Journaling June: The Old Fig Tree

Outside my window at work is a fig tree. The figs are starting to ripen. I noticed because the birds are busy working the tree for all they can get.

While I eat my lunch I watch them. A bluejay will land, hop around until it finds something tasty, and get after it. Shortly after another will join, then another, and another, until five or six are enjoying a snack.

But then a mocking bird will come along. Within seconds the bluejays will leave. Then another mocking bird will join, and another, and another, until four or five are contentedly munching away.

Then the grackles.

Then the bluejays will return, or the mocking birds. And so they trade off throughout the day.

None of the birds seem to mind the squirrels, but there haven’t been any squirrels so far. The ripe figs are too far out on the limbs for them to safely reach. Us monkeys are the only ones who clear out the tree completely.

Luckily for the wildlife, those of us who work during the summer aren’t fig eaters, though the teacher trainees that come in the summer months sometimes are. So far the trainees either haven’t noticed or aren’t interested.

It looks like this season is going to have a bumper crop. There are hundreds of figs, more than enough for the wildlife and any trainees who are interested.