visit and amaze
It is often an adventure just to fill the bird feeders each day. This morning the chickadees scolded loudly from the nearby dogwood tree as I poured sunflower chips into a hanging cage. Immediate access to the few chips left in the trays was more important to them than having the cages refilled.
Other bird noises around the feeders come from the gang of suet loving woodpeckers, hairies and downies squabbling as they chase each other up, down and around the trunks and branches. Very common, too, is the scream of the blue jay, perhaps from hunger, but as likely just yelling for the joy of being a jay.
This day another sound came from above, one entirely opposite from the dainty calls of the chickadee or even the hoarser call of its cousin, the tufted titmouse. This new noise was like a horn in the heavens, a clarion of alarm or announcement, telling all that royalty was arriving.
I raised my head in homage, and soon a raven sailed overhead with slow steady flaps, its large black body fitting well against the gray clouds of a cool morning. The call came again as the bird slid away, only to be followed cheap nfl jerseys by another raven riding in its wake.
Yet another call came from this bird, one higher pitched yet just as nobly resonant. This pair of ravens has lived and raised young in the valley for several years. My spirit saluted them as they disappeared from sight.
Other regal birds have been Nike NFL Jerseys Wholesale in the valley recently. A great blue heron was hunting in the brook and in the mown hay, climbing up and away on ponderous wingbeats at my close approach. A bald eagle was perched in a tree overlooking the meadow, diving down over the fields before heading to a more secluded limb and tree.
The sparrows provide majesty not in size or voice, but in numbers. Often, two or three dozen are spread out over the feeding ground, mostly juncos accompanied by a handful each Wholesale Jerseys of tree, white throated, and song sparrows. Almost every minute they flit away in false alarm to deeper cover.
It is the fear of raptors that makes the sparrows jump and hide. Usually it is a Cooper hawk that comes a calling, a bird that is the essence of fearsome beauty and grace. The sparrows disappear and the wholesale jerseys hawk Nike NFL Jerseys sales stands alone, cheap jerseys looking for its lost meal.
Recently the Cooper hawk did secure a feeder bird, reducing it to a feathered piece of wholesale nfl jerseys tasty meat, more akin to a bite of turkey or chicken on our plates. The hawk jumped here and there, dragging its catch, then flew to the dogwood Wholesale Jerseys China for a minute before heading off somewhere to dine in peace.
The sharp shinned hawk also has made a couple of visits. It is a near cousin and smaller version of the Cooper hawk. Both are royals, resplendent in a gown of feathers that is a dazzling sight, even the young birds Nike NFL Jerseys Cheap that have pale breasts streaked with gray, rather than the glorious red breast of the adult.
Not long after the visited, a neighbor who also feeds birds sent me the sad news that a young sharp shinned hawk had killed itself against a window of her house. It is an all too frequent event, especially for young and inexperienced birds.
A few days later, a reader in Agawam sent me photos of another victim of a window collision, this time an owl. He found it dazed at the base of his front door when he returned from a walk. If the hawks are lovely to look at, owls are both lovely and exotic. Few creatures can match the aura of mystery that an owl evokes.
The snowy owl invasion I wrote about in last week column is turning into an unprecedented flood. In a part of Parker River National Wildlife Refuge near where we looked for them, an amazing 10 snowy owls were spotted with one scan of the landscape. They are being found Nike NFL Jerseys in many such open places on the coast, and they are all here because they are hungry.
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