Listening

My morning walks are music to my ears. The warmer that it is getting the more I am hearing. I can't always identify, but I am getting much better. The Northern Cardinals are very vocal and the male's color is so brilliant in the morning sun. The Slate-colored Juncos flit all over the place and are fun to watch while they chase each other. The Carolina Wrens have quite the voice and are fun to watch. As one of my neighbors say.. it looks like they are break dancing to their own tune. When the sun catches the backs of the Eastern Bluebirds you can't help but to exclaim about the color. I think my favorites overall are the Pileated Woodpeckers. They are so prehistoric looking when they fly through the air. Listening to them call back and forth to each other makes your head spin as if you were watching a tennis match. And then, to listen to them hammer away at the trees... it is just an amazing thing to experience. I love my morning walks!!

Getting the mail

When we stepped out to get our mail we heard quite a racket. I figured that it was just the Canada Geese squawking before they left for the night. But, it sounded a little further away, so we looked up. There were hundreds of birds flying in formation. They were up too high to identify, but sounded like Tundra Swans. They could have been Snow Geese, but I am just not sure!! The birds were flying in long formations, occasionally crossing and constantly talking. It was a pretty cool sight to see with their shadow crossing the evening sky.

New Bird

On Friday Terry and I went for our afternoon stroll (it was finally not raining). We are always checking out the birds and Terry practices with his camera. We saw the usual suspects- American Robins, Slate-colored Juncos and Yellow-rumped Warblers. Then, we saw something that at first we thought was a White-breasted Nuthatch. Upon further investigation we found out that it was a Brown-headed Nuthatch. We were both very excited. It was not only a new bird for us for the area, but a lifer too! After that we saw several more, so it ended up being a very nice stroll.