Yesterday morning I heard the First Of the Season Chipping Sparrow singing in the backyard. They usually nest in the White Pines there. The Brown Thrasher that has wintered here is now singing from the tops of trees probably to attract a mate or establish his territory, or both. He keeps changing his singing perch. Sometimes he is in the apple tree in the front yard. At other times he may be at the far end of the field or across the road in the neighbor's pasture. On the 18th I found a beautiful, male American Kestrel in a pasture farther around the mountain. That's a species we don't see often up here. Roger Mayhorn Compton Mt