Nesting Dreams

After the ill-fated and much-failed hummingbird experiment back in Pittsburgh, I haven't really felt compelled to do much in the way of bird feeding since. Part of it has to do with my ongoing *bird issues* and part of it is that, while I love and admire all animals, birds just don't really do it for me. But I guess I have never before lived in a place with such an amazing and incredible diversity of birds as there are here. And The Toddler is turning out to be really into birds. So we went and got ourselves a bird feeder - supposedly "squirrel resistant" - and hung it from the maple tree in front yard. We're not getting too much action yet out there, as it seems more different types of birds hang out in the back yard (we'll get a feeder out there next, I think). But I'm sitting there on the couch diligently with my Audubon Field Guide to Birds Northeastern Edition, learning how to become a novice bird-watcher. So far, though, I'm not improving much in my birding skills. Maybe it's my poor eyesight. Or maybe it's because those things are so twitchy and fast and unpredictable (the source of my "issues" in the first place!), I just can't ever seem to get a good, close-enough look. But I'm trying. We're all trying. Z. seems to think that it's "her" bird book and whenever I take it out, she has to steal it from me and look at the pictures.

Thus far, we have identified:

• rufous-sided towhee;
• Carolina chickdee;
• tufted titmouse;
• jay;
• cardinal;
• common grackle

And of course at other places in town we've seen the vultures, both turkey and black. But more on that soon. Radford's annual "Vulture Day" is fast approaching and this year, we're definitely going!

A Proper Naturalist I Am Not

So, I've admitted that I'm pretty good with identifying and knowing more than *normal* people should about a wide range of animals (don't get me started on my dull, but exhaustive knowledge of freshwater mussels...), save birds, since I have peculiar bird issues and they kind of creep me out (I'm working to overcome the creepy factor, slowly). But I also have to admit that I am really, painfully ignorant about trees and plants. I guess we all have elements of the natural/non-human world that we are more drawn to than others. And plants and trees just typically don't capture my interest all that much. Well, if I happen to learn about them I find this knowledge interesting, and useful, but I don't go outdoors with a guidebook in hand trying to figure out what things are.

So I have decided that to better appreciate where I am living, I should learn a whole lot more about this landscape. Today I started with identifying the beautiful pink trees that have exploded in bloom ALL OVER the place in the last week or so. Not a hard task: they're Cercis canadensis, the very common Eastern Redbud tree . I do like knowing the names of things.

It occurs to me, and maybe this is something L. should comment on, that my own interest in the natural world is often prompted simply by aesthetics, by my own perceptions of beauty, particularly when it comes to plants and trees. Things which I find attractive compel me to learn more, to uncover a meaning, name and significance.

The Hope for Feathers

I thought it would be like in that movie I never saw but which yielded a ubiquitous catchphrase that most of the planet recognizes, Field of Dreams. I thought if I built it (er, rather, put it up), they would come. They = hummingbird(s). Turns out that there is only a single hummingbird species native to western Pennsylvania. It also turns out that not a one of them would like to visit my backyard.

I am reminded of sitting on H.'s balcony in midsummer, watching all those hummingbirds flitting about. Nope. Not going to get to see that here. How sad.

Two things that i suck at identifying and would like to be able to do a lot better: birds and trees.