Birding News

Awakened before dawn this morning by some unfamiliar bird song right in the tree outside the window. By the time I got the old dog to the door...quite a project just now...whatever it was, was gone.

Yellow warbler

However, the willow flycatchers are back, down in the same bit of old pasture they select each year. Some barn swallows swooped into the cow barn while we were milking, then slid right back out. I saw them going into the heifer barn, which we are not using this summer, so maybe they will nest and stay. There used to be a large population here, but a boy long ago tore down all the nests and they never returned except for an occasional straggler.

I always think of my late mother-in-law when I see them. She loved them and banished that town boy from the place after his vandalism. We sure hope they stay.

If you sit a few minutes in the chair where I set the laundry while I hang it out you can see or hear at least a dozen species very quickly. I just stole one of those moments and saw or heard cedar waxwings, gold finches, tufted titmice, robins, turkey vulture, starling, grackle, barn swallow, chimney swift, yellow warbler, grey cat bird, rock pigeon, mourning dove, song sparrow, house sparrow, Baltimore oriole, and probably others I am forgetting. It is a little bit of paradise and I wouldn't mind more time to sit still and enjoy it.

However, dinner won't cook itself, the weeds need thinning, laundry is swishing away and will require another trip out there, and I am once again gambling on putting some house plants out. Have a good one.