New Neighbors

Technically we are getting them. The house to the west has sold, but we haven't met them yet. Jim thinks he saw them though. While bird-watching out the back window, he yelled to me "Hey, we got Asians."

Thus the "U.N." feel of our diverse little street persists...

But, those are not the neighbors I'm talking about.  It seems that Freya the hawk has returned, and this time she's got a mate!

No really, the windows are clean...

They've spent the last couple of days taking turns flying off, and standing guard in and around the neighbor's trees out back.  One hung out on our birch tree for a while...above the bird feeder.

What is interesting, is that the other birds sometimes don't seem to care that there is predator in their midst.  It's like they can sense that the hawks aren't hungry right now or something. I imagine that will be a fatal mistake at some point.

Today's activity included what was probably mating.  One of them was in a tree in between houses on a street to the southwest (behind) of us.  The other one flew over. I expected the other one to fly back to where the nest is, but, nope...It was too far away to see clearly, but I've seen other birds "doin' it" and "it" looked just like that.  And for about as long too, which is to say "not very."  Birds don't waste time.   No, I didn't get pictures of that. Perverts.

I went back to my breakfast, and trying to figure out how to get Comedy Central via Roku, since they are in some dispute with Vue.  After I ate, I looked out back just to check things out.  Mr. Cardinal and Mrs. Cardinal II were visiting the feeder together (aww..).  I sort of said out loud, "Watch out, we have two hawks around" when they both flew down to below the juniper bush (or yew...I can't remember which is which).  Suddenly, from across "The Asians" yard, I see Hawk flying low in that direction!  I wait...I yell "I think we have our first casualty" to Jim, who is busy doing dishes and doesn't hear me.  Finaly, Mrs. Cardinal II pops to the birch tree, her crest standing straight up with indignantly.  (Trust me, she was indignant.)  I wait further, and change vangage point because I can see Hawk sitting on the fence, but most of them is blocked by the bush. I can barely see their talons, but see no bright red feathers.  Then Mr. Cardinal flies over to the bird feeder.

I'm not sure how Hawk could have missed either of them, but then it might be because Hawk was on the hunt for different prey...sticks and twigs from the neighor's trees that fall in our yard.  Mrs. Cardinal II looked on indignantly still, while Mr. Cardinal ate, the only logical thing to do after narrowly escaping being eaten himself.  Hawk tried various sticks, all of which were too big (that's when I snapped the blurry pictures). Finally, they get one that is to their liking and fly off with it.

Add caption

Then I had to go to work.

The adventure continues...

Yes I'm using the singular "they" until I can tell Mr. and Mrs. Hawk apart.  And to get myself used to it in general.

Baby steps towards spring...and a tragedy

Editor's Note:  I forgot to "publish" this.  So it's horribly out of date.  But I also think it's because I wanted to add some pictures...so those have been added.  There's new wildlife activity, but that deserves it's own post.

I don't feel like winter is done. Not because of the date on the calendar, or because we usually have an April snowstorm, but be cause of the weird February.  Usually, no matter what the precipitation, sometime around the end of January and beginning of February, there's a day or two where the mercury rises to the 40s or maybe 50s and we get the 'mid winter thaw.'  It is usually a true thaw, enough so that I can often get a few cold-weather seeds planted, more in the spirit of "let's see what happens" than anything else.

This year was different.  "Climate change" continues to be a real thing, and we had week in the high 60s and into the low 70s. While that was nice in its own way, I kept having the feeling that it was...just wrong.  It just felt wrong, at like a soul level.  Only way to explain it.  It had me so discombobulated that I didn't do my land's recognition of Imbolc because...well, how do you know when Imbolc is when the usual markers you use have shifted? So the corn dolly is still unadorned, although perhaps we will take care of that at Equinox.

Shortly before that, we did have a tragedy of sorts.  I had mentioned earlier that one of the juncos hit the back patio window, and I rescued him.  Dizzies and Lizzies continue to flit around the yard, and we bought decals for the windows, but not before Mrs. Cardinal hit it.   I came home from work and Jim told me something had happened, and described the bird he found on the deck.  He put her in the garden bed we have dedicated to butterflies.  She was such a pretty shade of peach with a bright salmon beak.  We were going to bury her, but opted against it.  Jim went out to check on her the next day and she was gone, probably taken back into the circle of the life of the world.  We would see Mr. Cardinal occasionally in the yard, and I hoped he would find another Mrs.  We also hoped they hadn't nested yet, since at that point it had been in the 40s for an abnormally long time, but a friend said it was too soon.

A week later we saw her.  A new Mrs. Cardinal. She was darker, more beige than Mrs. Cardinal I, but still had a beautiful bright salmon beak.  It wasn't long before we saw Mr. and Mrs. in the yard together.  Grieving is a quick process in the bird world.

The continuation of the cardinal population secured, other birds seemed to be enjoying themselves.  We keep trying to identify birds, but some just won't sit still long enough for us.  We think that we've had a blackbird. We may or may not have had a longspur, and a few white-breasted nuthatches.  There another bird that looks like a blackbird, but is kind of yellow or tan speckled underneath the black feathers.  The Peterson Field Guide is only so helpful.  I need an ornithologist to come spend a few days.  (Pictures from allaboutbirds.com)

The Lapland Longspur

Finally, I got around to sowing some cold-resistant seeds indoors.  I have a large seeding greenhouse that is 6 by 12 spots of seeds.  It was warm enough again today (because climate change) that I put the potting soil in while out on the deck, and the brought inside for the sowing.  Now, as long as Spooky and Stormy leave it alone, I hope to get lettuce, broccoli, cauliflower, brussel sprouts, spinach, and nasturtium sprouting soon.