A Bad Day for Birding

The fog you know. Not one of those pretty little mists that sometimes grace the summer morning, lying gentle on the land, and drawing back their silver curtains as the sun brings on the heat. Instead a pervasive sogginess, prickling on the skin, and making the porch floor tacky under bare feet.

Spider webs droop like tattered curtains, weighted down by the dampness, drab and dim and dreary.

And the birds. The yard burgeons and bulges with them, seethes fairly, as they shuttle between the shelter trees and rose bushes and the mulberries and the wild honeysuckle bushes. There are so many. You should see those mulberry trees shake when the Robins and Starlings, and Goldfinches, and Cedar Waxwings and Catbirds, and Purple Finches are all tearing off berries at the same time!

Except that today you can't see them. Even with binoculars. Only the close up Catbirds and Robins can be picked out from the horde.

And the Cedar Waxwings. I swear, this time of year every single bird that makes you turn for a second look, or grab the binoculars and whirl the little focus thingumabob, is a Cedar Waxwing. They are gorgeous. They are everywhere.

Frustrating....ish.....

And then, since I can't see the birds, I lean back in my bright red chair and just listen.

Cardinal, tuning up right near the porch. Willow Flycatcher, obliging from his usual post. Robins, triggered by the low light, singing everywhere. Mystery birds, shuttling back and forth....

Sometimes it is good to just sit and be quiet and let the sound wash around you. The trucks and trains are muted by the moisture and the valley is awash in early morning peace.

It's a beautiful day for birding, Cardinal, camera, and coffee, what more could you ask?

Well....since you ask...I would like to know if that litter of fledglings hopping all over the dead box elder were Chickadees.....