Pishing

Telling me to mind my own business

Alas, I couldn't do Sunday Stills this week, as I simply didn't get out on the highway and the topic is billboards. However, I did get out birding...for maybe ten minutes in between a panoply of other stuff, most of which was not very memorable, but it kept me busy.

See the birdie?

I was walking Miss Daisy yesterday afternoon and the hedgerows were full of clicks and chips and peeps. I had the camera, but not the binoculars, and as I didn't want to traipse through the house in my boots, I put her in the kitchen and headed down the long lawn.

A dark-eyed junco quickly appeared, but I knew there was more. Without binoculars I had to try pishing. I was almost instantly surrounded by a whole family of Carolina wrens. I knew we had a couple, but there were at least four, probably six or eight, one singing right at my feet..maybe six feet away..but hidden by dense undergrowth.

Hiding in the grapevines calling me names

The juncos came too and scolded me soundly. And there were song sparrows. There are always song sparrows. 

I wish someone would tell those little wrens that we get hard weather up here. They love to hang around until real winter shows up and then there's no food and it's too cold and they come in the barn half dead. There they either just die, or the barn cats get them.

It makes me sad. I wish they would migrate to friendlier weather. 

Snoopy song sparrow giving me "the eye"
OMG, I didn't catch the Carolina wren photobomb right behind the sparrow. Hahahahah

We even had a cat catch one inside the house. They keep showing up every four or five years, nesting, bringing off a brood or two, they they freeze out and we don't see them for a while. I love them, especially their vibrant song, but I don't think they are terribly smart.