Sunday, March 8, 2015

Our First Pair

Bluebirds.

I've spent a lot of time out in the shop the last few days, the heater is barely having to do its thing.  Warm winds, bright sun and right now at 12:30PM CDT, we have 43 degrees.  It's 10 long paces from the garage to the house and while on my way in for a sandwich, something on the smallish side caught my eye.  I didn't feed the birds this winter and as such, the only feathered creatures that get even reasonably close to the house have been a single woodpecker, the murder of crows and the very occasional eagle soaring high above but still within sight of the river.

This bird was smaller.  I stopped on the step and watched through the bare branches, first noticing one and then its mate.  There they were, hiding in the branches of the cherry tree.  I stayed very still and watched, listened closely and even with the wind, heard their faint calls.  Doing my feeble best, I imitated their calls and drew them both to within 10 feet of me where they hid behind what was left of the tiny crabs still in the tree.  We talked back and forth a minute or so, then once they established that I had very little of importance to contribute, skedaddled into the ash tree, much further away.

Yesterday afternoon in weather conditions much like today, only a few degrees cooler, I hiked the perimeter of the property.  Much of our valley is bare; the north facing slopes of which our buildings hug, are not.  I was sloppy yesterday and didn't lace up my boots and was rewarded with wet feet after dealing with drifts still a foot deep though getting very soft.

Our returning blue (and orange) friends obviously saw the same 10 day forecast that I have.  Welcome back little ones.

6 comments:

  1. As a kid living up north, one of the first signs of Spring were the return of the robins. It is still odd for me when I see them here year round.

    Welcome back little ones indeed.

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    1. My first reaction was "hey it's a rob...." Still back lit in snow, colors weren't showing up very well and the distance/size seemed wrong. A few seconds later my robin guess was proven wrong. Seems every spring there are 2 pair that spend time along the line fence. Just maybe this year I'll try and figure out where they nest.

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  2. It was nice to get back to Fairbanks today. It is 40°F warmer than Barrow and no wind. This morning, wind chill in Barrow was below -50°F. I was glad that the flight wasn't cancelled.

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    1. 40 to the good and still too cold.....how do we (you) do it? I would think that at -50 wind you'd be on the brink of cancelled flights.

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  3. Hooray for the return of the birds.

    I still get surprised when I see robins all year round in Oregon. They used to be a sure sign of spring living in BC. Now we'll joke when we see one in December: "Oh look it must be spring".

    Our temperature was in the high 60's all weekend but we had family over for 3 nights. Doh! No riding for us.

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    1. Hooray is right! Seeing them and hearing their calls brings back an important part of spring and that's a very good thing.

      Very unseasonable warmth around here too. We made, or rather our driveway flooding made it through the melt without too much inconvenience but the frost is coming out way too fast and the rest of the driveway is a disaster. One more day of warm wind and we'll be over the hump, hopefully until late in 2015.

      Lots of bikes out but only two of mine, if that, would easily get up to the road right now.

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