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Hi Margaret & All, Feb 22, 2008
I doubt Chipmunk because we have never (over 40 years) seen one in
the yard or nearby. But it is interesting that they also make use of
underground storage organs. Treatment of the Crocus corms suggests a
long-standing culture in corm/bulb usage. So I am wondering what native
plants they might harvest and suspect that the dug up areas in
Coniferous woods, attributed by folklore to Squirrels burying cones,
might be something else.
Yt, DW
Margaret E.Millard wrote:
> any chance it might be a chipmunk's stash? Sounds awfully familiar to
> me. Here I have (sadly, as I love the snow drops but really wanted to
> know where they were going) watched as they harvest the bloom and
> flower stalk, eat it and then dig up the corm and away they went and
> stashed them in my gardening gloves in a bucket that I use for lugging
> tools about the yard...
> Marg in White Point, Queens
> http://margmillard.ca
> ----- Original Message ----- From: "David & Alison Webster"
> <dwebster@glinx.com>
> To: <NatureNS@chebucto.ns.ca>
> Sent: Friday, February 22, 2008 9:52 AM
> Subject: [NatureNS] Crocus corms
>
>
>> Dear All, Feb 22, 2008
>> For about 25 years I have hauled warm-weather wood last and piled
>> it over a mixed bed of Vinca, Crocus and Snowdrops. These tiers are
>> used or moved by mid-March. This has subdued the otherwise
>> overwhelming Vinca and given the Crocus and Snowdrop room to expand.
>>
>> But this year is going to be very different I think. The soil
>> under these tiers is entirely rooted up with runners sunken and
>> soil/debris piled between tiers. Today, while hauling in more wood, I
>> uncovered a cache of 7 Crocus corms, carefully stripped of outer
>> husk, with the shoot chewed back and piled root end up in a red
>> squirrel (?) pantry.
>>
>> I suspect Squirrel because we have 2 in the yard, rarely seen
>> since cold weather arrived, and the associated ~2 Litre nest had long
>> slim fleas that resembles some that came in with roadkill. So
>> tentatively, our Squirrels have developed a taste for Crocus corms.
>>
>> Yt, Dave Webster, Kentville
>>
>
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