The Kestrels are Back.

[epaul]

The Kestrels are back.

The male showed up last week and staked out the house. His partner joined him today. And they have set up housekeeping in the house I built for them fifteen years ago.

The first Robins have also shown up. Yesterday a flock of about ten showed up and started cleaning up a couple flowering crabs.

And there is a sandhill crane checking out the frozen pond.

The return of spring’s heralds is a reassuring comfort. The wheel is turning and another season begins. And all is well.

Paul

[sekhmet]

Isn't it marvelous? The other day I heard a robin singing in the morning. It might sound silly but I was literally flooded with optimism at that moment.

[Village Idiot]

It's good to hear your kestrels are back. Hearing that from you year to year has become another sign of spring for the rest of us. I saw a kestrel today, its distinct outline over my truck as it flew against a dull gray sky.

Last Saturday was the day of white birds for me. I took the dog out to the woods for apparently his first time being out there, and to each oxbow we looked at, there was a different white bird. Seagulls crowding a rare piece of remaining ice on one, pelicans settling on another, only to light at our presence, and three swans; two trumpeter swans together, and one lonely mute swan floating by himself. I always wonder what park he comes from and is going back to when he stops by here once a year. Like your kestrels, the white birds are a sign of spring to me.

[Cornflake]

The snowbirds are leaving. Cars with plates from Manitoba, South Dakota and Illinois are stacked up bumper to bumper as they migrate north, drawn by some primal instinct.

Oh, not really. Most won't leave for another month.

I can imagine the pleasure of the kestrels arriving. Enjoy it.

[Doug]

We are starting north (very slowly) in the morning. People have been leaving all month. Out of this RV park over half of us are leaving in the morning. We've been having to run the AC in the afternoons, it's time to move a little north.

growning up in FL I've been laughing at snowbirds all my life. Now I is one.

[billhammond]

dougheard said:

growning up in FL I've been laughing at snowbirds all my life.

< groaning >

[guitone]

As I get older the winter is more and more difficult for me. Swore I would never live in Florida, but i don't swear on that anymore, time will tell.

[Village Idiot]

The buzzards are back. Driving through the countryside, i saw several of them gliding in that tell tale V as they circled in the air. Buzzards are ugly sitting down, but are beautiful when in the air. Last year I saw the strangest thing. I counted up to 60 buzzards circling around as I drove through Cedar Rapids. Never figured that one out.

(Dub, it was a the intersection of Edgewood and Johnson Ave, right over El Juper Burrito)

[epaul]

Buzzards are cool.

Have you ever read HANK THE COW DOG, Todd? (Has anyone here ever read it?)

[Cornflake]

I'm pretty sure we've read that one, John B. The son of an old high school friend recommended it and librarian wife thinks she brought it home and I read it. The passing years make any adamant statements risky, though.

[John B]

There was a yard in Lincoln where buzzards hung out. The lot had tall trees - maybe 40 feet tall or so. One morning while on a walk, I spotted at least 15 of them perched in the trees. No one knew why they chose those trees, including the owners of the house right next to the trees.


We have a donkey deer. It's got coloring a little like this:



Maybe because of the coloring, its head seems a little more donkey -like than deer-like. If we hadn't seen it with its 5 relatives, I would have sworn we had some sort of hybrid animal in our yard. My wife has never cared for our deer population, which has usually been three deer and a buck who visited infrequently (usually late at night). She considers them pests along the lines of squirrels and pigeons. But the donkey deer is starting to win her over.


By the way, I really wanted to call it a mule deer, but the coloring was wrong.

[epaul]

Hey! This is a bird thread, not a donkey deer thread.

(It really does look like a mule deer, though doesn't it. Except for the color, of course.)

[Village Idiot]

When Dexter lays at a certain angle, we call him donkey head. I'm glad your wife is starting to like the donkey deer, John.

But anyway, my father-in-law, farmer for life and completely in tune to what was going on around him surprised me one day. We were chopping corn and on a break I pointed out 5 buzzards sitting on the fence.

He looked at me with complete surprise. "We don't have buzzards here!"

"Then what are those things?"

"Those are chicken hawks!"

I just thought "whatever", and let it go.

[millring]

For some reason, ever since Breeze was a little pup, he was constantly looking up in the sky. I've never before had a dog who noticed birds like Breeze notices birds. Two weeks ago as we finished our run and had just come out of the woods, Breeze's attention was again drawn upward. He noticed a Kestral vaguely circling overhead. The two of us watched it for some time.

[Marshall]

And there is a sandhill crane checking out the frozen pond.

The return of spring’s heralds is a reassuring comfort

There's a law against using the terms frozen pond and return of spring in the same context.

You're busted ! ! !

[epaul]

Not spring, but spring's heralds. Heralds do arrive ahead of the main event. And often get snowed on.

[Don Clark]

epaul said:

Buzzards are cool.

Have you ever read HANK THE COW DOG, Todd? (Has anyone here ever read it?)

Is Hank, the Cow Dog anything like Ada, the Aireshire? Ada is an old cow that does a great job at all the really stupid things a cow does.