Planning ahead

I have an unused acre of land on the east side of my property. I call it my meadow. Once a year, before the rains of November, I have it bush hogged to keep it in check, but otherwise, I let it go wild. It probably makes the neighbors angry, to see this messy, unkempt field next to their carefully manicured, but woefully sterile, lawn. Hey, folks - we're in the country. Get over it.When I first moved in, I mowed this acre regularly, to keep up with the neighborhood standard. It was never used by anything or anyone, including me. Now, it is full of meadowlarks and butterflies, sparrows and all manner of wildflowers. This summer, I found myself frustrated when I was unable to get into the heart of the field, to examine a flower or chase a butterfly. Next year, things will be different.

Since the field was just bush hogged, and the day was bright, warm, and dry, I decided to carve some walking paths through my little meadow. One long, swooping, lazy "S" runs from top to bottom, and a second, twisting windy trail crosses the first at several points. I added a couple of extra accesses and a connecting spur, then seeded the meadow with some common milkweed, from pods I picked up this fall.I think I have the basis for a nice little nature trail.The dogs inspected my work and pronounced it satisfactory. To be specific, it rates "Two Sniffs" on their Smell-o-meter. Deer or rabbit poop would have given me more points, I think.I am already excited to see how this area developes next spring. I hope to be able to bring you updates as the seasons progress. All I have to do is keep my pathways mowed and let nature do the rest.

Bagging a Big Buck

I love living in the country, with wildlife all around. I have a lot of nice neighbors, and get frequent visitors. Usually, it is something small and avian, but occasionally something larger will stop by. Last week, it was this guy - an 8 point buck, calmly and contentedly grazing under my apple trees, in broad daylight and about 15 or 20 feet from the house.
He was aware of me as I came out of the house onto my screened and glass-enclosed sun porch, but I took care not to disturb him. He kept an eye on me as I slowly crept around for a better angle.This is the way to shoot a deer - with a camera and long lens. Just look at that velvet - I longed to reach out and feel it's softness.

And here's my trophy.

The advantages of an unkempt yard

Last year, I decided to create a "meadow" on my property by letting a one acre section of my yard go unmown. I was hoping to get Eastern Meadowlarks and other ground birds to nest here.

Here is part of my meadow. You can see a dead weeping willow tree in the distance.
A close-up of the dead tree. Last year, it was looking pretty bad, and this year, it became obvious that it was a gonner.
Because it is along the road in front of my house, I had just about decided to take it down this year. Maybe I shouldn't. Here's why:

Last week, I heard a Northern Bobwhite calling from somewhere near my house, and didn't have time to track him down. Today, one week later, I heard him again. This time, I had time to search. I would wait to hear a whistled "bob-WHITE" call, then move toward where I thought it was and wait again. Gradually, I crept up on it. When I got near the dead willow tree, I studied the high grass around it. Suddenly, from above my head, I heard him again.

"bob-WHITE!"

Here he is! Isn't he a handsome brute?

Look how the barring of his breast blends in with the bark.

When I got too close, he became restless, and stopped calling. He began making little clucking noises that seemed to be answered by smaller peeping sounds in the grass below the tree. I looked for a minute or two, then walked away. I would love to confirm bobwhites breeding on my property, but if they are there, I don't want to spook them.

Updates to follow.

(MaryAnn, this post's for you.)

Wordless Wed: Apple Blossoms and Redbud

apple blossoms

redbud

Neighbors

While I was outside this afternoon, doing maintenance on the Purple Martin housing (Yes, I know I'm late!) my next door neighbor called me over to the fence. He wanted to talk about bird houses, specifically what kind of house he should put up for bluebirds.


This is the guy with what I privately refer to as the "slum house" or the "POS house" for Purple Martins. He put it up several years ago, and promptly attracted martins. This hacked me off to no end, since I had spent four years reading, researching, acquiring "proper" martin housing, keeping out starlings and sparrows (S&S), coping with Tree Swallows, even playing a tape of the martins' dawn song at 4:30 every morning to entice them in. I was doing it all right, he was doing it all wrong, and yet he had martins and I didn't.

What did my neighbor have that I didn't have? Round holes, a magnet for martins. I was using SREH (Starling Resistant Entry Holes) and the martins were having none of that. Round holes they wanted, and round holes was what he gave them.

The next year though, I was vindicated, as his house was mounted on a fixed pole, with no way to lower it or even open it for monitoring and maintenance. When his martins came home, they found their house full of House Sparrows, which defended their turf vigorously. Evicted, the martins moved next door - to me. His loss was my gain. Since then, I have had martins (and bluebirds) and the POS house keeps churning out generation after generation of House Sparrows.

I have thought about pointing his problem out to him, but didn't want to offend. Some people are happy to have any bird nesting in their bird house, and don't want to hear about controlling the S&S population. When he asked me about housing today, I saw my opportunity.

"I just love bluebirds and purple martins," he said. "I used to have martins in that house over there, but they are gone." I gently explained that the house had been taken over by sparrows, and that unless he was able to remove them and keep them out, he wouldn't get martins. I talked to him about telescoping poles and pulley systems, and told him how the houses opened for cleaning. I told him that it wouldn't scare the birds away if he monitored his boxes, and that I even looked in on the babies in the nest.

I didn't want his house to look like this.

I brought a bluebird box (empty), and plastic Super Gourd, and one of my modified natural gourds over to the fence to show him, and talked to him about basic requirements for bluebirds and martins. I stressed the importance of controlling sparrows and starlings, and explained how they would pierce the eggs and could even kill the adult birds. He didn't know. He said, "Well, maybe I should just take that old house down, since I can't keep the sparrows out of it."


The next thing I knew, he did it! No more HOSP factory! In gratitude, I gathered up some old magazines and a catalog from the PMCA (Purple Martin Conservation Association) and downloaded their instructional handouts. I copied a flyer from the Sialis website for bluebirds, and put everything together with two booklets from Bird Watcher's Digest: "Enjoying Purple Martins More" and "Enjoying Bluebirds More." I'd had the bluebird one for many, many years, and only recently realized it was by Julie Zickefoose. It was a bit of a wrench parting with it, but I want my neighbor to do right by bluebirds.

I leave you with a conversation I overheard between an adult female Purple Martin and an adult male during today's disruption.

"What the heck?""I know there were gourds here."

"Hey, honey! What happened?"

"Didn't there used to be good
nest sites right below me?"

"Yeah, babe, it's our lazy landlady.
She'll get her act together soon."

8 gourds, cleaned, repainted, renumbered, and rehung.

With two ASY males already staking claim.

Isn't it nice to have neighbors?

Macro in Afternoon, Zoom in the Evening

Tried for some telephoto shots of the neighborhood birds this evening. After significant cropping, I got a couple of keepers.

Eastern Meadowlark

He's been singing for over a week now.

SY (Second Year) male Purple Martin. Also called sub-adult ("subbie"). This guy was hatched last year, and has made his first successful migration from the USA to Brazil and back. {Error - see edit below.}


There is no way of knowing if he was born here, but I'm impressed that he's back so soon. There was an adult male perched near him on the TV antenna, but his dark body came out as a silhouette.


{ARRGGHH!!! Edit 4/6/09: James Hill III, from PMCA, just e-mailed me. My "sub-adult male" is, in fact, an ASY female. Drat! I thought I had that ID straight in my head. Thanks, Jamie, for the correction.}

Red Maple

I have two red maple trees at home. One was here when I bought the house, the other I planted myself. Guess which is my favorite?

Red maples, Acer rubrum are named for more than just their bright red fall leaves. In the spring, the flowers, petioles, twigs and seeds all have various amounts of red coloration.

Canon Rebel XSi, 18-55mm IS lens
Close-up mode

ISO 100, F 5.0, 1/640

ISO 200, F 5.6, 1/500

ISO 400, F/13.0, 1/200
click any photo to enlarge

Shades of blue

I have not been paying close attention to my bluebirds this spring. Imagine my surprise when I did a quick nest check this evening on my way to the barn and discovered this:


Turning around, I found more blue in the late afternoon eastern skies:


Spring is really here.

To Catch a Coop

I was getting ready to jump in the shower Wed. morning when I glanced outside my bathroom window. That's not unusual - that window has the best view of my bird feeders and nest boxes, so I am always looking outside when nature calls. What was unusual was the large brown bump on a limb of my apple tree.


I reached for the bathroom binoculars. (Yeah, I keep binoculars in the bathroom. They are a little 7x25 Celestron pair I bought when I had no money and less knowledge about optics. They no longer satisfy me in the field, but they are handy for feeder watching and backyard birding. So, they live in the bathroom and fulfill their destiny.)


My quick glance turned into a long stare through my bins. Hey, presto! A Cooper's Hawk!

That's when I noticed that all the feeders were empty. The only birds around were a couple of goldfinches, and they were in the top of the trees, above the Coop.

I ran for my camera, and pushed it as hard as I could, exceeding the 4x optical zoom and going all the way out to the full extent of the 16x digital zoom. I lost some pixels at that power, but I think you can make out the bird.


Cropping and enlarging makes it even more fuzzy.


Emboldened, and desperate for a decent picture of this bird, I threw on a bath robe and stepped out onto my enclosed back porch, carefully easing the door opened in an attempt to avoid spooking him. No such luck - "eagle" eyes spotted me and took off for the back 40, dashing my hopes of bagging him. Grrr! Not for the last time I cursed my lack of a good camera with a big, beautiful telephoto lens.

Wednesday must have been Raptor Day. As I was driving to work, I was blessed with a view of Mr. and Mrs. A. Kestrel, perched together across the road from a tobacco barn where I am certain they are building their nest. (I actually saw this pair breeding two weeks before.)

Continuing my commute, I passed a Red-shouldered Hawk perched on a power line. The first time I saw a Red-shouldered do this, I was surprised. I had thought they would be too large for such a narrow perch. Since then, I have frequently observed Red-shouldereds using power lines in this manner to watch and wait for a meal.

Non-raptor nature report for Wed - an Eastern Meadowlark, singing "Spring of the year!" and, when I arrived home that night, Spring Peepers warming up their vocal cords and starting their spring songs. Still no woodcocks, though I listen for them nearly every night.

Wishing you an early spring.

Snowy Day, part 2

Yesterday morning, the prediction was for "a dusting to a half an inch" of snow. At lunchtime, they had upped the forecast to "1 to 4 inches." By drive-time, the radio was warning of "4 to 8 inches" of accumulation by midnight.

The drifting snow on the country roads made the last two miles the hardest of my 25 mile commute, and a normal 45 minute trip took me an hour longer. Luckily, the snow was light and fluffy, so I was able to negotiate the drifts in my driveway and blocking my garage door.

This morning, I stepped outdoors to check the thermometer:

What is the temp?

Oh. I thought it felt a bit nippy.

And, how deep is the snow this morning?

"THIS deep, Mom!"

Holly inspects the drifting snow. Lab-certified as safe to drive through.


Deli, waiting impatiently for her morning hay.

"Will you stop taking pictures
and feed me?
In case you hadn't noticed,
it's cold out here!"

"Aren't you done feeding horses yet?
It's time to play!"