That’s what I named the pair of Turdus migratorius building a nest on the outdoor speaker under my eaves. Mrs. Rockin’ plucked, yanked, and tugged at the dried winter garden debris that I should’ve plucked, yanked, and tugged out of the flowerbed a month ago. With mud for mortar, she recycled the potential compost into… Continue reading Rockin’ Robins
Until recently I squirted hand sanitizer with abandon, washed groceries with diluted bleach, and created a bubble of friends who adhered to the same strict “Covid Avoidance Behaviors” as I did. Now I wash my hands thoroughly (with sanitizer as backup), produce is washed (but the frozen pizza boxes are immediately popped in the freezer),… Continue reading Up in the Air About Filling Birdfeeders in Illinois
The other day I watched several YouTube videos (I can waste time with the best of them.) about feeding wild birds by hand. Wild fluff balls zipped in and paused on open hands of ordinary people – not a Disney princess in the bunch. In the first video a young woman cross-country skied a mile… Continue reading A Bird Not In The Hand
The juncos and chickadees had a few choice words for me when they visited the empty bird feeders. However, it was the forlorn flight of the downy woodpecker and the release from my surgeon to bear full weight on my healing foot that motivated me to tighten the Velcro on my surgical boot and venture… Continue reading My Brief Attraction to the Downy Woodpecker’s Suet
As an avid birder and a member of the Backyard Birdwatcher Facebook Group, a heated discussion regarding cowbirds arose. (By heated I mean an increase in the amount of exclamation marks employed when conveying opinions in comments. That’s about as heated as we mild-mannered backyard birders get.) Brown headed cowbirds rank high on the nuisance… Continue reading If Brown Headed Cowbirds Could Drive
A Few Choice Words By Anita 