The birds, a squirrel, and a “writing day”…

Spring has “officially” entered the picture—finally! Yep, the robins have showed up again, and I’ve witnessed them busily pecking away for worms in yards and lots all over the area the last few days.

I’ve even restored the bird feeder way out back and filled it with sunflower seeds, hoping to attract cardinals and other lovely members of the avian ilk. But of course it’s the big, squawking black birds that seem to monopolize the feeder throughout the day. Regardless, I have spotted the male cardinal and his mate, from time to time, able to grab a quick bite when the other glutinous birds aren’t around. Another “guest” in our backyard is a gray squirrel, whose thick, fuzzy winter coat makes him appear as a bouncing ball when he scoots from tree to ground under the bird feeder and then back up another tree nearby.

It was a very rough winter around these parts. Lots of snow in January and on into February, punctuated with days of intense winds and wind chill warnings. I can’t recall a winter when I chose to remain inside for most of the day as I did these past couple of months. The accumulation of snow and ice prevented any “getting around” the yard. I did, however, put the snow thrower to good use in keeping the driveway clear.

Now, looking out  my writing room window, over the snowless back yard and the farm fields to the east, it gives me a good feeling that we’ve turned the corner and soon the grass will be green again; the trees will be budding, ready to shoot forth their leafy beauty.

Sometime, after the fields are dry enough, the farmer will begin another growing cycle—this year it will be corn—and I’ll get to watch the seeds grow into green sprouts and then into healthy stalks and then a golden harvest in October.

The last few days have been sun filled with temperatures in the 40s. Not quite warm enough to grab the chair and sit out on the deck or the driveway to bask in the goodness that spring is, but it’s getting closer. Oh, how I anticipate being able to dress for the day in shorts and t-shirt!

 Today, a gray, chilly, and wet one, is my “writing day.” The ear buds are in, as I listen to Cinemix on Internet Radio while I write away, attempting to catch up after another stretch of time where I’ve failed to dazzle the keyboard with my magic. The novel, needing much work, awaits, and I probably should take advantage of this “writing day” to seriously get to it.

On another tack...

I recently finished reading a novel I’ve intended to get to for quite some time: Bernard Malamud’s The Natural. Most people are familiar with the 1984 movie by the same title, starring Robert Redford. I had frequently heard that Malamud’s award winning novel, published in 1952, takes a very drastic turn from what is portrayed in the movie. Without giving things away, I’ll simply say that main character, Roy Hobbs, is a very flawed human being. 

For those baseball fans who thrilled to the heroic tale that was the movie version of The Natural, it might be of interest to check out and read the true tale of The Natural by Bernard Malamud.

Well, I see that the black birds are at the feeder once again, and the gray squirrel has put in an appearance, awaiting any “freebies” the birds manage to drop from their buffet above. A couple of robins are hopping around, in search of the mysterious worm, concealed somewhere beneath.

Ah, spring has come to life once more in our back yard!

Old Glory to the rescue to thwart the robin!

It’s been way too long since I’ve sat down and put together a blog post, so one of my goals
for today is to do just that. Now it’s time to catch back up with what’s happening here as spring is in full force once again.

And springtime means yard work and getting everything that we dismantled (deck and patio furniture, planters, decorative ornamental hangings, etc.) and put away back in late fall dusted off and back in their proper places.

Now, as the days and weeks wear on through April, things are shaping up nicely around here. The grass all around is healthy and relatively free from various weeds and those persistent dandelions. The first applications of crabgrass preventer and early spring weed-n-feed have been applied.

We’ve mowed five times already and have added mulch to our backyard “triangle” that has the tall evergreen in the center. The colors of the daffodils and the tulips (that survived the rabbit assaults!) have been spectacular for the last couple of weeks.
When all of the yard tasks are finished, I enjoy sitting on the deck in the late afternoon with a cold drink, or in the early morning with a hot coffee, and watch the birds come and go to our two feeders and our neighbor’s finch feeders.

Those mornings when the sunshine is magnificent (which it has been for the past several days), there’s simply an overall feeling of nature coming alive and all the vestiges of winter cold eradicated.

Which brings us to the saga of the industrious robins who, for the last couple of springs, have built a nest in the tall evergreen out back. It’s a perfect spot, offering protection from the weather and other nosey creatures.

I’ve watched the nest-building on those mornings when I’m on the deck, and I find it cool how organized the robin “nest builders” are. While one bird goes out and forages for nest materials (grass, mud, cloth, etc.), another one–some distance away, yet on alert–watches to chase away any intruding bird who might have ideas about disturbing the nest in some way.

One morning a few days ago, I happened to notice one of those robins hanging around our deck several times. When I went out with coffee in hand, the bird flew out low over my head. I looked over to where it had come from and saw that it had been starting a nest on the top of our gas fireplace vent on the side of our house. The nest was pretty far along, too, so I knew I needed to get rid of it before Mama robin moved in to lay her eggs.

It is a perfect spot for a nest, I realized, as it’s surrounded on three sides and out of the way and protected from strong winds. The problem, however, is that we don’t want a bird building a nest so close to the deck where we’re going in and out. Also, we don’t want grass, mud, stones, and other nest materials clogging up the fireplace vent.

I figured I could remedy this quickly in its early stages by getting the broom and sweeping away the grass and mud that our industrious little friend had placed there. I even wedged an old shovel handle through the deck privacy wall in hopes that it would deter the robin from returning to build its nest.

All seemed satisfactory until the next morning when I checked it out, and the bird had re-started the nest, having deposited a good amount of grass once again. So, I repeated my earlier sweeping and put the handle back over the vent top, thinking that this time I’d surely discouraged the little red-breasted birdie!

Not so!

The robin was persistent, though, doing the same thing as before the following morning. Something more had to be done to deter the robin from nesting on our fireplace vent, and my creative juices were in overdrive.

What I came up with is as follows: Inside a coffee can I placed a heavy stone for weight and then punched a hole in the plastic lid just enough to fit a miniature American flag through. I hoped that the waving of Old Glory would keep the eager robin away, and the lid and can would keep the top of the vent covered and inaccessible to the robin. So far it has worked.

Each time I go outside, I check to make sure that the little flag is waving and no grass has been placed in or around the can on the vent.

I still see robins out and about, bouncing and bobbing right along on the green, green grass of home, and I’m pretty sure that one is nesting in the big evergreen as before.

But wherever they are, I wish them and their babies well–Just not next to our deck and on our fireplace vent!

Photo: learner.org

Is spring on the way, or are the robins confused?

OK, I’m not complaining, so please don’t read this wrong. But…

Around these parts, one of the first signs of spring is the appearance of robins—those happy-go-lucky, red-breasted winged friends who seem to arrive out of nowhere.

Without a doubt, we can always rely on them showing up around mid-March, and it’s always a special moment when we call out: “Hey, there’s a robin in the neighbor’s back yard!”

“Hey, everyone. It’s spring! Or is it?”

Well, last week (January 27^th to be exact!), as I was grinding away on my MacBook and happened to glance out through my “window to the world,” I spotted one of those happy-go-lucky, red-breasted winged friends bouncing about in the back yard, carrying on as though the calendar was much farther along then it really was.

I sensed that the perky, little robin wanted to be seen, and I could almost hear her shouting: “Hello, everyone. It’s springtime!”

It was a delightful feeling seeing that bird, and one which made me feel good about the direction our winter was taking.

True, this winter has been a far cry from winters past—particularly last year’s—and the fact that I’ve only used our snow thrower two times is testament to that fact. Again, not complaining!

Not surprisingly, soon after the first robin showed, there was what appeared to be an invasion of her friends, immediate family, relatives, and various other hangers-on of the robin clan.

Our yard seemed to be cluttered with them as they bounced around in search of snacks and treats in the grass no longer covered with winter’s blanket.

After awhile this battalion of birds moved from the back yard and maneuvered around to the side lot where I snapped a couple of photos of this earlier-than-usual showing.

Later that afternoon, while I was busily stoking the Weber charcoal grill on our driveway, I could see that the gang of robins was still in the vicinity, but that they had moved across the street to the large empty lot. Again, I snapped a photo from my driveway, and one must look carefully to recognize them as robins. If nothing else, take my word for it.

Funny thing is, I haven’t seen them since that day. Our weather has been unseasonably pleasant and very March-like, so one would think that the happy creatures would have stuck around and continued whatever it is they do to herald the onset of spring—even though that’s still quite a ways off!

Perhaps one bird in this merry contingent checked the calendar and had an “oops moment” and delivered the news to the leader, causing the embarrassed congregation of happy-go-lucky, red-breasted winged friends to slink away, realizing that they’d jumped the gun just a bit.

Whatever the reasons: Why they arrived when they did and Why they didn’t stick around, the wonders of nature never cease to amaze me! Something was definitely at work in the universe of the robins, telling them it was time to pop in to northern Illinois.

Maybe they were just checking things out, making sure everything was in order for their real arrival in several weeks from now. Whatever their reasons, we’ll be looking for them once again and will welcome them back to stay a lot longer!

Not complaining…