One day they were here, then the next they were gone. All of them. Robins. Where on earth do they go? Though they are migratory songbirds, robins generally hang around in Central Virginia. Two winters ago, I had at least one robin that stayed in or near our yard throughout the winter. But I bet a dollar to a doughnut that in a few weeks, on a wet, cool morning, there will be a hundred robins … [Read more...]

For a year now, they have mowed down our hastas, decimated our vegetable gardens and gnawed on our azalea bushes. Deer, that is. And now it’s payback time, it’s urban archery season even within the city limits of places like Charlottesville, Lynchburg and other cities. From Sept. 1 through October 5, bow hunters with permits and landowner permission can shoot away at the city deer. To be eligible, … [Read more...]

I went out to the shed last evening – where I usually scatter some seeds– and the birds had all left, except for a small band of house sparrows. They were scratching away, happy to find a few seeds that the other birds ignored. I watched as they filled their little craws with millet and then flew away. I love my sparrows – the Blue Collar birds of my back yard. Sparrows are the Rodney … [Read more...]

My wife Nancy likes to screw around with the tree frogs in our backyard. I better explain. We have a small army of tree frogs among the aging branches of the white maple trees in our yard, and the miniscule amphibians love to sing. Beginning in early spring and into the summer, they puff up their throats and carry on as a mighty chorus. One starts singing, and then they all join in. It … [Read more...]

This was a strange year for bluebird watching. My resident pair picked out their house early and she was on the nest the first week of April. After the given two-week warming-the-eggs time and the two-week feeding-the-babies time, the young ones fledged. Young one, actually. Only one baby made it. Then, in less than two weeks she was on the nest again, and we waited and waited and nothing. She … [Read more...]

I believe my back yard holds more finches per square foot than any other piece of real estate in the world. It’s like a Finches Unlimited back there. I have both gold finches and house finches, but I’ve never seen a genuine purple finch at my feeders. I guess they don’t have room. We always hang a thistle feeder or two and the finches love those, but what they hammer from first light till … [Read more...]

All is now right with the world. We have a frog in our lily pond. It doesn’t take much to please some people and when I come home from work, get out of my Jeep and see a tiny frog perched atop a lily pad, I’m a happy camper. I don’t know what it is about frogs, but I enjoy having them around. We have an above-the-ground pond - I think it was once an old whiskey vat that holds maybe 60 or 70 … [Read more...]

By Sherman Shifflett   Ava and I just returned from Mountain Lake where we spent a few days watching the rain. I mean, it poured. But that was okay; we went there to relax anyway. The 55-acre lake drained several years ago, but there are a few acres of water in the lake now, the result of recent rains. One of the pleasures of staying at the lodge is to sit at the big window in the … [Read more...]

Birds are fun to watch and some birds are as beautiful as the finest works of art. This spring and summer we have been blessed with goldfinches, one of the most spectacular birds of all. We watched this spring as the males began molting and shed their drab olive plumage and slowly, but surely, sprouted brilliant yellow and inky black feathers. They are now in full color and they are … [Read more...]

I saw a male bluebird chasing a chipmunk this morning. There’s a first for everything, but my backyard has been filled with high speed chases for the last two months. The first chase involved yours truly, when I sprinted after a hawk that had dive bombed my bluebirds. I don’t sprint well, by the way, and almost fell flat on my face. That would have been ugly. The bluebirds chase most anything … [Read more...]