Life on a family farm
in the wilds of
Upstate New York
Tuesday, October 19, 2010
Fuel Stop
Not our beans
Sometimes it seems as if we work for BP here at the farm. The Birdie Pancake stop and shop that is. We are awash in migrating robins, on their down from the far north and heading south to visit our good friends in the warmer states.
They are all business, chirping earnestly and hurtling from sumac to Virginia creeper to river bank grape (our equivalent of hard rolls with butter, donuts, and plum Danish), intent on getting breakfast, before they rejoin the caravan of voyageurs rolling south for winter. Their behavior is nothing like their tentative manner in spring, when they test out this perch or that for is acoustical properties, singing a few warbling notes from each before choosing the finest for their dawn and evening concerts. Now they are on the move and in a hurry. A flash of white underpinnings, a hint of russet breast feathers and they are gone.
We still have a few singers though. White-throated sparrows toss off half of an off-key "old Sam Peabody" as they glean the bushes and hedgerows. Chickadees chick and titmice whistle. Gold finches chink and cheer. Jays shriek, crows crawk.....And the other morning early when I was out seeing to Nick, the last BC in my world, I got my own personal serenade. One of the male mockingbirds must have been sleeping in the red delicious apple tree; I must have startled him awake (it was o'dark thirty as usual). He burst into short but vibrant song, just a few lush phrases before he woke up enough to realize that it was fall and he needn't bother with all that. His song was like a golden apple glowing in the dark, so sweet and strong and lovely. I was much richer for the experience and thanked him kindly for his efforts as he winged away down the old orchard.
As fall segues relentlessly into the sleeping iron of winter we must take the wonders where we find them. Mockers and robins do it for me.
7 comments:
Very nicely written!
Come on down birdies! Our feeders are full and ready to go.
You are so right, we love to fill the feeders in the winter just so we can see the birds and know that winter isn't all bad!
I've said it before but I'm saying it again....you have a mighty fine way with words!!
What a sweet moment! Thanks for sharing it so vividly with us.
I'm sure my pet Robin is right there now...please let him know I enjoyed he and his little family very much this year.
Linda
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JB, thank you kind sir
Dani, they are on their way, express mode! They sure aren't lingering
Lisa, I couldn't believe it this year. I filled the feeders after they were empty all summer and there were chickadees within five minutes
LInda, thank you so much
WW, thank you, I enjoy their company when I am out moving cows
Linda, will do. Ours have been gone for several weeks now, but we are enjoying the transients.
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