The Birds And The Bees

Spring has finally arrived, with sunny days and lots of birds.

We have had a blue heron wading in our pond for several years, and we can watch him in the early morning and late evening when he flies out and back to his perch. But we never could find where he perched all night. We could HEAR his hoarse bark in the dark, but we couldn't tell where it was coming from. This year before the trees leafed out, I glanced to the woods early one morning -- and there it was! The heron had built a large platform of sticks in the crotch of a tree about ten feet off the ground. We can also see him wading in the wetlands in our West land during the day. I haven't gotten brave enough to climb the tree and check out the next tho...

There is also a blue bird at our niger seed feeder. When we first saw him, we decided he was a bluebird and eagerly put up several nesting boxes, only to have sparrows use them instead. This year I got a good look at the blue bird and checked out my BIRDS OF KANSAS, only to find that the blue bird isn't a bluebird at all, but an indigo bunting. No rust-colored breast; our blue bird is blue all over. *sigh* Maybe we'll just let the sparrows enjoy their houses?

The other visitors to the niger seed feeder are LOTS of gold finches.

At the regular feeder, we have a woodpecker who thinks the eaves on our house is a snack, and I throw things at him to disabuse him of the idea. There are also the usual suspects: cardinals, blue jays, orange winged black birds, and robins.

The cats sit on a table at the front room window and go nuts when the barn swallows (another blue bird who isn't a bluebird but has a rust-colored breast...confusing, isn't it?) loop and dive in from of them enroute to their nest in our guttering.

The path to the bees takes me past a killdeer's nest, which upsets the mother immensely. There were originally three eggs (off white with mud-colored mottling); but the last time I saw it, there were only two. Raccoons?

As for the bees, the second hive box is on each one; and the queens are busy laying eggs. The last four or five days have been sunny, and I've seen bees on the heather at the front door of the house and on the chives in the garden. We're hoping they are buzzing in and out and making honey like...well, like busy bees.