365Caws is now in its 14th year of publication, and was originally intended to end after 365 days. It has sometimes been difficult for me to find new material, particularly during the winter months, but now as I enter my own twilight years, I cannot guarantee that I will be able to provide daily posts. It is my hope that along the way I may have inspired someone to a greater curiosity about the natural world. If so, I can rest, content in the knowledge that my work here has been done.
Monday, December 16, 2019
Pair O' Dees
Day 64: They say you should be careful of what you wish for, but I have no regrets about having wished for chickadees in my yard even though it's made walking out to the feeders rather dangerous. I thought the hummers were bad, zooming around my head, threatening to poke me in the ear or in the eye, needling me with their little beakies in anticipation, but now I have to walk through a veritable cloud of chickadees, wings all a-flutter, chattering "Chick-a-dee-dee-dee!" or "Tzick-a-dee-dee!" depending on species. Oh yes, I have two kinds, Black-capped (Poecile atricapillus, left) and Chestnut-backed (Poecile rufescens, right), and probably a few intergrades as well...dozens, DOZENS! of 'dee-dees in the contorted filbert and Japanese maple (not so much the dogwood...wonder why?). Given this auspicious turn of events after a thirty-year void, I suspect it won't be long before the Kinglets show up as well, Golden-crowned and Ruby-crowned groupies who follow the 'dee-dee concert everywhere.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment