Nearly June

American Goldfinch

Northern Waterthrush

A guy named Tom

And migration fun is almost over.....until fall, when those of them what travel head south for the winter again....

Secret Weapon

Montgomery County is heavily birded for such an ordinary, rural sort of place. Perhaps because of the river or the ease of access from the Thruway, the big guns visit often and bird hard. Then there are the local people, who simply know a lot more than I do.

It is a real challenge to keep up.

However, I have a secret weapon.

I am married to a guy who can spot an American Bittern, at sunset, from a car going 40 miles an hour, in a half-acre swamp clogged with cattails, having never seen one before, and just knowing from my description what one looked like in general.

Yeah, we were belting down a certain road we haunt, headed for our new favorite swamp stop, when he slammed on the brakes.

"What did you see, what did you see?" I exclaimed all excited.

"I think it was a White-headed Egret, you know, those birds you asked me to look for....."

As the car stopped, the bubbly Ke-honk Ke-honk of just such a bird, better known to me as a bittern, rang out from right beside the road.

I clambered down off the edge of the road onto the border of the swamp for photos. So well camouflaged was the bird that I could see it but the camera couldn't.

However, eventually I got a few acceptable photos.

A hen Wood Duck in a tree, something I had never seen before

The guy is amazing. Never saw the bird before, acted from a description..."the color of cattails, points the head straight up in the air...kinda stripey-like...." and he not only saw it, but spotted it while driving me off to hunt birds. When he was young and played ball, he says he could see which way the stitching on the baseball was turning when standing at bat, thus knowing just what pitch he was facing.

I think I'll keep him. He's worth at least a spotting scope any day. 

Chestnut-sided Warbler

What did I just see

In his element...liquid beaver at sunset

Got up extra early to fix my computer as it crashed last night while doing the huge new Windows update. While walking doggies I spotted some deer, maybe three or four, along the pasture behind the house.

No big news; we see them every day. However, one looked....well....funny. 

When finished with the doggos I went for the binoculars. She was straining hard, as if to have a fawn, her hocks stained with results of same. However, the odd shaped-ness of her was that a much larger, darker, doe was attending her during the process, licking her neck and ears, arching her neck over her back protectively, and seeming to encourage her.

I watched for a few minutes before most of the deer, including the dark doe, faded into the woods like the ball players in Field of Dreams. 

While I watched them go, the little pale doe...she was an unusually light tan color....simply vanished completely. Did she lie down in the tall grass? Hide in the bushes below the leaning tree?

I don't know.

This is going to be a busy day as we inter Ralph's aunt and do a lot of other related stuff. However, I will keep an eye on the pasture when I can. Just in case. 

Who knows what I might see out there today.

Caption This

Not a lot of small conventional dairies left around, but there are some.....

Tasty

Om nom nom

Apple blossoms must be delicious, although I haven't tried them lately. Everybody seems to be eating them!

We have gone from not seeing Cedar Waxwings at all
to twenty or more in just this one tree.

And then again....May

 

 

May

Looking out my Back Door

Parent of the Jeff Borland memorial lilac

And front door...etc.....

Which is slowly coming into its own, and reminding me of Jeff whenever I pass

A male Yellow Warbler tugging strands of wool out of the wool ball hung for the birds...nest lining I suppose. And then another day, another yellow, this time a female. A lot of birds must come when I'm not as the ball is getting pulled to bits this year, after hanging there for the past three, more or less ignored.

Inside this cluster of ordinary cottonwood leaves
there is a swinging cradle for some mighty fine orange birds

The answer to the puzzle of the female Baltimore Oriole spending so much time inspecting a single spot on a certain branch in the cottonwood across the driveway. Once I saw how she knitted the still growing leaves of the tree into a shield, hiding the nest from view I was able to spot another just like it up in the cottonwood by the spring up on the back hill.

Another up in the fields, similarly disguised but visible from below.

Hummingbird wars, talk about a cat fight! Nothing benign or gentle about a hummer. We have more than usual this year and they are oh, so violent.

House Wren, lookin' out her back door

House Wrens, bold as brass, hopping right up to my feet to loudly request that I get my fanny indoors so they can get back to tending the nest they built in the ornamental birdhouse.

Robins, more polite, but more annoying, also wanting me to get gone for the same reason, only their nest is on top of one of the porch pillars.

And woven through it all, like magic thread, the scent of the lilacs blooming on the west side of the house, fragrant as fresh laundry and a whole lot prettier. 

Back door of the machine shed after being untracked by the storm....

Birds, Strange and Otherwise

Veery

Common Grackle

Male Baltimore Oriole

Female Baltimore Oriole

Male Indigo Bunting

Savannah Sparrow and female Red-winged Blackbird

Savannah Sparrow

Male human being running in the middle of a busy local road,
much used by racing farm trucks, tractor trailers, Amish buggies,
and general rushing traffic.

A Passel of Rascals

While running errands earlier today, we passed an Amish barnyard, where normally one would find several heifers and a young bull grazing and enjoying the outdoors.

They're everywhere

They're everywhere!!!!

Today, although one heifer, who seems to like to hang by herself, was still outside, the yard had been mostly taken over by this litter of red fox pups and their mama and maybe dad. 

There were EIGHT (!!!!) foxes in the yard eating stuff, playing with stuff, and just soaking up the morning sun....it was a sight we have never seen before and don't expect to see again.

They were cute and all, but I'm sure glad that's not our barnyard...and that I am not that poor mama fox!

Tissue Tornado on aisle 10

What is it with colds these days? Used to be you had a stuffy nose, maybe a cough, and although you were sick you could function, as long as there was plenty of Kleenex...albeit at a low level of effectiveness and all.

This cold. No. Oh, my, God. Just no. A volcanic vortex of fever, complete with fever dreams....at least I found myself at the edge of the ocean, looking out at the waves......No balance, no strength, got nuttin', no can do.

Other people cared for my dogs and I missed two whole days of spring, including storms, which appear to have dumped my geraniums all over the porch...not up to fixing that yet.

While ill, I managed to fall, far, far, behind in the race to see the most birds in the county....alas.....I did however, manage a short bird list early in the morning before I succumbed to my chair and the ginger ale.....500 consecutive days of listing, as of yesterday. Go me.

Upland Sandpipers, my Mother's Day gift from the Grasslands

Today, well, I'm up, and that is worth something I guess. Most of my morning chores were accomplished without incident, and I sure did get a couple of good birds on Mother's Day.