I awoke this frosty morning to 3 birds feeding on the ground: a White Crowned Sparrow, a White Throated Sparrow and a Brown Thrasher. All three were feeding within feet of one another. A pair of Brown Thrashers have moved in next door in the brush and I see them feeding off and on all day on Warbler Way. A Merlin is nesting somewhere high up in a pine in our backyard. It complains much of the day. Our stalwart Cardinals have been keeping us company all winter. And a hummer and a bright flash of orange and black, a Baltimore Oriole, have returned to brighten our day. 

After settling the dog, I step outside on the patio looking up at Tug Mountain and held up my trusty iPhone equipped with Merlin. I take several cleansing breaths and hold it up. I watch and listen as 16 birds populate the phone. Whatever you think of Merlin, I can tell you for this old farmer with hearing loss, it certainly has opened a new world to me. My ear tunes in much better when I know a bird is out there.

As I turn to return to my coffee, a hawk swoops through the trees, not sure who, chasing a jay. 

I think I will head out shortly and try to determine who lives in that nest high up in the pine above the irrigation pond. We think it is a hawk. However yesterday, as we were watching a Scarlet Tanger, (the best view I have ever had of one since Janet and I hiked the Long Trail in 1977), a giant bird dipped down and flew through the trees. I raced up the hill and saw a Great Blue Heron turn and head into the wetland of the Taylor Floodplain Preserve. Could the nest belong to it?

What a Aviary we live in!
Tim

PS. I am happy to share our birding trail map to any folks interested. Check out Crossroad Farm/Taylor Floodplain on eBird.



Sent from my iPad

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