Bird Activity – Spring’s Here 1994

Recently a friend sent an article written by Becky Beckham entitled Sounds, smiles are testament to rebirth.  Well with that being true bird activity at the Windy Knoll is indeed a testament to rebirth – or spring.  Signs of spring are everywhere – flowers blooming, gardens are being planted, spring cleaning of various kinds is being done and for certain the birds know and are telling us spring is definitely here.  To begin with I want to follow up on my last week article.  Praises be!!  The rains came and now I have oodles of trillium peeping through the ground and even have some in bloom, but there are no signs of some others that have been my favorite.  Nevertheless, I’m very much encouraged. 

The Martins are back!  As usual during the winter John cleaned out the Martin gourds and the apartment house expecting the return of the much sought after birds.  According to a book I have about Martins, it’s the most favorite bird of all because of it being so beneficial.  A Purple Martin is supposed to eat his weight in flying insects daily!!  Many years ago John got a Martin house for Christmas and we still have it up, but we believe the birds enjoy the gourds best.  He has several gourds hanging high above the ground on a wheel and he keeps a long stick (if I’m not mistaken it’s a fishing pole) so he can reach up there and remove the gourd for cleaning.  The Martin scouts come during March and about two weeks later the flock arrives and we are told they return to the same spot year after year. We have other help with insects, too, and that’s the flock of guineas – our dogs no longer are bothered with ticks because the guineas take care of ticks. 

As we sat here on the sun porch a day or two ago we watched as a pair of wrens work diligently gathering material for a nest.  Time after time we would see them pass by with straw or sometimes a feather.  I immediately went to snip up bits of yarn and put it out for them to use.  Even just sewing thread is helpful in binding that nest together. 

We have bluebird houses on the other side of our house from the feeders. Bluebirds do not come to our feeder, but they visit our daughter’s feeder in Atlanta.  Sometimes John will spread peanut butter on a pine cone and put it out near their bird houses.  They like that, but so do the squirrels. 

As you already know John believes in feeding the birds.  I’ve said over and over that we may have to mortgage the farm to buy bird seed.  For some time we’ve been watching the Red Bellied Woodpecker as he puts food in a hole in the trunk of this big oak, but he also has a hole in the power pole in the yard.  Later we’ll see him bring his young to those holes and encourage the baby Woodpecker to peck and get food.

It’s so interesting to watch all this activity – birds know more than we give them credit for knowing.

Another bird we’ve had this year that we haven’t had before is a big dove.  A few months ago in a REMC magazine there was article about this dove and it’s called Eurasian Dove and is migrating farther north year by year.  It’s a huge dove, very light color – I can’t decide it would be called ecru or gray – but somewhere in that range.  I studied the head yesterday and I do believe I could call it a very light lavender.  A beautiful bird with a black band across the back of its neck and it has a different coo than our regular dove.  The preacher was here a few weeks ago and remarked how he would like to shoot those doves.  I was very quick to respond to that one – no way can they shoot the birds around here this is a sanctuary for wildlife. 

Speaking of wildlife – last year we had a mother raccoon come to the yard with two young and they ate out of the dog bowl.  Our old dog would just lay there and watch.  Her sight is really bad so we didn’t know if she could even see them or not, but that is not the case this year.  Now we have a young dog and he is a whopper.  One morning in March when we got up we had two coons up the oak tree here in the yard.  Apparently, this is those two young ones from last year and they had no idea there was danger in the yard.  We saw one slip down ever so carefully and run away across the front yard.  We got busy and never saw the second one leave, but he left too. 

This is not the time to make it, but in the winter we make a bird concoction of old cereal, crackers, peanut butter, peanuts, bird seed and old grease.  We freeze little portions and save it for the birds to enjoy, but it doesn’t last well in warm weather.  Spring time has to be our very favorite time of year for country living