They left last year around mid-March, and like clockwork, they returned in early November. My snowbirds are back. Each year I have a small flock of snowbirds, Dark-Eyed Juncos if you will. The 10 or 12 birds shelter in our thick bushes, making occasional and regular darts beneath our feeder to scratch for dislodged seeds. Rarely do I ever see them at the feeder, only below. Snowbirds spend … [Read more...]

The Autumn Leaves   Wham, bam, thank you Ma’am. That’s what our leaves did this fall. They stayed green forever, then quickly changed colors and then said, “Okay, guys. It’s time to fall.” And they did. Nearly everyone at the same time, Leaves march to their own drummers. Some years they will be vibrant and some years not so much. Some years they fall here and there over a period of … [Read more...]

Holy Chiroptera. It’s Bat Week! Naturally, it’s Bat Week. It’s Halloween week, too. In actuality, October 24-31 is an international, annual celebration designed to raise awareness about the need for bat conservation. Bats are amazing creatures that are vital to the health of our natural world and economy, but like Rodney Dangerfield, bats don’t get any respect, and many are scared out of … [Read more...]

A few weeks back, Nancy and I were treated to a live production of one of nature’s most amazing shows. We watched a spider at work. My wife is not afraid of many things. I once saw her try to catch a snake with her bare hands in our goldfish pond. But Nancy is definitely afraid of spiders. If there is one around, she knows about it. We were sitting on the porch at our rental cottage at … [Read more...]

“Rat-A-Tat-Tat” is a common backyard noise for us. That’s because we have lots of mature trees, which attract woodpeckers. Occasionally, we’ll have a pair of Pileated woodpeckers fly through, but more common are our Red-bellied woodpeckers. Their rate of pecks per minute is over 100, thus the “Rat-A-Tat-Tat”. Red-bellied Woodpeckers are pale, medium-sized woodpeckers common in forests of the … [Read more...]

We have had a few monarch butterflies visiting our nectar-laden plants and bushes this summer. Last year, I don’t recall seeing any, though we have butterfly bushes and pollinator attractors as well as milkweed necessary for the monarch larva. We have enjoyed seeing other butterflies, however, including lots of orange ones in recent weeks. I believe most of the orange butterflies visiting our yard … [Read more...]

In the past, my catbirds always fly away in early September, as soon as the chicks are up and at ’em. And they did again this year, except for one. A lone, single catbird has decided to stay. I expect he or she is a young bird, likely hatched in the thicket behind our house. There were two catbird families that used our yard and feeders. Nancy saw him a week or so ago and told me. Can’t be, … [Read more...]

  They’re at it again. Every year, one hummingbird assumes squatter’s rights on any and all our backyard hummingbird feeders. He visits them frequently, but he absolutely stands guard 24/7 lest an intruder sneak in for a sip of sugar water. And one always does. I guess they draw straws to see whose feeder is whose. But they battle every day, throughout the day. So why this violence? They … [Read more...]

While we have a few of Atticus Finch’s mockingbirds, we have a gazillion house finches. I expect I have more finches per square foot in my yard than anyone else in North America. I have over a dozen that camp out at my front yard feeder and twice that many in the back. Fortunately, they are little fellows and don’t eat that much or I’d have to take out a second mortgage to buy bird … [Read more...]

For about 50 weeks out of the year, cardinals are majestic birds, gracing of all our backyards. But the first two weeks of August are not kind to these red beauties. I saw a cardinal at my feeder this morning that looked like he got into a bar fight and lost. His top knot was missing, he had several bald spots, and all his feathers were disheveled. Cardinals are now molting, a natural … [Read more...]