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Thursday, May 12, 2016

Spy


In the living room Fox News drones day and night. Politics, politics, politics. NOTHING is happening in the entire world except the presidential primaries. 

On the sitting porch the programming is much more diverse. Instead of the same old story attacked from all sides, with commentators like chickens pecking a mouse, something different is happening every second.

There is no Megan Kelly, but cardinal acrobatics are at least as attractive and much more natural. The male postures and twists, fluttering fancy red wings and singing eagerly, as he displays his talents for his lady friend. She shrugs, harrumph, and flies off in high dudgeon. 



Instead of false rivalry and folks talking rudely over one another, bunnies, Eastern Cottontails that is, are chasing robins off the lawn. They are equally rude, but much funnier. 

Bunnies have great press. Everyone thinks they are all cute and cuddly and Farmer McGregor-ish, when in reality they are violent little scoundrels, fighting at the drop of a dandelion head. In the short hour I steal out here, just enough past dawn to have adequate light to identify at least some of the birds, I see skirmish after skirmish. It's a wonder they find time to eat, between beating each other up and harassing the birds.



There are a lot of birds these days. Four new First of Year birds yesterday alone. Chimney Swifts, Wood Thrushes, Common Yellowthroats, and the Bobolinks. I think there is a Ruby-crowned Kinglet out in the brush in front of the house too, but the little stinker is too elusive for me to be sure.

The boss came with me on Bobolink watch last night and we had a nice walk. Even as crippled up as he is....and he is...that accident did him no good atall, atall.... he can out walk me. I had to keep reminding him if we were going to look for birds he couldn't get a hundred miles ahead of me, because they would all be gone when I got there. 

The jingly techno music of the magical little blackbirds greeted us when we crested the hill though, and his sharp eyes helped me spot things far away. Hooray!



It was funny about the turkeys though. We were at the exact crest of the hill, and he kept insisting, "They are right THERE!" And pointing. 

And I could not spot them.

I know I am kinda blind and all, but how can you miss an entire flock of turkeys?

Well, if you are a lot shorter than the guy pointing them out, and they are just over the top of the hill, you just might be a tad too short to see over the grass. I had to laugh.

Anyhow, outdoors is better than in, and birds and bunnies are better than the all day "news".



Congratulations to Becky for being promoted to manager where she works! We are pretty proud of her.



4 comments:

Jan said...

You definitely are not lacking superb entertainment. And no terrible commercials

Terry and Linda said...

YES! You have the best of all worlds! I'm so sick of tv...we only turn on RFDTV for certain shows and the game show channel for Idiotest. The rest of the time we do other things.

Linda

ellie k said...

In our Tampa paper this week was an article you might find interesting. It is about a bird called "grasshopper sparrow. They are endangered here and they are going to try and hatch and build the flock back up. they estimate there are about 150 left. I had never heard of this bird and it did not say if they were only in the south.

threecollie said...

Jan, I love this time of year!

Linda, I am so grateful to live in the country in this wonderful area.

Ellie, Wow, thank you! I just looked it up and according to what I found the Florida Grasshopper Sparrow is the most endangered bird in the country. I didn't realize that there were subspecies of Grasshopper Sparrows or that this one was so critically endangered. What a shame. Another subspecies actually occasionally breeds here in NY, but I have never seen one. Thanks again!