210410 Birds

 Apr. 10

The first vulture to appear over our meadow arrived on the 31st. of March. Yesterday, K saw a pair. I hope it was our original with a mate! Perhaps they will come and live here!

After the last snow, April's fools' joke, Robins began to show up in ones and twos, then a flock of a hundred and more blew across the lawn - I have never seen Robins in a flock before - just arriving in town!

I can only tell Ravens from Crows by their voice. The Ravens are larger with bigger beaks, but they won't come and stand beside a Crow while I am looking at it! 

The other night just at dusk a woodpecker was knocking on the ridge, and I heard a Ruffed Grouse drumming! Haven't ever heard one, or seen one for that matter! They beat their wings against their sides to create a thump from the sudden expulsion of air. 

Also this week, two Dark-eyed Juncos came to peck about the apron (where the car parks), then a couple of days later there were ten or more all about the lawn, eating bugs (already here - they don't waste a minute) and perhaps seeds in the ground cover. 

A bird has been singing a curious song with a little musical buzz, similar to the Red-winged Blackbird's, with a phrase of song before and after. I have puzzled and looked for days and finally caught sight of him, a small brown sparrow-like bird, hard to see in the brown branches, but his streaked breast and black breast-spot "tie pin", at last led me to his identification as a Song Sparrow. He sings and sings. There is an old nest where he lingers, near the chicken house, maybe he has staked it out and waits for a mate. 

Spotted a small gray bird one day. "Shows strong contrast between whitish throat and sooty brown head.", says the Audubon App. It does have a stark black head like a hood above a white collar, but the give-away is the feature the Peterson Guide (App) begins its description with: "Note the downward tail-bobbing." A readily identifiable characteristic like this is a happy find! Some birds seem to defy identification. They just aren't exactly like the Peterson drawings. The Audubon App, on the other hand, sometimes has several photographs which show the variations a particular bird might evince. (It was due to the Audubon App that I finally concluded the new resident at the corner of the lawn was really an Eastern Bluebird.) This small, grey and white, black-hooded bird was a Phoebe; I think I haven't seen one before. I have since heard her call, "phoebe...phoebe", and in the woods this morning K and I heard one again, calling loudly among the trees ahead of us.*[apps]

Yesterday a bird that I recognized right away arrived and was pecking diligently in the lawn: looking like a woodpecker, but on the ground, he is indeed of the woodpecker family: the Northern (Yellow-shafted) Flicker. They have several readily visible features: They are noticeably bigger than a robin, with a long beak, dusty colouring, yellow wing feathers and a red blotch at the back of their head. They have a black mark across their chest and in flight show a white patch above their tail. (I have seen them travel through Toronto, only rarely have I seen one (a pair I guess!) stay the summer in the city.) Before long there were three of them pecking industriously about the lawn. I even heard one call: a first for me!

Early yesterday I heard turkeys gobbling at the bottom of the meadow; so like dinosaurs, especially the babies; I'd welcome them living nearby.

On Monday a pair of birds came to see the birdhouse that stands at the corner of the lawn, in front of the witches. First the male (perhaps), landed on the roof for a look at the environs and popped inside for a look. Then she showed up, looked in. Then she went inside and he followed (I imagined him taking out his tape measure). They flew away to talk it over. He returned after a while: I could see a reddish breast, I was thinking finch? or even Eastern Bluebird? They adopted the house - it seems the right word, if odd - and have settled in. After consulting my new Audubon bird app, I have confirmed that they are Eastern Bluebirds. We see them every day. Once there was a third one and while one of the three sat on the post the other two scrabbled about the ground, wings flapping. This went on a while, while I tried to decide if it was two males fighting, while the female watched, or the couple mating while another, I presume male, watched - ? (I am making gender presumptions as, though different, the birds' sexes are hard to distinguish at the distance, and I am using nature's more common gender bias for behavior. I don't know how birds do it.) I haven't heard that birds actually fight over a mate. I have not seen the three together since that day. The Peterson Guide notes that the Eastern Bluebird may have two "broods" or even three! So our summer may be full of baby bluebirds.

One morning there was a racket from, it seemed, over the ridge, sounding like a gathering of crows over a large dead thing. But it was there the next day - now sounding more like a flock of geese just arrived at a pond? On Tuesday, I walked over to our own pond on the ridge; and discovered the noise was coming from there. I crept up the bank to peek in - it was frogs! Little frogs were floating on the water just their heads out, and the croaking seemed way out of proportion to their little fragile selves. As soon as I made a noise they were gone into an absence of ringed ripples and silence. Last night I heard the same (kind of) frogs in a pond down the meadow and another more familiar frogsong nearby. Today our frogs have taken a couple of breaks. Perhaps once they have mated things will calm down. Some of my neighbours are already reporting frogs' eggs on their ponds.

I haven't been to our pond today. K and I took a walk south of it today, over the ridge into the next valley. The forest floor was covered with brown-sugar leaves and the sun shone through the naked branches. It was hot and smelled of evergreen needles. There was a pair of woodpeckers, Hairy, I'm sure, but they seemed bigger, perhaps being in a minimalistic gold and black forest. Small creeks trickled everywhere taking winter snow downhill, and farther - they must all reach the Missisquoi River or settle down into the water-table, which I guess to be higher than the superimposed river at the bottom of the valley. I know nothing about the water table! I have to learn! It must relate to the placement and depth of wells. There is so much I want to know, I should have started years ago. Perhaps I did start, but there was other stuff to learn, when I was 20, and 30...  

The woods today.

Thank you for visiting. Be well

Mumma Yaga

Please note: all references in this post, to bird identification and habits have been gleaned from, or verified within, the resources below.

* I cannot find this Peterson app in the App Store anymore. I have used a hard copy of the book most of my life; it is still my first go-to bird book.

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* https://apps.apple.com/ca/app/audubon-bird-guide/id333227386