I've had some time over the past two days to enjoy and toil in our
landscape. St Louis is a village about 8 miles east of the Blue Ridge in
sw Loudoun County.
A pair of bluebirds has adopted a nest box directly in front of the
kitchen window. She's busily placing nesting material while he sits
watch. Yesterday while watching them, the sound of my first red-breasted
nuthatch in Virginia in almost two years wafted in through the side door
from the pines north of the house.
Yesterday also brought first of the year eastern kingbirds and gray
catbirds. I am watching for hummers with columbines in full bloom and
red buckeyes about 4 days from bloom. Nothing yet. Good butterflies in
the garden however...black swallowtail, pearl crescent, a dusky wing,
meadow frittilaries, spring azures and a likely Atlantis frittilary on
Thursday.
This morning, while watching the same bluebird pair while working
through a sink full of dishes, a gang of bluejays came in to feed.
Bluebird nest building was suspended as 6-8 jays sifted through
millet/sunflower seed on the ground-- last junco seen here was about a
week ago but a small number of white-throats join dozens of chipping
sparrows each morning. While keeping an eye on the bluebirds vs.
bluejays, a first of the year indigo bunting shows up in a full-bloom
redbud just behind the feeding area. That's behind a niger feeder
stocked with goldfinches. Almost makes you wish there were more dishes
to be done.
When I first got back into the yard on Wednesday morning, I was greeted
by a couple of other first of the year "yard" birds. Eastern towhees and
house wrens are chatting it up on the property perimeter. Two or more bg
gnatcatchers hang out well below the garage in large elms and ashes. In
the pines, the green herons have returned to nest for the fourth year in
a row.
Before taking off for a few days at Kiptopeake this
afternoon, I look forward to getting away from the kitchen window and
seeing what else might be nearby.
Craig Tufts
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Craig Tufts
Chief Naturalist
National Wildlife Federation
11100 Wildlife Center Drive
Reston, VA 20190-5362
phone :(703) 438-6438
fax: (703) 438-6035
email: tufts@xxxxxxx
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