birds galore
Okay, the people are nice, and there are environmentally beautiful buildings and all, but I’ll admit one of the main things that drew me here is the birdlife. There’s just a wonderful variety of habitat immediately accessible out the front (or back) door. Yesterday and this morning I took 20-minute walks to do some quick birding before work, and I was well rewarded.
Just past the pond, on the tractor path to the hayfield, at the brushy area for the power line cut, there’s a veritable bird party going on — more little flitting chipping creatures than a novice birder like myself can count. I saw and/or heard black-capped chickadee, common yellowthroat, black-and-white warbler, chestnut-sided warbler, black-throated green warbler, blue-headed vireo, a robin worming on the ground, catbirds mewing in the bushes, and blue jays squawking in the distance. In addition, there were certainly more types I wasn’t familiar with or didn’t see well enough to identify.
From there, I cut through the woods up to the hillside pasture, where — both mornings — I thought I heard a raven croaking in the distance, but couldn’t be sure. At the edge of the woods, I saw house wrens, female purple finches sunning themselves, a white-breasted nuthatch working a tree trunk, heard a woodpecker or two, saw multiple eastern phoebes flycatching, a turkey vulture soaring overhead.
Other birds of note from the past couple weeks include a belted kingfisher flying by the pond and a spotted sandpiper along its shore. Other folks here have told me of killdeer nesting in the veggie fields this spring and a bevy of wild turkey seen around and about numerous times.
I’m looking forward to the Saturday morning walk with a real birder who’ll help us find and identify even more.