i heard a report on the radio recently that populations of flycatchers are down in the northeast US. i was a little alarmed, but i felt good that we've had a very successful nesting pair of phoebes for several years here on the mountain. one year they made a nest on an outcrop on the … Continue reading phoebes
Tag: birds
sprung
our early spring dragged on for months with brief intervals of winter. now it is mid-april and suddenly, real spring is upon us. the early robins, which were coming to the bird feeders and glumly eating seed from the ground (something i've never seen them do), have moved off to the meadows and forest to … Continue reading sprung
haiku 2.4.17
northern shrike, hunting smaller birds. some flee, some freeze, all reject that death.
feed
the birds have been sparse this winter. not that there aren't a metric tonne of chickadees at the feeders every day, but there isn't a lot of variety out there. a half dozen blue jays, the occasional nuthatch (white bellied and red), two sizes of woodpecker (hairy and downy), a few too many mourning doves, … Continue reading feed
personal
this autumn season has been a series of tiny vignettes, none of them poignant or significant enough to get me writing about them. there was the hour i spent being a human chickadee feeder, standing with my arms out, palms full of seed, and letting the little wonders take feed from my hands. that was … Continue reading personal
the gumboot gumshoe 