Movin' On

*Grackle trying to use the tube feeder*

I came back over to the house today, half-way through milking, to get another cup of the beverage described below. Usually I take that all important second cup with me when I go out to milk, having consumed the first here at the computer, while waiting for the rest of the household to rise and shine (or rise and glower, as the case may be.) However, last night we got a mess of fresh snow on top of partly frozen tractor ruts and mud and walking was tricky.

Anyhow, while I waited the 2.25 minutes that I nuke the water for my all-important Tasters Choice, I looked out the window over the kitchen sink at the heifer pasture hill. You never know what you might see out there, from turkeys, deer and squirrels to those big black half dog/half coyote things that got the neighbor's pony. Today there were blackbirds flying past, a little above treetop level, just about over the north side fence. The flock undulated, wave-like, as they went, maybe seventy or eighty birds in sight at any one time.

They flew...and flew..and flew...the whole time the water heated, all the time it took me to put in the coffee, sugar, and milk. All the time it took me to tug on two pairs of gloves, slip outside and get all the way to the cow barnyard without spilling any. It had to be at least five minutes worth of grackle, red-winged black bird and probably some brown-headed cow birds. At the same time starlings shuttled back and forth, blue jays flashed by and a few geese sounded their distant hound dog cries. I'll bet there were a thousand stretched birds across the roughly half a mile that makes up our road frontage.

There may be snow on the ground and ice on the river, but the ones who arrive first gets the prettiest mates and the fanciest nesting sites. The birds aren't waiting for the weather; they are migrating and they are doing it NOW.