They're Baack!

Henry and Henrietta arrived today. I heard them hollering in the backyard, hungry from the long trip. Who knows where they have been? Or how long was the flight? I have a bag of corn I've been keeping for this special occasion. The only trouble is, its been in the garage.

I got the plastic red cup the couple recognizes and filled it to the brim. The corn looked good. Henry waddled right up when I called his name. There wasn't even any hissing. I poured some grain into my hand, just a little mind you, and held it out for him to inspect. He smotched it up right quick. I guess the long absence hasn't had any adverse effects on our relationship. Henrietta, as always held back, coy and waiting for me to throw her some.


I scooped out another handful and opened my palm and there smack in the middle of the golden kernels was a round black shiny spider! We DO have black widows in our garage. I threw the feed aside and stepped away thinking maybe geese like to eat spiders or maybe they would let the little bugger crawl away and then dig in. But apparently Henry sensed my aversion to the treat. He too backed away and left the food untouched. An hour later when I looked for my feathered friends they were no where to be found. I was a little sad and hoped I had not scared them off. They have been nesting here for four years now.

Not to worry, another hour and they were back again. This time I carefully inspected lunch and this time my two Canadian friends indulged. Its good to have them home again.

Here's to you Henry and Henrietta. May your eggs not get washed away by the flood this year!

Plethora

It’s cold and the ground is crinkly and frozen. A French lady pokes through the leaves looking for breakfast, a few scattered seeds or maybe a worm sticking its head out of the earth to see if its spring yet. Fat juncos flit about wearing sleek gray coats over fluffy white bellies. They are so plenty and small,the ground itself seems to move. Their tiny yellow beaks bob up and down as they too hunt for breakfast. Then suddenly at some unseen cue, they rise up together in a Hitchcock mass and off into the bushes.

Two cow ducks fly over, their black and white wings remind me of an optical illusions puzzle and this one more difficult for the flying. A laughing gull soars high over head and at a less altitude a mallard wings in the opposite direction. Poor little ducky, where are his friends?

A loan robin sits in a tree, his red tummy round with winter’s bounty. Here in the south the robins, unfortunately, do not herald spring, just more of the same dip- below temperatures. At least the sun is shining.

A blue jay hops and nods his merry head high in the branches of a tulip tree. And higher still a steely raptor rumbles shaking the ground with its massive engines while practicing swooping maneuvers like some teenage falcon.

Out on the marsh a jewel headed mallard lazes about with his three duck harem and a hooded merganser drifts by in the slow flow of the creek, idling sideways and waiting for little fish to beckon him under the water whose surface bears upside-down branches of sycamore trees. What looks suspiciously like a piece of ice floats by.

A trio of ducks cup their wings and come in for a landing in goose territory. The gees have not flown. It’s still early. The sun warms the ground where a russet wren plays merry-go-round at the base of a cedar and a tufted titmouse lands in the magnolia, finding shade in its great leaves and a few leftover seeds.

Birds seen this morning

Mourning Dove
Slate Colored Junco
Canada Goose
Mallard
Hooded Merganser
Yellow Bellied Sapsucker
Great Blue Heron
Killdeer
Belted Kingfisher
Red Bellied Woodpecker
American Crow
Blue Jay
Carolina Wren
Tufted Titmouse
American Robin
Muscovy
American Goldfinch
F-22 Raptor