Saturday, September 09, 2006

Puzzle

Four-thirty in the afternoon.
The Neighborhood Rooser is crowing.

Acrobats of Dusk and Dawn

I wandered outside to sit and watch the Moon at 6:30 am. Birds are sleeping.

Suddenly a flash like when you catch a glimpse of your eyelashes under certain light caught my attention.

What was that? There, quite near my face.

This is breathtaking,,,it's a bat.

The yard is full of tall pine trees and the bats twirl and spin around and around. Their wings make no noise. They are catching insects.

I enjoy stealing out to the deck at dusk to watch their acrobatics.
Here they are at dawn.

Saturday, June 10, 2006

Song of Solomon for Gardeners & Birders

"For, lo, the winter is past,
the rain is over and gone;
the flowers appear on the earth;
the time of the singing of birds
is come,
and the voice of the turtle
is heard in our land"

Wednesday, May 10, 2006

Five Squirrels?

There have been four Squirrels combing the grass for weeks underneath the hanging Bird Feeder in the backyard.

Above them the Carolina Wrens have been shelling seeds and singing a happy spring yodel song. One a distance away answers. it sounds like an echo. When the Squirrels get too lively the wrens chatter and hiss.

Just now watching from the Kitchen Window, i counted two wrens and FIVE squirrels. The new small one has a hairless tail. I smell a Rat. Four squirrels begin running around in circles, ricocheting off trees. The rat runs up a tall pine tree, then walks slowly right down it defying gravity. It disappeared thru the Red Tips and over to the neighbors.

Note: I bought some traps, but only got the courage to set one once. The rats disappeared. My neighbor must have been braver.

Friday, March 03, 2006

Oh Rats

Have those Iowa Rid-a-Rats #1 and #2 found their way to the Carolinas? Rocky the Squirrel has enjoyed a piepan of birdseed this winter with the company of Carolina Wrens, Tufted Titmice, Snowbirds and Chicadees and one Dove named "Dove".

Tuesday morning found two big Rats grazing beside Rocky along with three additional Squirrels. Oh Rats. Rocky lost her most prized possesion, her piepan of seed. I can see her now sitting next to its spot on the deck railing shaking her tail and looking toward the kitchen window. She loved it so, but it had to go.

A Suet feeder hangs from the wire that's strung between the big shed and a pine tree. Today a very exotic looking gold dome-shaped bird feeder was added next to it. A circular perch hangs below the port holes that have a little roof to keep the rain away. It's very light weight. nice.

Holy Cow, a look out the window to see which bird found it first finds China the neighbors tiny Red Dog laying under it. Ha! Who would of guessed,,a Chinabird.

Saturday, January 14, 2006

Wind

Wow,,the Winds of March have found us on a Sunny day in January. As the day marches forward it is accelerating and causing one to hang out by a window to see what it is churning up out in the yard. Out come binoculars. There's Thrasher swinging at dizzying speed trying to get a bite from the Suet Cage.

Squiggly musical notes sing out as it sneaks thru the attic and around windows. It makes a game of finding new things to twangle, rattle, clap and snap. Your hackles rise when it comes rushing and makes a deep rushing-roaring that howls and whistles and builds until you fear for the house and then just like a wave in the ocean it plays out and gets quiet. After a Rest, the whole Wind Drama begins once again.

What a great exhilirating game for your ears. Wind.