Wildbird Watching Notes

Winter/Spring 2006

It was the 12th when I first heard the Whippoorwills for this year. Such a lovely sound of sweet music. It had seemed late in the spring but every night until daylight until this evening. I thought I couldn't hear the call but despite the noise of the neighbor's having a party, I could hear a distant call. Out to the north west, I heard a faint series and knew he was busy indeed. 

Looked out the window this afternoon to see what birds were playing in the water sprinkler. One I spotted was not the usual but it did look like an Oriole. Mostly a light bright orange with a lesser amount of black on the wings. Very nice. We hit 97° today and broke a long time record. The birds were thick in the cold spray some flitting about and some just standing to get soaked. 

I have again this year been encouraging the crows and blue jays to hang around. Eat all the insects they would like. I am not seeing any more grasshoppers so maybe they are eating plenty. It could happen. The plague could end and we could have gardens again. 

When I had thought there were so many owls, I realized that a lot of what I hear is more likely doves. Both are elusive and seldom seen but we have a lot of both.

All these years of being here on our Pharm and I have never seen the owls. Lately there has been a lot of hooting but only at night and never one in sight. There was that time many years ago when one would fly the length off the house just looking in the windows. Hooting and making all sorts of noise. He was still hard to see and it was dark out. Lately I've noticed probably the same ones every day.

I went outside last night to see a bird, fairly small and it looked to have a split tail like a scissor tail bird flying around in the dark. It was making the clicking noise of radar that the whippoorwill uses. But this is winter and not the season for the traditional noise of the whippoorwill calling, just the radar noise. I've only had a few glimpses of him during the summer time. What a treat.

We've had a few visitors lately that are winter only guests. A black and red beauty. A few of the American Robins that are equally as beautiful. There are more Blue Jays that ever and they will stay until the weather turns hot.

There have been lots of geese spending the winter here. Just before this long cold snap, they could be heard honking and doing their usual noises and flying around the area. They don't get very high off the ground and circle a spell until they land again in the bigger trees. As it warms up north, they will be taking to the skies to move back to the north. We've never seen the geese yet we know where they are. Still wish we had a big tank where they could visit for water.