Back Yard
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Crocuses
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Patience
It’s been a long, very cold winter this year. Since my last post here, I’ve said goodbye to our dear 14-year-old border collie, had foot surgery that kept me convalescent for weeks, gotten a new puppy, and generally been unable to get out and about with my camera. But things are warming up a bit at last, and I hope to be able to enjoy some of the welcome sights of spring.
I’d like to post some of the few winter photos I have gotten in the last few months. This one is of a redtail that sat behind our neighbor’s shed all afternoon one day back in January. I wondered if it was hurt, but it eventually flew off. My guess is that it was feasting on mice around the shed. I’ve always wondered how long hawks will sit in the same place hunting. The answer, in this case, was hours.
We named her Patience.
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Bear country
Our friendly neighborhood bear made another visit yesterday in the early morning. This time, he left tracks so we could reconstruct his vandalism. He bent the feeder pole to the ground and ate a seed cake along with all the black oil sunflower seeds, then walked around to the front of the house where he actually stood up and leaned with his paws against the front of the house while he removed the nut feeder. He apparently examined the Christmas wreath on the front door as well, judging from the huge paw prints next to it. Then he shambled up to a neighbor’s feeder and gave it the same treatment.
Wouldn’t you know? The one morning I let the dog out and then go back to bed for awhile, to rest up for the Thanksgiving preparations. Wouldn’t that have been amazing to see!
Here’s hoping he goes into hibernation soon. He totally mangled our nut feeder and generally has dietary requirements far beyond our bird-feeding budget!
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Lunch
Yesterday I looked out the window while I was making lunch — and saw this.
I’ve often seen pileated woodpecker excavations in the woods and wondered what these large birds look like while they’re making them. How long do they stay in one place? How do they go about their work?
This fellow stayed for 15 minutes or so. He had been at work for a bit before I saw him, as the hole he was working on confirmed. It was amazing to see him hammering, pulling away bits of bark, and occasionally twisting his head to get at the bugs apparently deep inside the wood.
After awhile he hopped to the other side of the tree before flying away, giving me a glimpse of woodpecker tongue.
It doesn’t bode well for the tree; I’ve read that they only work on trees that are already dead or dying. But what fun to have him in the neighborhood! Now I want a larger suet feeder more than ever.
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Nighttime Visitor
We had a visitor in our suburban yard the other night. Though we slept through it all, a bear is surely the one who bent our bird feeder pole to the ground, ripped off the suet cage, and feasted on sunflower seeds and suet.
We left it in disarray for the day and the following night, despite the disorientation of the offended birds. It’s back up now and we’ve had no return visits. Hopefully the culprit will be in hibernation before too long!
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Brown Thrasher
I tried numerous times to capture a photo of this thrasher in the springtime, but it was too elusive. Who would have guessed that in the fall — the silent season, when the bird isn’t calling attention to itself — it would pose for me?
Thank you, Friend Thrasher.
Also saw some kinglets…
…an ovenbird…
and, across the street, some suburban deer.
This one begs for a word bubble…
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Another migrant hummer
This tiny visitor was as interested in us as we were in her.
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Dead garden fun
Our garden is still producing beans, broccoli and tomatoes. But they aren’t worth picking anymore. It’s officially past its prime, and I took down the fence a couple of weeks ago to let the critters have at it.
It’s fun to see the birds fluttering around among the ragged sunflowers, eating seeds and bugs. But as it turns out, my daughters managed to have some fun out there too.
This bunny is, I believe, the same one that inspired the fence in the first place. He looks like a gangly adolescent now, and I got a few photos from the kitchen window at dusk the other night of him giving himself fully to the task of raiding the pole beans. I’m glad he’s still around.
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Mrs. Hummer
This female hummingbird has been hanging around for awhile, chasing away other hummers who venture too near. She’s recognizable because she’s on the big side, with a little dark fleck on her breast.
This morning, she was actually on the feeder when we came out to breakfast. We think she spent the night there, in torpor, and was just coming out of it — just sitting there, fluttering her wings occasionally, and then finally taking a drink.
She flew away, and I think it may be the last time we see her.
Fascinating to read here and here about both torpor and migration. Her departure for the south seems a little late, but I wish her a happy journey.
She was quickly replaced by another female today, more skittish and slender — probably a migrant passing through.
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Redstarts
We’ve had what I believe to be a female redstart around our yard this summer. Recently she was traveling up the trees beside the driveway with a whole band of others. I never did see a male, but I assume the birds with her were juvies. They certainly acted like it — including the one who seriously considered landing on my head.
