We got a new fountain/birdbath this weekend. It’s cast stone, which is really a variety of concrete. It was fabricated to look old, sort of the landscaping equivalent of pre-washed jeans. I like it, though. What happened to our old fountain/birdbath? Well, it was very nice, but it was also extremely heavy. Too heavy to …
American Goldfinches have been active at the feeders lately. Over the weekend Judy took some photographs of male Goldfinches that show them almost done with molting out of their winter plumage, which is a dull gray. Some time ago I wrote a post about why male Goldfinches are golden, which you can read here. Basically, …
There was a column by Douglas Tallamy in the New York Times about a week ago. Tallamy, you probably know, is the entomologist and author of Bringing Nature Home, which makes the case for native plants as a foundation of a healthy garden ecology. All right, I know I write about this stuff a lot, …
Yesterday and today Judy and I sat for an hour on the back porch, watching birds. This was not an example of us wasting time. No, it was an example of us carrying out our responsibilities as Citizen Scientists. Specifically, we were taking part in the Great Backyard Bird Count (GBBC). Launched in 1998 and …
We’re having a blizzard today, possibly a foot of snow or more by tomorrow morning. I’m not complaining, though. I get to spend the day on the porch watching the birds at the feeders. This is the kind of weather that keeps the feeders busy. There are lots of Woodpeckers, Chickadees, and Goldfinches – but …
On Christmas Eve we were tuckered out from all that strenuous tourism of the day before. We spent most of the day sitting around our rented house, reading the used paperbacks we had bought at The Last Bookstore. Finally we decided we couldn’t be slugs for the entire day, and settled on Venice Beach for …
I’m suffering from BFF. Not Best Friends Forever, but Bird Feeding Fatigue. Normally scrupulous about keeping my various birdfeeders well-stocked, for about eight weeks I didn’t put out so much as a single seed. After a long hiatus, on Wednesday I filled the feeders with fresh suet, safflower, and nyjer. Part of the reason is …
Autumn is about fruit. Mists and mellow fruitfullness, as the poet said. In the garden, there’s fruit for people and fruit for the birds. I have lots of the latter. This year I noticed that lots of the fruit that is supposed to hang around so we can admire it for a while has been …
There is only one species of Hummingbird in the Chicago aea, the Ruby Throated Hummingbird. They spend their winters in Central America and arrive here in May. Throughout the summer, though, there was almost no sign of them in our garden this year. That changed about 10 days ago. Since then, we see hummingbirds almost …
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