IN THE HEIGHT OF SPRING

I wrote before that I am more of a "Bird Listener" than "watcher". It is true. If one has half decent hearing, as I do, they can hear, as I did yesterday invisible Easter Towhees, House Wrens, Baltimore Orioles, Tufted Titmouses, Carolina Wrens, Common Yellowthroats. The birds that I actually "see" here at the Mount are: Bald Eagles, Red-Winged Blackbirds, Blue Jays, Chipping and Song Sparrows, Mourning Doves, Rusty Blackbirds, Carolina Wrens, Northern Mockingbirds... There are hardly any Nuthatches and Chickakees around. Oh yes, the Swifts, Tree and Barn Swallows are back. One thing that has fascinated me are the very varied Northern Cardinal calls an songs. I have gotten used to the great variety of Robin song. But I am now "getting the hang" of what I would call "Cardinalish song". If you go to the sounds easilly obtainable on the Internet (especially the Cornell Site to which there is a link at your bottom LEFT) you will find a good "sample" of bird songs and calls. But there is an infinite variety. (The truth seems to be that birds are learning different ways of expressing themselves just like us human beings). At least that is the way I see it. Right above you have a picture of a beautiful cloud-filled Hudson River sunrise. And here a "Mom Eagle" caring for her two invisible eagletts.

THE TREE SWALLOWS AND TOWHEES ARE BACK

It is GOOD FRIDAY. And indeed a good Friday it is, as Jewish people have celebrated Passover and Christians are in the midst of celebrating Christ's Paschal Mystery....

SPRING....is a Mystery of Life. The Tree Swallows, Towhees, Chipping and Song Sparrows, Phoebees, Robins galore, Bluebirds galore, nestings Eagles, Red Winged Blackbirds "screaming up a storm" this morning as well as the White Breasted Nuthatches, Chickadees and Tufted Titmouses that have "stayed with us". Today was really the first time this spring I've "heard" (FIRST), then "seen" the Chipping Sparrows. The Song Sparrows are really not singing that much. (I guess they have "nesting work" to do first!)

I have seen Herons which I am "pretty sure" are Great Blues on two of our ponds. What gracious flight they have!

HAPPY EASTER ALL!

DEFINITE SPRING ARRIVAL AT ESOPUS

There is no doubt! SPRING IS HERE AT ESOPUS. Out on what we stll call "Pells" (because it is the piece of property that we bought from Robert Livingston Pell later on in 1954) I heard a Long-Eared Owl (or more!!), an Eastern Tohwee, Song Sparrows, an Ovenbird.....(Well, I heard what I understood as its "Teacher, Teacher, Teacher!!) call, the usual crowd of Red-Winged Blackbirds, an Eastern Phoebe and a Carolina Wren) Well, let me be honest! (Because anyone who knows anything about us birders knows that an "unchaperoned birder" is capable of, if not "outright deceit", at the minimum...a bit of "exaggeration"). So, being honest, I have to say that what I "thought" was the Ovenbird's song might have ACTUALLY been a "variation" of the Carolina Wren's. And so I will put two links here: 1. Song of the Carolina Wren--http://www.birds.cornell.edu/AllAboutBirds/audio/Carolina_Wren.html and 2. The Ovenbird. http://www.birds.cornell.edu/AllAboutBirds/audio/Ovenbird.html You, who I HOPE will respond will be the judges. So get out there and enjoy this early "March Spring" yourselves!!!