Boundaries

Bama Breeze as a little baby zephyr

We set out yesterday in the afternoon to repair the fence in the old heifer pasture. Moon and Bama and the beef heifer are itching to get outside and we are looking forward to them being able to eat new green grass rather than the hay we feed them. The old girls are both ten now....not young at all....but I'll bet you they'll be plenty frisky when they first hit that tasty green stuff.



However, they need firm boundaries to remind them that this is home. Thus brush must be cut, wires repaired, and posts propped and pounded in. It is a big job and hard for an elder hard-working fella with lingering injuries from last year....

Neon Moon, back when she was just a little crescent

However, he soldiers on and I follow, not much use to him except for company, and being the GoodBirdSpotter.

There are few things as lovely as early spring here in the foothills of the Adirondacks. Pale veils of soft green wisp the edges of the woods and the tops of the trees. Bright red maple buds look like lipstick on their branches, getting painted all up for pollination and reproduction. Everywhere seems a watercolor in pastel and pretty. If you stop to take a look around it is hard to get going again. So much to see and admire

He got the brush cut out of the fence up to the second corner in the cherry wood. I "got" two Ruby-crowned Kinglets and a pair of Brown Thrashers, first of the year for the latter, first for the county and the farm for the kinglets. Everywhere there was love in the air, pairs of everything, two by two, White-breasted Nuthatches with a new nest cavity, Downy Woodpeckers chasing each other up and down trees, even old farmers, although no trees or chasing were involved.

Now if only we could find a way around the boundaries set by the bazillions of ticks that are lurking everywhere. They seem to drink DEET like soda pop and love all of us nearly to death.

Anybody tried those permethrin clothes? We are getting desperate here.

White-throated Sparrow....they will soon head north and be gone until late fall
Already the American Tree Swallows have headed out