Mark Twain I suspect, spent some time watching and listening to Blue Jays. I’ve shared his writing on the jay before where he called them a “vocabularized geyser”. Only a man who has hung around a few jays would know this…that they have such a wide array of calls, chirps, alarms, and rumblings, that one … Read more
Chipping Sparrows are a diminutive bird of the summers here…most I think will migrate when the temperatures start dropping. This little sparrow provided us a very enjoyable spring some years back when the female decided to nest in a hanging basket on our front porch. It was fun watching the pair raise their family. Which … Read more
Of late I’ve been seeing a lot of a particular Red-bellied Woodpecker. She is, or appears to be a little different than most of the other ones around…a little paler, more gray…and is just stunning to see up close. My photograph, as usual, doesn’t really do them enough justice for how good they look to … Read more
I consider myself lucky to have a hummingbird as a supervisor. He sits outside the office window on a commanding branch of a shrub and peers in from time to time to make sure I’m working. Sometimes he’s nice enough to let me stare back. He might not pay well in dollars and cents, but … Read more
Spring is prime time for Orioles around the Midwest and they have certainly not been in short supply…as my dwindling grape jelly stash would testify. The blossoms on the crab apple and pear trees however were fleeting. Last year, I suspect due to the constant drenching rains, was one of the most colorful and long … Read more
The Brown-Headed Cowbird doesn’t look like much…until the light hits it just right. Then the male radiates a color and sheen that is stunning. Females, like many bird species are more drab, which is normally nature’s way of protecting them during nesting. Funny thing about Cowbirds though…they don’t really make a nest…in fact, they don’t … Read more