July is a state of mind more than a month and might not even have it’s own color. For one thing, ALL of the colors are out now, blazing away despite the heat and the glare. I actually took these shots of rainbow colors in the gardens back on the 1st, when July still thought it was June and the light was just right.

July might be one of the most difficult stages for gardeners weather-wise but at least we can begin to feel like we’re catching up. We’re close to being finished with planting (are you done yet?) just in time to start watering (there’s no appreciable rain in the past or forecast) and maybe deadhead a bit. As I did my turn with the hose in the Display Garden yesterday, I found myself very impressed with our newest perennials. I watered some of them because they were newly planted this April but they all looked at me as if why bother?! They seem to be settled in and already loving the dry conditions. But then in our new pollinators’ bed we did plant with toughness (as well as wasps and hummingbirds)  in mind. Things like anise hyssop, beebalm and penstemon say “bththththtttpptt ” to rain and “bring it on!” to the sun and heat (if not the humidity).

But gardeners need respite from all of that and today, after a short and intense planting session, we found some dapple behind the summerhouse and took the opportunity to tackle some of the weeds there. The Rockettes untangled foamflower, creeping raspberry and bleeding heart from a mass of chickweed, goutweed (Aegopodium) and jewelweed and mulched the whole area with a new layer of shredded leaves. The rainless heat will keep the weeds from growing back tomorrow and that spot, with newly opened (almost finished) paths in and out, is now a lovely shady destination.

I’m not quite sure what happened to June but I realize I’m remiss in some of my updates and will use July to catch you all up. We hope to hear in the next couple of days how Ginkgo Jr. is doing. I have a lot to report about the vegetable garden this year and our partnership with the East Bay Food Pantry. I’ve also been dying to crow about our gratifyingly busy pollinator beds in the Display Garden, and hope to be able to share some more exciting proposals for changes brought up in the master plan process too.

Do you feel like you’ll finally be able catch up in July too? (Or do you just feel like going to the beach?)

Yesterday morning everyone at Blithewold – staff, volunteers and even a few visitors – ran an emotional gamut from excitement and pride, to awe, to dismay, fear, sadness and around again to hope. All for the love of our resident red-tailed hawks.

Gail, Tara and I could hear the loud squeaking as we made our way the Rose Garden and were amazed to see a young hawk on the front drive, obviously freshly fledged. He/she was crying for food like they do – hawks need to be taught how to hunt but the parents will keep feeding their young until they’ve got the hang of it.

He let us get pretty close and did make some adorable attempts to fly but it became clear to some of us with more experience with birds that he was unwell. (Who knew that Karen, our executive director, used to work with raptors?!) Evidently the first red flag was that we shouldn’t have been able to get so close. Another indicator of distress came with the information that he had actually left the nest for the first time two days prior and should be flying by now. It also appeared that something was wrong with one of his eyes. (I thought he closed his eyes when I came close just to make me disappear, not because of anything amiss.)

I have always been reluctant to interfere with nature and her natural processes (and, yes, I know that’s a bit ironic given my line of work) but I would generally rather assume that the animals know what they’re doing better than me since as a typical human, I am apt to anthropomorphize. So I’m glad that humans with a better sense of hawk’s natural processes were in charge yesterday. Karen made the call to the Wildlife Rehabilitators Association of RI and determined to take our fledgling all the way across the Bay to their veterinary facility to be checked out.

Meanwhile, those of us working in the gardens – who all still thought everything was fine and dandy and isn’t nature wonderful! – were thrilled when mama hawk (named Rose by Karen’s sons; and papa is Ginkgo) dropped like a stone into the North Garden just feet from where we worked. She landed a rabbit and flew off to leave her baby’s next meal draped on a branch high up in the tree where he rested (still squeaking, incessantly and insistently.)

He wasn’t able to “capture” his meal. He did make it up to the branch but the meal fell and he kept crying. Fred and Dan coaxed him back down, and Dan, reluctantly (Rose was circling overhead) caught and crated him.

It’s a good thing that Karen brought him to the vet. Turns out that he had suffered some sort of head trauma which may have caused the damage to his eye. I wonder if he fell hard from the nest… He’s being tube fed and treated with pain medicine and anti-inflammatories. We don’t know yet if he’ll make it. If he recovers from his injury, he’ll still need to be taught to fly and hunt, which may take anywhere from 3-6 months including recovery time. But if he does get better, Ginkgo Jr. (who probably is a male given his present size and weight – though hawks can’t be reliably sexed until closer to maturity) will be released here with as much fanfare as we can muster – along with a naming contest perhaps. Fingers crossed. Talons too.

(click on any picture for larger view.)