Busy Days and Birding

I'm falling behind on this blog journal with too many things going on at once. Between all the digging weeds out of the blueberry and rhubarb bed and tilling the garden and mowing, I bird, in one way or another.

On Sunday, neighbor Irv called to say he'd found a nest of baby birds in one of his overgrown-with-grass flower pots. I walked up to see them. They turned out to be song sparrows.

Irv's fancy topped chickens were easier to photograph. They seemed to like to pose with their bouffant hairdos.













The white Sultan is Irv's favorite. Mine is this gold and black beauty.















But this fellow just seemed to be having a really bad hair day.



Yesterday was a day of bird discovery here at home: friend Marilyn came over and helped me figure out that the birds of many different songs in the hedgerow by our house are just one bird: a Bewick's Wren with a formidable repertoire. We walked around the farm and found three more, also singing variations on a theme. One came out and sang to us openly.


Two days earlier, while walking through the woods to collect the trail camera cards, I stumbled upon (almost literally) another type of common wren here: a Pacific Wren. This one was only recently out of the nest and still begging for food from his parents, who scolded me constantly while, I'm sure, telling their baby to hide. Baby was not interested in anything but food and just sat on a branch in front of me with his mouth wide open. I took a video: http://youtu.be/Fr1vI1bTsAU

Up in our fields, American Goldfinches add their bright yellows to the overwhelming green of spring in Western Oregon as they dart about singing their bright songs and calling to each other.













Today I took an all day break from gardening, going to the coast to make my weekly check on Black Oystercatcher nests. Friend Nancy came with me. Nancy hiked Hart's Cove with me last year so I knew she'd be up for The Thumb at Road's End and the dune at Cape Kiwanda. And she was. That's Nancy climbing The Thumb. It was a good day. The thick salal we go through was in full bloom. The BLOY cooperated by appearing in all three nest areas. And the weather was perfect.











At Cape Kiwanda, we saw one BLOY on the south side and a pair on the north side. Plus pretty Indian Paintbrush in bloom.













Also on the north side was someone enjoying the weather and the dune in his own way.


Although, believe it or not, I have been working as well as birding, neither the rhubarb/blueberry bed nor the tilled garden are worthy of picture taking yet. I do have a few photos of lettuce and artichokes in their raised beds. We've been eating lots of lettuce and artichokes. (Well, Johnny has been eating the lettuce: he doesn't like artichokes if you can imagine that.)











We've also been eating papayas grown in my greenhouse/jungleroom but they deserve a story all their own for another time.