There is a nice stretch of blackberries along Lavender Trail where we walk the dogs. Zeke has shown a lot of interest in them, so we have picked some for him to eat.
It turns out he doesn’t really need our help. He can get them all by himself.
Here the same clip is in a slightly different format. I don’t know whether it will be easier for some people to view.
I tapped Zeke on the shoulder to get him to look at a couple of likely berries.
The blackberries are not plump and juicy, probably because we didn’t get much rain over the last few weeks. I have been picking a few for Zeke on our evening walks, and he seems to relish them. In fact, it’s hard to drag him past the blackberries for our regular morning walk. So I decided to try one. It was so tart it almost turned my mouth inside out. Apparently Zeke has a taste for sour.
Has he tried persimmons?
Our native wild black- and raspberries are never very common here, but there’s a non-native Asian raspberry called “wineberry” that has overrun all the natural areas around here. I think that wineberries have a rather insipid flavor, but they are sweet, and they’re just coming into their own now. I encourage people to eat them as frequently as possible so that the birds won’t get them and spread them even more widely (if that’s even possible).
That’s such interesting behavior. Reminds me of the first time I saw coyotes eating apples in our orchard in Port Townsend, WA. I had no idea canines would eat fruit, but it is part of their diet. Smart Zeke!
Pablo — Yes, he loves persimmons.
Scott — Blackberries grow like weeds around here. Unfortunately, as I mentioned, they don’t taste very good this year.
Robin — I have been tempted (but never succumbed) to check the dung that the foxes so generously leave in our driveway. I suspect I would find blackberry and other fruit seeds.