Birds are busy building nests in the surrounding shrubbery, forests, fields, and also, the eaves of our barns. Most spring migrants have returned– although I’m still waiting for the call of the common snipe, which every year makes its whirring aerial display above our paddock.
This evening we went birding with our friend Tony Beck, a well-known birder and naturalist. Together we observed bobolinks and meadowlarks in the front hayfield, and heard the insistent call of the chipping sparrows, chickadees, ravens and crows.
Once inside the veil of the forest, we listened to the flute-like clear call of hermit thrushes, a trill which Tony identified as a black and white warbler, and the insistent Teacher! Teacher! Teacher! call of that other well-loved woodland warbler, the ovenbird. In a clearing, Tony perceived movement, looked up, and we all saw a Merlin darting by above the canopy of mixed hardwood forest. Moments later, we discovered a male Scarlet Tanager in full breeding plumage.
Walking back to the farmhouse, the rattling cry of a Belted Kingfisher arrested us in our tracks and I mentioned how thwarted I was: where, I said, could it find an embankment in which to nest? Kingfishers nest in banks of streams, rivers and so on… but our little spring-fed stream has no such embankment. Where could these frequent visitors to our pond be nesting? Watching its flight, Tony and I saw it disappear – into the side of our large sandpit.
Amazing discovery!
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