~ by Nick O’Connor

Long ago, at the dawn of time itself, when everything was new, all of the animals were trying out different types of food – the deer found that they liked tree bark, the horses liked grass, and many birds tasted nuts and berries. All the trees and shrubs loved this attention, so they competed with each other to produce the juiciest and tastiest fruit for winter. 

One of these trees was the wild cherry. She had wonderful red cherries, but they were too bitter for many birds and squirrels – who spat out the cherries in disgust. The other trees laughed at the wild cherry, and she was sad, hiding away behind lots of white blossoms. Meanwhile, the nuthatch had a problem. He was only a little bird, but he couldn’t find any food to eat for the forthcoming winter as many of the larger birds had already claimed the best nuts. For example, wood pigeons liked chestnuts, woodpeckers preferred filberts, and thrushes had claimed the cobnuts – even the walnuts had been taken by the squirrels. The tiny wrens liked pine cones and the nuthatch knew that he could have scared them all away, but he wasn’t a bully. He had a kind heart and knew that it would be hard for the wrens to find something else to eat – he let the wrens have the pine cones.

While the nuthatch continued to wonder about what to eat, the snows of winter started. It was then that the wild cherry spoke up, offering her bitter cherries with their hard stones. 

“Aha,” thought the nuthatch, “My beak is strong for breaking into the stones, and, if the cherries are bitter, other birds will leave them alone.” The nuthatch thanked the wild cherry, and her fruit became the food of choice for all nuthatches during winter.

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