One notices things living in the country. The weather that we only tolerate in the city demands focused attention every day of every season. The sound of the wind is amplified as is the songs of the birds, whirring of insects, and the nightly calls of the coyotes. The night sky isn’t polluted by the wash of city lights and the brightness of the moon and stars is startling in it’s intensity.
And in springtime, everything is more so. The sunrise urges us to start the day sooner with more of a bounce in our step and the sounds of the day starting are nature’s own symphony. I awoke earlier than usual this morning to a modest ground fog being chased by the morning sun. As the fog receded, I heard and then noticed a pair of Mockingbirds (our most ubiquitous citizens) singing and cavorting in the courtyard.
The Mockingbird (Mimus Polyglottos) is well known in these parts, but is noticed more at this time of year when it’s mating dander is up and he increases his animus for competitors for his space. The mocker is not only the state bird of Texas, but of three other states as well. He ranges east of the Rockies, south to Mexico and north to New Jersey. Proving the common sense of this bird, he’s never been known to go north of Jersey City. S., who started out thinking my fascination with flying critters was a little silly, was watching a pair of Mockers with me who were engaged in what appeared to be a form of avian foreplay, and asked the fairly obvious, “how do birds do it?”. Being well out of my depth, I repaired to my office for some quick research on the sex habits of birds. Yes, we do have a lot of time on our hands here, but I still don’t know how birds “do it”.
The imitative singing of Mockingbirds is said to be highly precise. That is, they can hear the sound of another bird, or many birds and incorporate those sounds into their own composition. They also can, it is said, imitate sounds not occurring in nature….a car horn or a referee’s whistle. They don’t seem to be particularly intimated by people, or anything else for that matter. Of their avian counterparts, only the Blue Jay will confront them. But the Jays are birds after my own heart. They tend to hit and run while the mockers will stand their ground. Roy Bedicheck, the best in a long line of Texas naturalists compared their behavior towards humans to that of a cat. He commented in his book, Adventures with a Texas Naturalist that they are, “friendly like a cat, but will ignore you after having extracted their due…”.
The segue of winter to spring brings back other species who had decamped for warmer climes until now. Although Robins tend to hang around in small numbers throughout the year, in the early Spring they predominate. They are everywhere. As I survey the meadows on either side of our house I can see their dark, almost black heads, standing erect and stately if they sense someone watching, and then return to their foraging. The Blue Jays have only reappeared in the last couple of weeks and watching them frolic will put a smile on anyones face. The small tuft on their head brings to mind a toddler getting out of bed with his hair standing awry. Blue Jays seems to have advanced aerodynamics that allows them to fly short distances very quickly on any axis. The descriptive phrase that comes to mind is “shucking and jiving”. Jays are also somewhat unusual in that they will store up food for use at a later date and they will find nested eggs and suck them dry. Kind of goary, but such is nature.
We’ve installed several feeders of different types around the property and I’ve learned more than I ever thought I would care to know about bird feeders and the stuff that goes in them. Evidently, some of our avian fauna are discriminating eaters and others less so. The dreaded grackles will eat anything, out of any type feeder, muscle out the other birds, and make a mess doing it. My favorite feeder is just outside S.’s art studio in a small tree. The feeder itself is a mesh material in the shape of a cylinder about thirty inches long. There are twelve perches inserted into the cylinder designed so that the birds can dine in comfort. For some reason the type of feed that we filled it with attracts American Goldfinches. These guys are a small bird with yellow/green markings, and except when eating my free chow, are never still for more than a couple of seconds. They flit and dart around with the impatience of a yard full of 1st graders. I surmised the only way I was ever going to get them to sit for a photo op was for me to crouch low and quietly sneak around the bushes planted in front of S.’s studio. The first time I attempted this maneuver I was far too aggressive and spooked the whole lot of the freeloaders. The second try I took my time and was rewarded with a close up view of the feeder with all twelve perches occupied by Goldfinches dining at leisure. I was breathing hard as I tried to focus my 300 mm lens which weighs about as much as a small forklift. I got the shot though. One of my best.
My favorite springtime visitor is the Yellow Shafted Flicker. It’s a bird that I’d never heard of before and whose name does it no justice. It is of the woodpecker family and can be found as easily drilling away on a small tree trunk as on the lawn or pasture nodding his head as he searches for the ants and larvae that are the staple of his diet. A passage in one of my bird books informed me that Flickers are notorious ant eaters. Upon dissection of a Flicker’s stomach, one ornithologist found over 3000 ants. After reading this I thought it slightly unusual that one would be dissecting a Flicker’s stomach in search of food stuffs, but even more unusual that one would count the ants found therein. Ah, to be in search of the truth. The Flicker is easily identified by it’s distinctive markings…a bright semi-circle of red on the back of his neck, and a slightly larger black semi-circle at the top of his breast. The body of his breast has an undercoat of tan with dark spots spaced symmetrically throughout. It’s back is darker with black horizontal striping. All in all, it is one of the most beautifully marked birds I’ve seen. I don’t think that man with his most vivid imagination could have conceived a creature of such elegant coloring and composition. Nature is the master draftsman of us all.
I’m sure as the season moves on, some of the friends that we have observed will leave, and others will arrive for stays of varying duration to play out their role in the cycle of nature. The trees will bud, the flowers will bloom and the bees will go about their task. The freshness of Spring will give way to the stillness of Summer, but our time here will be enriched, entertained and informed by a changing parade of creatures that share our small piece of this earth.
