Earlier tonight the power went out as a front of thunderstorms blew thru the area at around 55mph. I keep seeing signs that spring is coming early this year; today a dozen or so robins landed out front and wandered around like a bunch of eighth grade boys at a dance. Yesterday was beautiful, I cleaned out some of the gardens and tackled a huge area of multi flora rose that had taken over an old grape arbor, afterwards I sat and watched a pair of bluebirds checking out one of the nest boxes, chattering and taking in all the angles and nearby perches. I finished the Great Back Yard bird count, not as many species or numbers as last year; Canada Geese, Common Crows, White Crowned Sparrows, Goldfinches, Downy Woodpeckers, Tufted Titmice, Black Capped Chickadees, House Finches, A Red Tailed Hawk, Cardinals, and a few more LBBs too far to id..
When the power went out this evening I read a nice article By Julie Zikefoose in the new Bird Watchers Digest by candlelight, how in the heck did folks read like that on a regular basis? Apparently Chickadees are not as cute as they put on to be. Go figure.
