I had a familiar friend visiting my garden for the first time in months. I went downstairs like I do most mornings and there was a friend whom I subsequently started called Flappy. A year or so ago, a mom and dad Helmeted Guineafowl brought their two chicks to my garden almost on a daily basis. The mom and dad have never since again visited my garden. But the two chicks, I think, have been visiting my garden in an on and off fashion. I would guess that the one that I called Flappy grew out of his "flappy" stage and the sister whom I called Nervy is still nervous to this day! I managed to "talk" to Flappy for a while, winning his trust to get real close to take some photographs. In getting down into the ground and seeing up close what they do, I saw that they ate the seeds from the weeds that I left in the garden! This particular weed or wild herb, Chickweed (Stellaria media), produces four or so seeds per seed pocket. And I took some images of Flappy eating these seeds. (If you want to see why I came to call him flappy, see this post I made a couple of months ago.)
Before sharing how they ate the seeds, here are some nice closeups I took of Flappy as I ran all around him in the garden, slowly winning his trust.
I took these images in the morning. Before sharing the other photographs of Flappy happily eating chickweed seeds, I want to share a couple of images I took on my afternoon walk. There is a small dam or pond I walk past every day. There are so many ducks and I think Cape Weavers. I could not manage to get real close, but I managed to snap some photographs of them making their little nests, all busy now that the summer is on its way!
I think these are normal ducks, White Pekin ducks if I am not mistaken. They swam so quickly up to me that my autofocus could not keep up! It made for some stunning images, albeit that the ducks were a bit out of focus. (More incentive to invest in new camera gear as mine are now almost 15 years old!) The photographs came out looking really artistic with the water ripples. Their feathers were so nice and white, I think they look so healthy. I felt so bad that I did not have a snack for them, as they looked so determined to get something from me.
And now, here is Flappy snacking on some chickweed seeds! I realized whilst taking these photographs the importance that what we commonly label as weeds play in the ecosystem.
Modern gardeners have a disdain for weeds. At all cost, they would get rid of what they see as weeds. People will poison them and try to get rid of them in various cunning ways. This is good for a perfectly manicured garden, but not all plants produce seeds year-round for bird friends and other animals to snack on.
I know that my own indigenous fynbos flowers rarely go to seed. Various plants in my garden do not seed, nor do they produce fruit. Feathered friends like Flappy would thus have nothing to eat if there is nothing that grows seeds or fruits. Also, getting rid of all the weeds with things like herbicides might kill the small insects. These are also so important for especially the helmeted guineafowl diet.
Crouching and laying down close by looking at Flappy eating his seeds, do we not as gardeners have the biggest responsibility of leaving weeds and insects untouched? Yes, they do not look as pretty as a weeded garden, but does this not lead to a reduction of bio-diversity, which might then prevent birds like Flappy to visit the garden?
I sometimes wreck my mind thinking about everything we as humans do to prevent the flourishing of nature around us. We kill weeds and insects because we do not like them, but we only spend a couple of minutes in the garden contemplating this manicured but essentially lifeless "artwork".
I thus opt to leave the weeds in my garden for Flappy and the other friends to eat. A messy garden full of so-called weeds might not look perfect, but I sure know that Flappy and the others appreciate it because I have seen so much life get back into my garden.
Here are some other photographs I took of Flappy whilst I ran after him throughout the garden. I hope that you leave some so-called weeds in your garden for the feather friends to snack on!
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BEERKING.I got into a war with my old-school neighbour. He pulls everything out of his garden, the land, the soil, it looks like a clean parking lot.
My garden looks like shit, while stuffs are growing everywhere! But the chicken are loving it, that's where they spend most of their times. Of course, his carrots are massive, and mine are a bit smaller. But they are still carrots, right?
I love what you said!!
We have a gardener that helps in the garden and he indiscriminately pulls everything from the ground that wasn't there. Since I took over the gardening job (I wangled myself as manager of the garden with my family) I forbid him to do that. Since then the garden has grown so many indigenous plants it is actually scary.
I am glad that what I said resonated with you!
And yeah, carrots are carrots, but I still believe that "healthy soil" produces more nutritious food. I have not yet found a study to back up my claims, but intuitively I feel that, say, carrots that grow next to dandelions will be better than carrots that grow in a parking lot-style garden.
Yeah, there is actually a term for this in French: Terroir
So, what you are saying is actually very real, and has been backed up!
It is funny how we "feel" intuitively about things that turn out to be true! Thanks for the name! I will check it out a bit.
This is the very reason why I don't trust either any establishments and institutions, because they are useless if you have already all the answers in within yourself.
And I am going out on a limb here but establishments and institutions don't necessarily have your best interests at heart. Profit over caring for e.g. your health. Not all of them but most I'd say.
Hi Flappy and others.. 👋 Cool photos!!👍🏻
Thank you so much, my friend! Flappy and the others say hi back 😀
I love guinea fowl. They taste delicious too, here they are called pintarde, and are regularly eaten. Slightly more expensive than good chicken, but sometimes worth the extra for the flavour. We kept several years ago as I was reliably told that 2 guinea fowl can clear an acre of land of ticks in a year. The countryside here can have a large tick population with piroplasmosis and Lyme disease are not uncommon. Not having had much of a tick problem in our land over the years I cant confirm that the pintarde helped, although maybe that is why.
They are adorable when they run, their feathers remind me of Arthurian horses in long flowing coats as they run around.
Thank you for the thoughtful comment!
My grandad always told stories about his youth and how he rounded them up and sold them for pocket money. They are wild animals here, I have never seen anyone sell the meat. I am too sorry to offer one up to taste! They are like family haha.
And for them tick and Lyme disease claim, apparently it is true! I know a lot of people in the states import some of them or find similar birds for this reason. We do not have a problem as they roam the streets in their hundreds here on a daily basis.
I am not familiar with Arthurian horses, but I can almost see the image 😅
One should always always always consider the birds.
When we first moved to our acreage, there were hardly any, but we planted for them to come and now it's cacaphonic with them!
It is amazing how life returns when you do things like this. I posted a couple of photographs of the local carpenter bees. They were gone for so long, and since I planted their favored plants, they appeared as if from nowhere.
flappy is looking very bizarre. if you see only the head it is hard to recognize it is a bird. what an interesting creature
They look like dinosaurs right! 😅