Naturally

I’m on a first-name basis with the yard’s birds. I call the male cardinal “Northern.” I’m a bouncer at the bird feeder. I put on baffles in order to discourage squirrels from eating more than their share. It doesn’t always baffle them, so my feeders have become subscription-based to help pay for the seed. No subscribers yet. Birds aren’t good at carrying wallets.

Red jumps out at me from the sumac and Virginia creeper. Tree trunks become more colorful as the Virginia creeper (woodbine) vines up them.

The migration of songbirds is a quiet procession compared to their spring arrival and the accompanying dawn chorus.

Chimney swifts, resembling flying cigars, flew overhead. They migrate from mid-August through September on their way to South America. Dragonflies (green darners and meadowhawks) buzzed about like tiny airplanes.

Many young mammals aren’t making it across the road, resulting in young raccoons, opossums, skunks and deer that will never develop street smarts. Automobiles are effective predators that provide food for vultures, eagles, crows and coyotes.

BirdCast, created by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, is an online resource that combines biological research, community science observations and radar data to forecast the movements of migratory birds. BirdCast shows live maps that track flocks as they travel through. Users can localize the data, letting you zoom in on a county to see estimates of how many birds are migrating. Do a search for BirdCast and see.

Q&A

“How did the chokecherry get its name?” Sacagawea was a Shoshone woman who accompanied the Lewis and Clark expedition in 1804-06, which traveled from the northern plains through the Rocky Mountains to the Pacific Ocean and back. Her skills as a translator were invaluable, as was her knowledge of the terrain. Native American tribes used chokecherries, a relative of the black cherry, as an important fruit for food and medicinal purposes, including the treatment of fevers and colds. Legend has it that the Blackfoot captured Sacagawea while she collected chokecherries and took her to where she met Lewis and Clark. The name chokecherry is derived from the berries, which when eaten raw, have an astringent, bitter taste that causes the mouth to pucker, giving the fruit its name.

“How many bird species are there?” I’m so glad you asked. I just counted them. AviList is a collaborative global effort to produce a single current consensus taxonomy for birds of the world, along with key information on taxonomy and nomenclature. Avibase, the American Ornithological Society, the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, BirdLife International and the International Ornithologists' Union contributed to the production of a world checklist. The first checklist was published in June 2025, and future revisions are planned once a year. The new checklist recognizes 11,131 species of birds in the world, classified within 252 families.

“Will hummingbirds nest more than once?” Almost without exception, the ruby-throated hummingbird lays two white eggs in her nest. The nest is constructed from spiderwebs, lichen and plant parts. Occasionally, when cold, wet weather kills the eggs or nestlings, or storms blow down a nest, the female will start the nesting process over again. If she returned from the wintering grounds early enough and mated promptly, she’d probably have no problem pulling off a renesting attempt, but if she got a late start on her first nest, she might not have time to try again—especially in the northern United States, where the nesting season is relatively short. In the southern U.S., females have plenty of time for renesting; in fact, if an early-nesting female is successful with her first attempt, she may even have time to double-brood (have a second clutch) during one nesting season, and there's a possibility of triple-brooding in the Gulf Coast states.

“What determines what a chicken’s egg color will be?” Mostly by genetics. Domestic chickens are a subspecies of the red junglefowl, a species native to southern Asia. There are more chickens on Earth than any other bird species. A way to predict what color eggs a hen will lay is to look at her earlobes, which are noticeable areas of colored skin on the sides of the head. Chickens with white earlobes lay white eggs, while birds with dark lobes lay brown eggs. The Araucana breed of chickens can have earlobes that are a pale green or blue color, just like their eggs.

“What makes someone a birder?” If you can tell a blue jay from a tree, you’re a birder. If you have ever pointed out a bald eagle, you’re a birder. If you’ve ever wanted to point at a bald eagle, you’re a birder.

Thanks for stopping by

“One finger cannot lift a pebble.”―Hopi proverb.

“May your trails be crooked, winding, lonesome, dangerous, leading to the most amazing view. May your mountains rise into and above the clouds.”―Edward Abbey.

Do good.

A red squirrel is a noisy, cute bundle of indignation and belligerence about half the size of a gray squirrel. They are at home in conifer woods, but will tap maple trees for the sugar in the sap. Other names include boomer, chatterbox, chickaree, pine squirrel, piney squirrel and spruce squirrel. Photo by Al Batt.