Shakin' down the Acorns
by Clint Powell, Naturalist

Every year, starting in September and continuing into December, the mountains carry a tune that has as distinctive and unforgettable a sound as a fine-tuned instrument.

In Ireland, they have an instrument known as a hammered dulcimer, which puts out a tune that sounds like acorns falling. Irish emigrants have carried this tradition into America, and today, this sound is now a chapter of Irish anthology and traditional music. The hammered dulcimer is a stunning instrument, and in the hands of a master, such as Tony Elman, you hear a sound he calls "Shakin Down the Acorns." This wonderful CD is the best introduction to this style of music.

Acorns are the seed of oaks. In the Julian area, we have three dominant species: California Black, Coast Live, and Canyon Live Oak. In California alone, oaks produce food and shelter on more than 30 million acres, or 30 percent of the state's land.

Collectively, the annual crop of acorns, called mast, is eaten by more than 35 California mammals and 30 species of birds. The bird considered most abundant and most closely associated with oaks is the acorn woodpecker.

Historically, the California state mammal, the grizzly bear, Ursus majister, consumed acorns. This grizzly bear was one of the biggest bears in North America, but was extirpated (totally exterminated) in the 1800s. I read a report that on Sept. 11, 1849, Lt. Cave Cooutts and his men killed 10 grizzlies on Volcan Mountain.

An acorn crop will widely fluctuate each season. Just like deciduous fruit, such as our famous apples and pears, the volume will be big one year, small the next. The years with a big crop catch the attention of local and migrating band-tailed pigeons. The autumn migration can frequently bring thousands of pigeons to all our five mountain ranges in this county.

Acorn woodpeckers are, of course, the most famous acorn eaters. Without a doubt, they have one of most unique ways of saving the annual harvest into springtime. They will drill a hole with their beak into the bark of pines, oaks, fence posts, power poles and, to the dismay of homeowners, wood houses. At Camp Cedar Glen north of Julian on Farmer Road, the south wall of the old kitchen, which was built in the 1950s, has a 4-inch-diameter hole drilled in it. After all these years, the acorns that the woodpecker puts in that hole have fallen all the way down to the outside floor, where raccoons and tree squirrels harvest them.

Another consumer of acorns is the scrub jay. This bird is the jay without a crest that lives in the coastal oak woodland all the way up to our mountains. They prefer the crop of coast live oaks. They fly into the tree, snap off an acorn and hop away and bury it. I don't know who came up with the name, but it applies to the up-hill planter. That's primarily the direction they fly after snagging an acorn. They bury the acorn into the forest floor of leaves, and, you would think, have the sense to find that acorn again; but not very often. They do not have a good memory. So that's how they get planted all over the county.

The native Indians of the county considered the crop of acorns one of their most essential harvests of the season. California Black Oaks contains the lowest amount of bitter tannins. The Indians would leach out these acids by rinsing ground-up acorns repeatedly, and save the result for a secondary source of food.

This is a preview of what is coming this autumn. For further information, pick up a copy of Oaks of California, by Bruce M.Pavlik. The soft-cover book includes stunning photographs and details of each species within the state.

Looking for somewhere to go this weekend? Head to the mountains and sit under an oak. Here you will be among "Shakin' Down the Acorns."