Morning Dance for May

There was a dance at the bird feeder this morn...as I stood at the back door with coffee in hand, I watched the ever-changing procession of birds coming in for a fast bite before heading back to their nests. Looking over the lawn, there is movement that is not wind-caused but little brown sparrows of several varieties. Quite fun to watch their little tails go straight up as the head bobs to the ground to pick up morsels previously dropped by others. The feeder hanging in the tree above them is a regular way-station too.....a sparrow there is soon joined by a chickadee (there is a pair that has returned to make their nest in the swing-pipe across the yard)...The blue-green headed grackles roll in and the small birds scatter, however, the noisemakers of this local bird community don't get to enjoy much of it before they are run off by another of the noisemakers, the bluejay. He comes in and struts around like he owns the place (he is one of about a dozen we see here), jumping onto the feeder where his weight sets it to rocking and in the process knocking seeds to the ground where he then goes to reap his reward. Then, a flash of red coming in from the side...the cardinal is back this morning too, though I am not sure if this is a young un-attached male or the female (there were 3 cardinals vying for rights in this yard last year)...a few minutes of feeding and then off it goes as well.

Always a different crowd in the yard, and you never know if it will be the songbirds, the showbirds, or the disruptive bully-birds....We have had sparrows, woodpeckers, nuthatches, grosbeaks, and the occasional hummingbird….there have been turkeys in the lower yard, and even a Canada goose one summer (there is a pair that nests quite close to here every year). There is also a blue heron I have seen – this will be the third year this un-attached bird is here. The mourning doves and robins, and of course the crows, are here all summer long. Sometimes in the early evening you hear the solitary call of an owl as well....that, and the lonely-sounding calls of the loons who live on the pond....have also seen a few small hawks (and with the multitude of small wildlife here, the pickings are good for them). There is also a bonded pair of eagles nesting on the pond a short distance away, so we have gotten to enjoy seeing them and their two youngling floating on the air currents, recognizable from a distance because of the white heads....

Yes, definitely a different world out there, but a wonderful one to be a part of, even if it is only the dance around the May-pole known as the feeding station …