Bird Visits

Some recent sightings.

Exhibit A, a pileated woodpecker cleaning one of our tall oaks.

Exibit B, this year we get regular visits from a pair of ruby-throated hummingbirds. They love the sugar water I put out (4 to 1 water/sugar) and visit every 15 minutes during the day. It's right outside our kitchen window. The dude hummingbird has the ruby throat, while the babe hummingbird does not.

Exhibit C, a pair of Eastern Phoebes have built a nest under our eaves over our front window. The cat leaps at the screen every time they return to the nest. It's full of chicks right now and you can hear them peeping. Click on the photo (taken only 3 minutes ago), and you should see the chicks laying-low, trying to be quiet and unobtrusive.

Exhibit D, as I was cleaning leaves this evening from a clogged gutter, I moved the ladder in front of the garage and - hey, how did we miss this - there was a Robin nest with a single blue egg in the light fixture between the garage doors. Cool, huh?

Wood thrush returns

Last year after we moved in we bathed our selves in the watery sounds of the wood thrush. When we first heard it, we didn't even know what it was. Sasha described it to our friend who knew what she meant immediately.

A few months later the bird was gone and so was it's song. Our neighbor's partly-feral cat killed it. I saw the cat carry it away. We were quite sad about it and though there had been many wonderful bird calls and bird sightings since, none quite equalled the Wood Thrush which apparently can make two tones at once. Even the descriptions of its call at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology are poetic.

One of the most common woodland birds of the East, the Wood Thrush is best known for its hauntingly beautiful song.

Song a series of yodeled phrases with a pause in between each phrase, and complex, flute-like notes. "ee-oh-lay." Calls a rapid "pit-pit-pit." Nocturnal flight call an emphatic buzzy "heeh," on one tone or only slightly descending.

Well just this Monday we woke up not to the alarm which was disabled by an in-home power-outage, but to the sounds of a new wood thrush. Perhaps it had just arrived from its winter lodging elsewhere.

Nature Sightings

We are blessed with our new home to have it located adjacent to 600 acres of protected woodlands.

As such we do get wildlife. This includes: mice, usually found dead - smushed or rotted; bear, visiting as they do, rather oblivious to this whole "people" thing; snakes, along the driveway; chipmunks everywhere; and birds, at the feeder, under the feeder, nearby looking hopefully at the feeder with squirrels not far behind. Of course many of the animals like the snakes, bears, and chipmunks have disappeared for the season.

We've been seeing deer tracks around the house, because the snow leaves a perfect surface to tell who's been coming by. Back in November our neighbor told us how some deer were in their front yard playing tag with their bird-eating cat. It was only recently that we have actually seen deer on the property. About three weeks ago, some house guests noticed deer right out our kitchen window. I guess we needed new eyes to scope them out. There were three of them. Only a few days later, I saw another one taking its time munching on bark in the woods. I snapped a quick photo where you can just make it out.



Then last week, Sasha noticed a woodpecker and alerted me while I was in the shower. I had seen a Downy Woodpecker at the feeder once, so I was not in much of a hurry to see this one myself. When I finally saw it a few minutes later, I was awestruck. This was a male Pileated Woodpecker which is about 19 inches tall. That's huge. That's about the height of a newborn baby - up to your knee. We're talking Woody Woodpecker with the red head. It wasn't at the feeder, it was making it's own feeder out of an oak in the yard. After a while, it threw up it's wings like a costumed caped super-hero and peeled off into the woods skipping from tree to tree.