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...]

  I was golfing last week at Lake Monticello where, in addition to watching my balls sail around the course, I keep an eye out for wildlife. There are more deer at the Lake than resident humans, I believe, and lots of birds and animals. But about midway through my round I saw an unfamiliar bird with a brilliant white belly, but a jet-black body. Upon closer inspection, it was a Red-headed … [Read more...]

Like the swallows of Capistrano, they come back every year. My catbirds. They show up in early April, raise a nest of chicks or two, then they’re off for parts unknown. For the past several years, a pair of catbirds has nested in a hedge behind our house. They are really quite interesting. Some confuse catbirds with cowbirds. They sort of look alike, but catbirds are true songbirds while … [Read more...]

It’s been a good spring for local birders. Leah Leffler and I both had Indigo Buntings pay us a visit. In fact, she still has them. I also had a flock of Cedar Waxwings stop by for a birdbath and Sue Overton saw a rare Blue Grosbeak at her feeder in Waynesboro. Another bird-watching friend, Sherman Shifflett recently saw a Scarlet Tanager perched in a nearby pine tree beside his house in Louisa. … [Read more...]

I’ve had some surprise visitors in my back yard this spring – a flock of cedar waxwings and then a pair of male Indigo Buntings. Sue Overton in Waynesboro one-upped me with a pair of Blue Grosbeaks that hung around her yard for a couple days. Blue Grosbeak sightings are usually few and far between. I have had Rose Breasted Grosbeaks pay my yard a visit on occasion, but never their blue … [Read more...]