my road trip to san diego (or, my obsession with palm nuts)

[haleybird]

So I took a drive down to san diego to visit my brother, and the first thing I noticed, besides the amazing weather, were the luscious palms in fruit! Basically all the genus Syagrus (this includes fox palms and queen palms) were in fruit, so I've been busy collecting nuts off of the ground, and explaining to my family and passersby that I'm planning on growing an orchard of them

Maybe I want to move to san diego..that way I can go around and "help" people take away those pesky palm nuts...I guess to the majority of people, they are a nuisance, because dogs eat them and get bowel impactions and such, they dirty up the ground, and generally speaking make a "big mess". Lol. I look at them and see treasure!! What a great place to live with birds. Literally every side walk is lined with palms, burgeoning with heaps and heaps of beautiful palm nuts..and most of them I recognize from my research to be bird safe and delicious! I've been sightseeing palms my whole trip...much to the chagrin of my family, who are resigned to my eccentricity (by eccentricity, I mean pulling over in random places to pick up palm nuts) I also found a giant species of bamboo that I got some sprigs from to grow from...bamboo is so easy to grow, pop in water...and roots grow!

I can't wait to go home and plant a palm orchard! My car is full of empty soda/coffee cups that I've been filling with palm nuts. I'm trying to upload some pics, but my phone is not behaving...when I get home I will upload pics!

I also got to boat with dolphins, which was pretty awesome.

 

[SoCalWendy]

I'm in San Diego. Which part did you visit?

 

[haleybird]

We are going to be here all week, my brother has a boat in mission bay

I also got to stop at the our feathered friends store...it was so much fun! Got my baby bird fix (lilac crowned zon, tag, sc2, g2, and more!), snuggled some adult 'toos too...we will probably go back for another visit before heading home...We were there for a few hours today! so much fun.

@socalwendy, do you feed your fids the palm nuts?

 

[haleybird]

Uploading pics is not as hard as I thought! I dont know how to make them rightside up, but for my first pic posting....not too bad!

 

[SoCalWendy]

We are going to be here all week, my brother has a boat in mission bay

I also got to stop at the our feathered friends store...it was so much fun! Got my baby bird fix (lilac crowned zon, tag, sc2, g2, and more!), snuggled some adult 'toos too...we will probably go back for another visit before heading home...We were there for a few hours today! so much fun.

@socalwendy, do you feed your fids the palm nuts?

I have never fed them palm nuts, I would like to, any suggestions?

 

[haleybird]

Actually the most common species of palm I saw, lining the streets of most districts were fox palms and queen palms (Syagrus family) I've heard of a lot of people feeding their fids these types of palm, as well as the wild birds/parrots that live in the area. Some palms are edible to humans too (I would have tried one of the ones I gathered to plant, if they werent sticky and slightly rotten from being on the ground! Lol) I would recommend anyone and everyone planning on feeding their fid wild harvested foods to be extra cautious and:

1. Make triple sure it is the correct species of palm. They are distinct once you get down to it, but palms kind of look the same, generally speaking. I'd definitly do a photo id, and botanical check/ref..basically research the heck out of it!

2. Make sure they are clean and free of any potentially harmful ingestibles (pesticides, chemicals, pollution, parasites, germs from other birds...etc)

3. Verify that other birds and creatures also are eating them (kind of pertains to #1 in triple verifying...better to be safe than sorry when it comes to your feather babies)

4. Try it yourself, because many (not all) palm fruits are edible for people too.

Granted, if you've done your research, and you feel confident in your ability to identify plants (I think this would apply to anything harvested for people and fids alike), then it should be perfectly fine to feed.

I'd love to hear input from others who harvest palms too...I know there's a few threads on this forum and videos on youtube of parrots and palms.. a lot of my knowledge comes from studying field journals of botanists and ornithologists in south america, specifically Brasil and Argentina. The main genuses of palm I have studied are the Syagrus, Astrocaryum, Butia, and Attalea palms...Syagrus and Butia being the most common of those families in California (outside of private collections I'd imagine) the Astrocaryum palms have long needle spines that grow out of the trunk making them understandably unpopular in the horticultural world...