bird songs – The Hermits' Rest

There’s Always Time for a Story or Two

I broke my blogging streak yesterday, but I just didn’t have the brain power to do it. My brain was too feeble to put together even my usual simple sentences. I’m still dealing with this virus today, but I have more energy, so I’m gonna say I’m on the mend. (Yes, I know there’s a new COVID strain, and yes, I will get the booster because I’m at risk due to my advanced age.)

This is my picture from yesterday when I felt sickly.

It’s story time, nature observation time, life update time, or whatever. First, I’m cheered every time I go outside these days, because some of my favorite sounds are back, Barn Swallows and White-eyed Vireos. I’ll be tired of them eventually, but right now, those songs convince me it’s spring.

White eyes! Photo by Brad Imhoff. These guys hide in trees, so I rarely see them.

I’m looking forward to seeing hummingbirds soon, because our red yucca are starting to bloom. These are good signs when all the grass is brown and crunchy.

This stuff is nice and green, but the Bermuda grass beside it should be green, too.

Second is another tale of rural living. Yesterday I didn’t feed the horses their supplements, and neither did Kathleen due to recovering from her recent issue. Today I felt up to it, and marched into the tack room (which smells good because it’s the WOMEN’S room and we can turn on the Scentsy diffuser. I digress.

It came time to give Dusty his two scoops of bran powder, and when I reached into the bin, the bran moved. I guess the lid on this bin needs to be very securely attached. Yep. A mouse. One of the little ones. I tried to scoop it out and that’s when the whole dang bin began to move. More than one mouse. They started to try to fling themselves out, as they do. I did not want them in the tack room!

I did NOT take pictures today, so here’s the henhouse mouse.

So I bravely dragged the bin outside, grateful that the bran stuff isn’t very heavy. I did my best to encourage exiting by angling the bin downward, but of course the rodents tried to climb up or bury themselves in the bran. My goal was for zero mice to crawl up my arms. I succeeded! In the end, SIX mice scampered away. I hope something eats them.

Maybe they went over to chicken world where there is corn.

How did six of them get in the bin? There’s not any mouse poop around since Kathleen cleaned the room. Maybe they were in there when the bran was put in? Mystery. Even AI can’t solve that one. I do assure you, though, that I put the lid back on very tightly.

Lids must stay secure or critters will get in. Stock photo.

Later, Kathleen helpfully offered up the theory that if they’d kept eating the bran they’d have gotten all swollen and died. Eww. Now that’s in my head.

Boom! Note mouse has 3 tails. Quality AI.

So, to change the subject, I want to share how happy I am with a work development. Today I was meeting with a colleague on my new project and we got to talking about our previous lives. And talking. And laughing. And blathering away in geeky grad student language about our original fields of study, linguistics and folklore. At some point we were practically giddy about how much we have in common. And some of it is pretty niche far left cultural stuff that you usually don’t get to talk to random coworkers about.

I didn’t mention crafts to her, but hey, five rows of my blanket!

Then she told me the other woman running the project I’ve been brought in on is secretly a cultural anthropologist. I’d never have guessed.

I’m quite thrilled to have gotten to know someone just as weird as me who speaks the same quasi-intellectual language I used to speak. Sometimes I do miss aspects of my earlier years, and learning is one of them. My new friend and I both admitted we could stay in grad school the rest of our lives. I’d just keep getting Master’s degrees to go with all my interests!

I guess today was not all bad. It was quite interesting and satisfying. Hope yours was, too.

Yes, More Niceness, Bird Edition

I tried to write a post with some substance, but I’ve had a headache for two days and I couldn’t concentrate. So I’ll tell you what I enjoy lately.

Bluebird – it’s blurry, so obviously by me.

Yes, I’ve really been enjoying Eastern Bluebirds this week. In the evening they gather to swoop around and eat insects, pose on the fence, or soar while singing their beautiful song. I may have mentioned this before, but this is the first place I ever lived where there are bluebirds. Every time I see or hear one, it’s a little thrilling, even though I probably saw a dozen today.

I love how their wings flash in flight. This and the rest of the images are from Pexels.

The Red-shouldered Hawks are the most visible raptors right now. In my walk this morning I heard at least four engaged in the daily Crow battle. It even drowned out Carolina Wrens. This evening, just as I headed inside, a large Red-shouldered (probably female) flew over me so low that I could distinguish her feathers. It probably was looking for tasty bluebirds. Boo hoo.

Another bird that’s excited me this year is the Baltimore Oriole. I didn’t know we had them until last year. I’ve now seen a couple, along with Orchard Orioles. But today I heard one sing for the first time, not just chirp. Holy Cow, it was magnificent. I had no idea.

And if you ever get the chance to hear a recording of a Lark Sparrow song, do so. They come by their names honestly. It’s sorta like a clownish version of a lark. They also can belt it out.

Isn’t that nice? A whole written blog about sounds I enjoy. If you have Merlin Bird ID, though, you can play recordings, though. So go do that. I’ll read a book about beavers.

Solstice Murmuration

The Winter Solstice in this hemisphere is upon us at last. I will be so glad to have more daylight in upcoming days. The fewer horse lessons in the dark, the better for me! To celebrate, I went out in the woods on my morning walk and received a wonderful surprise.

Lots of woodpecker holes in this dead tree.

In addition to recording my first purple finch on Merlin, I got to watch a huge flock of starlings, red-winged blackbirds, and brown cowbirds feeding in the lower pasture from which the cattle were just removed. Wow, was that spectacular!

I was so close to the murmuration (love that word) that the wings were almost deafening when they took off and swooped over to a different part of the pasture. I got a few short videos of them flying.

3 seconds

32 seconds

It was so much fun to feel like I was in the middle of the birds’ world. This longer video lets you hear what I hear many mornings when I go out to greet the birds. These are white-throated sparrows, white-crowned sparrows, Harris’s sparrows, and perhaps song sparrows, vesper sparrows, chickadees and tufted titmice. What a glorious cacophony! My friend Jen just told me it’s the “dawn chorus” in birding terms. Great name!

I’ve really enjoyed the birds lately. There was even a Canada goose or two today. And yesterday’s observations at Tarrin’s were a lot of fun, too, because she has slightly different sets of birds. I’m looking forward to going out of town for a couple of days soon to see what’s south of Austin. Thank goodness I have help with Apache for the next few days. Things at home may be getting back to what passes for normal.