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I love birds, miss not having my own place to put up a bunch of feeders. Here in SW VA do have a nice batch of birds morning noon and evening to watch. Last thing at dusk and first thing at dawn robins announce the end/beginning of the Day, cardinals court and jays fuss. Buzzards catching thermals and sometimes a heron flying low along the creek. Chickadee's and nuthatches going to and fro crows everywhere...crows and jays let me know when a hawk wanders into the area by going nuts. Miss the Bald eagles i watched along the Connecticut river up in Bellows Falls VT...some REALLY nice pics in here..
Location: By the sea, by the sea, by the beautiful sea
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Hummingbirds have been here (coastal NC) all winter, seems they no longer migrate and there must be a pair of Cardinals nesting somewhere nearby as I seem them regularly. Although we get two species of Ibis where I am, I wish the red ones came this far north.
Oh, those sparrows. They never social distance. Like the Ant Hill Mob gang they can't go anywhere unless everyone goes!
They come to enjoy my ground birdbath and sheltering lilac and it's nonstop chatter during the communal bath. I really think it must be habit or meaningless chit-chat. Can't imagine they are exchanging useful survival information all talking over each other like that. Maybe it's a bonding exercise? "Here we are all taking a bath together! Whoopee!"
Yesterday was the best birdwatching day we've had so far. I saw pairs of blue jays, purple finches, goldfinches, red winged blackbirds along with some other unfamiliar passers-through. I think some bobolinks.
What I notice this year is that all of the birds with colors seem especially bright this year. The red on the blackbirds is an especially wide band with another wide one of yellow under it.
I think we used to have a folk saying about the weather when they turned up that way but I can't remember it.
Hoping the purple finches will nest near the house this year. For multiple years we had house finches on the open front porch and I really enjoyed their songs. I've hung a small basket in the lilac. But guessing that so close to the fast food biz it will be to busy there for them.
We have moved from the country to town. Boy do I miss the country. Our neighbor has a Siberian Husky. Absolutely love her. She's beautiful and her name is Faith. I built a squirrel feeder and keep it supplied with corn cobs. Wife and I enjoy watching them circle around the live oak tree, chasing each other. And they watch us, with their lil eyes and stuffing their cheeks with corn. Oscar, our cat, would try to sneak up on them but they scamper away and begin fussing at him. Now and then they'll have 2 doves that will eat the corn on the ground. Spotted 4 wood ducks that live in my neighbors tree. Two drakes and hens. There's a mockingbird that flies onto the roof, fly to the swing, then fly to the steps to our bedroom door. There's cat food on the steps and the mocking bird has it on his menu. Everyday!
In the evenings, we'll hear an owl. And at 9:00, you can hear Taps played. You can set your watch. There's a veterans home and cemetery not far from our place.
About 2 weeks ago, we visited our second home-Hot Springs, AR. Unfortunately, we didn't see any chipmunks. We seen some a few years back and enjoyed watching them. Would love to get a few as pets! They're so cute! We rented a cabin at one of the state parks. Total relaxation. Watched a pair of Canadian Geese swim around. Sitting on a brick ledge and looking for chipmunks again, saw a few millipedes. Urgh! But looking closer to them, I could not help admire the insect. Saw a small ring neck snake too. Dark brown to black with a single yellow ring behind his head. My better half would not have any part in getting close to it!
I bought a small watermelon that had absolutely no flavor. Last night near dusk, I took the remains of it to the woods at the end of the street where the deer live who come out in the evenings to the park across from me, walked in about fifteen feet and threw it for them to find.
When I took my socks off later getting ready for bed, I saw a brownish thing on my ankle...a tick! That's what I got for my good deed. Must have jumped on my shoe, made its way under my sock and was preparing to burrow in. I had a small red spot where I picked him off. He went running up my hand so I went outside and pinged him off into the darkness.
Sometimes nature isn't as much fun as it is at other times.
I've been reading online home remedies to repel dogs without hurting them (or have an un-neighborly encounter with his owner.) And I noticed an article about repelling ticks that claims some drops of clove oil in water spray will repel ticks.
One time I visited a nature center and spent the whole hour or so just walking the asphalt path. A visit to the rest room before I left proved that I was literally covered with them under my clothing. Astounding. They must have dropped down from trees as I was passing underneath. How did they know that?
Don't you despise that - an asphalt path in the nature center? I understand how much people with walking difficulties must appreciate them and suppose I should mind my mouth as eventually I'll be one of those people. But I really do draw the line at bike paths. I'm sickened by the amount of natural prairie that has been destroyed constructing them. There's my rant for the week.
I'm going to try the clove oil repellant later this month when I go in search of morels. We'll see. I'd rather smell like an Easter ham than bug spray and DH will love it!
I know that thing about millipedes. Never seen one here but I see them sometimes in Yucatan jungle. My first instinct is to scream and run away. But there is a sort of fascination with getting down close and watching all those little legs working in rotation. A marvel.
I made a mistake yesterday. The bird I thought was a female bobolink was actually Mr. Redwing Blackbird's partner. So far I haven't seen them together, though. Maybe he isn't the romantic type.
Walking to a neighbor's house earlier today, a female mallard duck with nine tiny little babies following along behind her waddled across the road.. Once across the road, they all rather clumsily climbed a stone wall and carried on through a lightly wooded area in the direction of a small pond.
I was very happy to see them. We don't often see duck families. Lots of geese, but not that many ducks.
Update on this: For the past 2-3 weeks I've been seeing the chickadees go in and out of that bird house several times a day. They're really busy! I might try to get a pic or video of one going in or out, but that might be hard to do since I'd need to get close to the birdhouse to get a good shot because I don't have any sort of telephoto lens, and the birdies might not be kind to me getting so close.
Last week there was a squirrel sitting on the top of the fence next to the bird house, and the two chickadees were giving it a hard time. Squirrel must have been like, "Huh? What'd I do?" Sometimes I've seen squirrels sit right on top of that bird house.
Quote:
Originally Posted by James Bond 007
I've got a chickadee nesting in my wren birdhouse! I can't tell you how excited I am!
I bought that particular bird house, like, 4 years ago and tried putting it in all kinds of different places trying to get a wren or anybody else for that matter to put a nest in there. A couple years ago I screwed it on top of a fence post beneath my next-door-neighbor's Pin oak (on the fence straddling our yards). Last year some wasps made a nest in there but that was it. In December I cleaned out the stuff from the wasp's nest and crossed my fingers (again). I hadn't seen anybody go in or out of it yet this spring, so last weekend I thought maybe it needed another cleaning out. I started to open it up when I noticed there was a bunch of moss in there (it is a diamond-shaped box that opens from the bottom). When I saw that I said "Oops!" and shut it back closed before I disturbed it any more. But for the past several days I kept looking at it, trying to see if anybody was going in and out of it. I had almost given up hope and was wondering if it had already been abandoned when, just a few minutes ago, I saw a chickadee going in and out of it.
Finally!
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