A New View

Research is not my strong suit. My daughter and my husband are very good researchers. Not me. I only research when I am really involved in an immediate, or need to know soon, situation. For instance, our dishwasher just died and now I need to get a new one. I will research that, because it is an immediate need. Larry is different. As soon as he gets an idea of something he may want to buy or a place he may want to go, he will hit the Google switch and start researching. Several years ago, he started focusing on retirement (which would happen this year). At least 3 years ago, he started house hunting. I went along grudgingly. I mean, really! Why are we looking at homes when we have no plans to buy one for another 3 years or so? It is time to admit, that although, I never would have done it his way, and as exasperated as I got, that 3 year research project probably worked for the best.

When we first started looking for a house in this area we were focused on View, Style, Room....but not too much room, and land. One of the first houses we found that we fell in love with was a chalet style home overlooking a vineyard at the edge of a national forest with a fantastic view of the mountains.

I envisioned breakfast on the deck in the morning and drinks on the deck in the afternoon, watching the deer and wild turkey roam below. I imagined the colors the sky would carry as the sun set over the mountains. However, Eden is a hard place to find and can be pretty remote. When I accepted reality, this is what I had to face up to. 1) It was a 30 minute drive from ANYTHING on a very winding road!!! I do mean anything. Gas, food, town. In order to start going anywhere you had a half hour drive before you got to town so you could start your journey. And coming home...once you made it to town it was a half hour winding tour back home to this peaceful abode. 2)...no cell phone signal, period, and no chance of getting one. It was at the edge of a national forest! For most people, it wouldn't have taken long to rule it out, but for me, it was tough. I loved that house, and that view. In the end the drive and the cell phone and internet service did us in.

Even so, I carried that house in my heart for months and measured it against every other home we looked at for years.

As we looked at other properties, I slowly readjusted my priorities.  Larry refined his. 2-3 acres of flat land turned into 2-3 car detached garage and a house with usable land. That's important because so many places are what I like to call, Cliff Hangers, houses that are built on the side of a steep mountainside, with a single car garage tucked underneath it. Master bedroom on the main floor, became a bedroom and bath on the main floor. And my desire for a room with a view, changed too. In the beginning we had a vision. In the end I think we got exactly what we were looking for.

When I look out my cabin window, what do I see? Mountains?  Not in the summer, but as soon as I leave the neighborhood and head down the highway, I can see them all around me. It makes every drive to town a treat. For those of you who like water, we have that too. The drive to Wal-Mart follows the lakeshore.

Trees? Ah, that's what I see! We are in the woods.
When I wake up in the morning I feel like I'm in a tree house.

View as I lay in bed

There is no vineyard to look out over, but we have a large yard behind the house that pushes the woods back and gives us a clearing.

Today we saw a fawn and her mother run along the fence line at the edge of the woods.

As I sit on the back porch hummingbirds buzz by me on their way to the feeders. If you can see the blurr just in front of the flower petal, that's my miracle shot. They take off as soon as they sense the camera. But my presence doesn't scare them. They fly so close by me, I can feel them.

Two bluebirds are raising their second family in the bird house out back.

They come and go all day long bringing food for the babies inside. When they leave a chorus of loud chirps follows them and then dies down as they wait for mom and pop to come back.

The biggest treat for me was watching them on the day they left the nest. It amazes me to think that a bird that has never flown can fly from their house to mine, and then up to the tree tops!

Birds can keep me occupied for hours. The other day a Carolina Wren sat on the rail ten feet from me and squawked loudly at its mate five feet away. And I love trying to identify a new species to the feeders. But sometimes they have a hard time getting to it.

This species I recognize. It can turn mild mannered me into a crazy woman as I charge down the porch steps flailing my arms and yelling. But sometimes I just watch and take pictures.


It is the view I always wanted. The distant, majestic one was exciting at first. But as time went on, I realized I wanted the closer, more intimate one. A place where I could watch life in action right outside my door.

I wanted this view.

KamiKaze Robins

This past Saturday I decided the time had come to do a dirty job...clean my windows. Not all my windows. Just one in particular.

When you look at this picture you must wonder what kind of a housekeeper am I and how long did it take for this window to look this bad! In answer to the first question, I'm an average housekeeper. On any given day there is a fair amount of dust and Maggie's fur coat lying around, but on any other given day, it has been routinely cleaned up. I don't "DO" windows (as the expression goes) very often, but they do get done. In answer to the second question--How long did it take this window to look this bad?--about a week.

Somewhere around mid-May we noticed a robin perched on the railing outside the window. Every minute or so he would fly up at the window. I know some birds have a hard time understanding windows, but I would think after repeatedly flying at it the robin would have come to realize that there was an invisible wall there and he wasn't gonna get through it. He persisted flying at it until after several days he had managed to put mud on every single window pane. We tried leaving the hall light on so he would know it wasn't a tunnel to somewhere, but he just kept flying at that window.  He never hurt himself, mind you. He just kept working at whatever task he had set for himself.

Now that he has left it alone, I decided to take a chance and clean it.

In the end, I had to admit it was a good idea. The railing was beginning to turn green and the robin had left lovely white polka dots all along the black rubber mat on top of the portico. Actually the white polka dots have appeared everywhere from under the grill on the back patio (how???) to marking every step on the front walk. Our blacktop driveway looks like a runway for birds. And since I'm on the subject, can I just add here that robins leave much bigger polka dots than sparrows!

It's a good thing I like the birds. In fact, tune in tomorrow for some more bird brained tales from the nest.

I Know Why the Bluebird is Mad

Have you seen the picture of 'The Angry Bluebird"? Several years ago an artist's rendering of a puffed out bluebird, rust covered chest, furrowed brow, beady black eyes appeared in all sorts of places from sweatshirts to stained glass wall art. My favorite was the stained glass hanging which sits on my desk.

Bluebirds are such striking birds. From the back the male is a vivid blue color. The first winter we were here I was delighted to see 2 bluebirds perched on our deck railing. The next spring a friend sent me a bluebird box. Within a week of mounting it, we were rewarded as we watched a pair of bluebirds flying back and forth with grasses in their beaks. A house was becoming a home. We enjoyed watching the goings on and for 2 years our house raised bluebird families. They only lived in the home during the summer. Once the fledglings had flown the nest the parents left as well.

Then everything changed. During the winter a house sparrow family moved in. They enjoyed the protection of the box during the winter, and rasied their family in the summer. The bluebirds came back a couple of times but the house was occupied. Last fall in a desperate attempt to return the home to it's rightfull owners I cleaned out the box and left it open for several weeks. The house stayed vacant.

In January I was delighted to see 6 bluebirds flying around the house, and checking it out. I was very hopeful.

Then last week there was a showdown. 2 Bluebirds came to investigate. The house was empty, but a sparrow perched outside. The bluebirds flew at it, but she wouldn't budge. They tried several times and finally left. By the weekend, I could see the sparrows flying back and forth with grasses. Once again they had asserted Squatter's Rights.

If I was a bank I might just evict them, but I realize that as much as I want the bluebirds to move in, I can't legislate who lives in my house. As it is, I'm glad my house isn't sitting vacant and unused. The sparrows aren't as pretty, but their babies are safe in a well-built house in a nice neighborhood.

The next time I see a mad bluebird perched on my deck rail I'll just remind him he has no one to blame but himself! Sooner or later you have to stand up for yourself.

15 Minutes of Sun

Today we had sun. After spending a winter here in this part of the world, I learned it was important to notice the sun when it came out. The second winter we were here I put a blue line on the calendar every day we had a few hours of sun, and a blue circle every day that was mostly sunny. It definitely made the winter easier to deal with.

Today is also February 2nd, Groundhog day, and the day of the Storm of the Century. The news is full of stories about record snows, record cold, record ice. The storm is massive. The satellite shows cloud cover from Texas to Maine. It reminds me a little of hurricane coverage. In Chicago the storm had hurricane force winds, but this isn't what caught my attention. The graphics on the weather map show a curving line between the cold, northern and western edge of the storm and the warmer, southern, eastern edge. A hurricane has a windward and a rainy side. Whichever side you are on as the hurricane passes by affects whether you should prepare for high winds or flooding. In the case of this storm the line was the delineation between extreme cold and heavy snow, or warmer temperatures and lots of rain.

We are in the southern, eastern side of this storm. In Dallas they had temperatures recording -2. Oklahoma had ice so thick people were ice skating on neighborhood streets. Chicago Airport can't move. People north of us had snow. In Pittsburgh, yesterday it rained all day. This morning the sun came out. It was 49 degrees!

As I looked outside the window dark green grass was visible in large patches. The sun lit up a glorious blue sky. It was so easy to think spring was right around the corner. I finished getting ready for an appointment. As I pulled my coat on, I looked out the window again. The horizon was dark...very dark. The sun was blazing through borrowed time.

I pulled out of the driveway and viewed a gray sky through the windshield. Banks of clouds scudded across the sky. The wind had arrived. Thirty minutes later as my hairdresser cut my hair we watched the snow blowing horizontally outside the window. The rest of the day the wind rattled the siding and taunted the birds as they held on to perches on bushes and feeders. By tonight the temperatures will once again be buried in the 20's.

 



It's Groundhog day. For 15 minutes we had sun! I saw it! Punxsatwny Phil says that means Spring is right around the corner. I hope he's right. I'm ready for more than 15 minutes of sun. But I've learned that weather is a fickle friend.

And then there was one...

Watching the bird's nest on my front door has been a real journey for me. I've discovered that even though I'm not the mother, I still can't distance myself from the needs of the babies. I've also discovered that most people have no idea what living in cramped quarters is really like. How often have you worried you would be pushed out your front door because you couldn't squeeze into your home? There are 5 birds in this picture. Can you count them?

The first time I checked the nest I saw one egg and one tiny hatchling. I thought that's all there would be until one day as I viewed the nest from the safe distance of the sidewalk I saw the rounded tops of 3 little heads. 3 babies!! A week later a neighbor wanted to see, so very carefully I put the step ladder by the door and checked them, only to see 4 little bodies crammed into a nest that a few weeks ago seemed quite roomy. When my neighbor looked she counted again. 5! I looked again. Sure enough, there were 4 little bodies on top, but there was an extra little eye peering up at me from the bottom of the nest, under the other 4 birds.

Mama and Papa were patient with me. I could hear them whenever I was anywhere near. Their cheerful warble in the morning would change to a warning "cheep, cheep, cheep" either telling me to leave them alone, or to tell them to keep their heads down and stay still. Baby birds are very obedient. One minute I'd see three little heads but after I heard the "Cheep, cheep, cheep" those little heads would disappear.
As the weeks went on I realized the wreath was shifting and the nest was tilting. The weather was bad, with cold nights and high winds and I worried that the wreath would fall. Placing a tea towel over the nest to keep the birds calm, I shifted the wreath and tried to stablize it. But after one very windy night the nest had moved preciptiously and I could see one bird flapping it's wings trying to stay in. As I went closer, I found 2 birds huddled together on my front stoop under the wreath, and 3 more still tucked inside the nest. The one on top was the one trying to stay in. Larry gave me his hanky which I placed over the 2 birds on the stoop, knowing if they can't see they won't struggle. Once again, I readjusted the wreath taking care this time to tuck the end of the wreath hanger into the woven part of the wreath. Then it was time to move the 2 birds back into the nest. The first bird went in willingly, but the second one flapped its wings the second I removed the hanky...and off he flew... sort of! He made a beautiful glide down into the grass and then, flapping his wings, made another short hop further away. This was encouragement enough for the other bird who decided it was time to make his get-away. His flight was clumsier with much flapping but little gliding. As soon as he hit the grass he burrowed in to hide.

At this point most people would be happy. The nest was secure. 2 birds had grown up and left the nest, but the silence around me, and the hawks in the area, bothered me. Where was the familiar warning call? Cheep, cheep, cheep? I didn't hear the parents. How would they find their young? Would a hawk see them first? Once again, with the hanky I quietly approached the youngest bird in the grass. He didn't move as I picked him up and carefully tucked him under a bush near the nest. Then I went after the bird that flew pretty well. Suddenly I heard the "Cheep, cheep cheep" that told me the parents were near. As I reached for the baby bird, he flapped his wings and flew a short distance away. "Good!" I thought." Now they know where you are. I'll let them take over."

Today, as I watch the nest we seem to be down to 1 little bird left. He doesn't hide from me but watches as I walk around the front yard trying to get a good look. It won't be long before he tries his wings. Once again there will be an empty nest.

When my kids flew the coop, I cleaned closets. This time I'll be cleaning a front door and stoop. Kids and birds have one thing in common. They are fun to have around but they both leave a lot of crap.

And the winner is....

It seems official. I've been watching my feeder for the last few days and I haven't seen my Bluebirds. Today is my official "Feederwatch" day, and I hoped to get up early enough to catch them, but I haven't seen one all morning. The sparrows are definitely in control of the bird house and peace seems to be reigning in the yard.

The species of birds visiting the feeder have changed a lot as well. I have seen several Cowbirds, Goldfinches, Grackles, and Red-Winged Blackbirds. The Mourning Doves still visit, but in reduced numbers. With Spring comes fresh food for most of the birds and the number of visitors shows it. The Juncos, Chickadees and Woodpeckers are seen much less frequently. I haven't seen the first Cardinal this morning.

It is fun to see the nests pop up. Today, I had an "AHA!" moment as I looked at the pieces of grass on the stoop in front of the front door. I had noticed them before. It looked as though someone had recently mowed, but that wasn't the case. Then, I checked behind the wreath on the door, and there was the cause! The House Finches have built a nest in my wreath, just like they did last year!

It always surprises me that a door that is opened at least a few times each day seems like a suitable place to raise their young! As I faced the nest I couldn't see the birds at all so it makes a very nice hiding place for them.

When I open the door they fly off and watch me from the nearby Pear tree. Once the eggs hatch, we'll be careful not to use that door if possible.

Feederwatch officially ends next week, but I'll be watching all summer long. I learned so much from watching them. I can now identify some by flight, some by shape, and I'm beginning to pick out their songs. And sing they do! Their songs start early. With the windows open at night I may find my mornings start earlier too!

Turf Wars

The battles are raging this morning at my birdfeeder. Last night the House Sparrow was back in the bird house, but this morning the Bluebirds have it back while the Sparrows sit on the deck and watch. It will be really interesting to see who ends up living there this summer. Maybe we'll see both Sparrow and Bluebird babies in the same nest!
The mood at the feeder is showing signs of spring edginess as well. Normally calm and busy, today it is jumpy and fluttery. I must admit, my cherished Bluebirds are at the center of it. Papa swoops down at the Sparrows as they eat, sending them away. The Cowbirds, Sparrows, and Juncos are jumpy. When the Cardinals fly in, all of the other birds fly up and around in circles before resettling on the ground. The Robins take turns searching the ground for worms and watching the goings on from the deck rail. The little birds fly off in retreat, while the larger ones resettle on the ground.
Spring is definitely in the air. There are new breeds, new energies, and new behaviors at the feeder. I'm looking forward to the next few weeks as mating season begins. The watch should be truly interesting!

Messin' With Their Minds

They say it's not nice to fool Mother Nature. I've decided it's not nice to fool WITH Mother Nature either, but this week I tried.

Anyone who has read this blog knows I was not happy when the House Sparrows took over my Bluebird box. As spring returned this year, I watched the Bluebirds. Every day they would check out the box and who had moved in. The Sparrow watched as well, and I must say, everyone seemed very courteous. I never saw a bird fight. The Bluebirds weren't run off by the Sparrows. Papa Sparrow spent most mornings watching the yard from inside his box. Even so, Larry and I really wanted the Bluebirds to have their home back.


One day I decided to see if I could help the cause. I opened the box to check the nest. It was empty, so I removed it. I know that sounds mean. It was. And I felt really badly about it. The nest was beautifully made, with feathers from the bird attack we had a few weeks ago, and some grasses with feathery seed pods attached. The more I looked at it, the worse I felt. I hoped if it was gone, the Sparrows would sleep somewhere else for a couple of days and the Bluebirds would be able to move back in. After removing the nest I cleaned out the box well. At least that was a positive move. It really needed it.

Of course, you've probably figured out what happened. When I watched the box the next morning, the Sparrows were in it. Papa Sparrow surveyed the yard as he so often did, from inside the box. The Bluebirds didn't stand a chance.

Now, I really felt badly. These two little birds had spent quite a bit of time building a lovely nest. I had tucked the nest into an alcove high up under the deck the day before. So later in the day, while the Sparrows were out, and with a humble heart, I went and put the nest back in the house.

I can only imagine what Papa Sparrow thought when he returned once again to his house to find the nest back in place!


One thing I do know...Papa Sparrow spends much more time sitting on his perch outside of the box. I'm guessing he wants to make sure his nest doesn't disappear again!


Sorry Papa. I've learned my lesson. I won't fool with Mother Nature any more.