I have been a dedicated birder for nearly ten years (it’s one of my regrets that I didn’t start paying close attention to feathered beings until my 40s). Fellow birders have been telling me for nearly the same time that I should visit Texas for its wonderful bird life as it has both spectacular resident … Continue reading On the Road–Part 1
. . . is to spend a morning on the prairie east of town, with a view of our local mountain range in full view. This is especially true after one to two inches of rain have fallen on the region, the temperature is comfortable, the sun shining, and the wind nearly absent. The earth … Continue reading My Idea of Bliss . . .
Dear Mrs. and Mr. Oriole, I regret to inform you that your home, beautiful and sturdy though it was, fell victim to this winter’s storms. I recently found it in a dry creek bed at the foot of the cottonwood tree where you had so laboriously affixed it to a number of branches. My heart … Continue reading Dear Mrs. and Mr. Oriole
If the “bobkitten” encounter I wrote about two posts ago was unexpected, it wasn’t my first with this species and, with any luck, won’t have been the last one in our local environs. I’m not sure the same can be said about my meeting with the protagonist of today’s post, which was even more unexpected. … Continue reading Even More Unexpected
For humans, the term snowbirds designates individuals who try to escape winter and snow by moving to warmer, more temperate climes for a period of time. In the avian world, John James Audubon applied the name Snow Bird (Fringilla nivalis) to what has since been renamed Dark-eyed Junco (Junco hyemalis). Etymologically, both species names are … Continue reading Snow Birds
tanja britton 