What is all the banging on my roof?

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I have been working from home the past few days and I keep hearing loud noises on my roof and on the deck outside my door. What the heck - I think maybe the turkeys are on my roof again - check outside nope. It sounds like baseballs are raining down.

Then I see it - acorns falling on my deck. They are falling in records amounts it seems. And then I am being invaded by chipmunks and squirrels - there are a half dozen or more chipmunks jumping around the yard stuffing their cheeks with acorns.

I am thinking is this me? I guess there is an overabundance of acorns this year - have you all noticed it?

https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/call-it-an-acornucopia-oak-trees-in-our-area-are-producing-tons-of-seeds-this-year/2018/10/10/be339554-cc90-11e8-a3e6-44daa3d35ede_story.html?noredirect=on&utm_term=.0e9260cf9eab

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@Linkat,

You need some pigs.

Quote:

The pigs of the New Forest play a vital part in the eco-system. Every autumn, when the acorns, chestnuts and various other nuts have fallen from their trees, up to 600 domestic pigs (usually owned by commoners) are let out onto the New Forest National Park for up to 60 days, to clear away and eat the nuts. This is called ‘pannage' or ‘common of mast’, and it is important because many of the nuts are poisonous to other animals in the New Forest, such as cattle and ponies.

The New Forest National Park is one of the few places that still carries out the tradition, which dates back to the time of William the Conqueror, when they would use up to 6,000 pigs! Nowadays between 200 and 600 pigs are turned out as the number owned by commoners has fallen. The event is a great sight and makes for excellent photos - a walk in the forest to remember.

Commoners pay a token fee for each pig they turn out. Each pig is marked with an identity tag in its ear and has a ring put through its nose to reduce the damage to the Forest caused by rooting.

The 2018 Pannage season starts on 10th September and ends on 11th November.

The pannage season in the New Forest is usually 60 days and the start of the season varies according to the weather and when the acorns fall. The Court of Verderers decides when pannage will start each year.

http://www.lymington.com/news/140-news/1155-pannage-new-forest

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@izzythepush,

Hmm pigs...I have seen many of our neighbors in our town with chickens - but not pigs - wonder where I can borrow some.

The other thing is - we used to a have fox around haven't seen him in months - we need him back to eat all these chipmunks.

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@Linkat,

I can't answer to if there are more acorns than last year (in my present neighborhood) as this is my first fall on this street... but there are a crap ton (true scientific measurement) of acorns on my street and adjacent sidewalks.

Haven't seen any correlating squirrels to gather this insane harvest....

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As soon as I read the title of this thread, I said to myself, "Acorns."

I was visiting a friend in the suburbs. I heard terrible banging noises on the roof all night long. I thought it was a bear. (I'm a city kid. What to I know.) I reported the problem to my friend. Not a bear. Acorns.

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@Linkat,

I drive through the forest a lot, usually when I go to see my dad in Somerset. Salisbury is a notorious bottleneck, even worse now there's forensic officers all over the shop. The forest route may be longer, but it's usually quicker. Free roaming donkeys, horses and cattle are common all year round, but it's only now the pigs come out to play.

https://www.mortimerarms.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/new-forest-ponies-in-road-2.jpg

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@Linkat,

Can you trim the trees? My husbands Aunt Olivia moved to Greensboro from Raleigh and she was thrilled with the trees until the frigging acorns started dropping. When we would visit, the damn acorns would hit the roof with a nasty clap............she would have killed to have squirrels or chipmunks to clean up the acorns. She had to hire folks to rake up all those acorns.....she wasn't happy about it.

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@glitterbag,

It is one very tall tree - the branches are way to high - probably why when the acorns hit they makes such a loud noise due to how far they fall. We would have to hire someone to be able to cut from that height.

My mom complains about cleaning up the acorns too - fortunately this is in the back yard so it is not as if we have to sweep up the walkway or driveway and we have enough creatures around due to the woods behind our house to collect them. It is funny in a way to see so many squirrels and chipmunks especially the chipmunks - I have never seen so many in one place before. I can walk out my deck and there are at least half a dozen at a time stuffing their cheeks. They run away and are shortly replaced by another group.

It drives the dog crazy though.

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Doesn't an acorn bumper crop mean it's going to be a brutal winter <shivering already>?

1 Reply

@ehBeth,

Nope. I saw a lady walking her dachshund, and said "Long dog; short winter". Never fails.

I get enough strange looks that I'm pretty used to it.

What is all the banging on my roof?

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