Tuesday, March 17, 2009, 06:09
Sixty!
Okay, so what's going on here?
A week ago, it was below zero, and I was wearing a hooded sweatshirt, two layers of fleece jackets, long johns, multiple socks, heavy boots, stocking cap and gloves to go outside. It was an uncomfortably stinging cold with a bitter wind much of last week.
Monday it was 60 degrees, sunny, with a fairly strong wind out of the south/southeast.
Actually, the wind has been out of the south/southeast for the past four days. Usually when the wind blows out of the south/southeast for a couple of days, we can expect precipitation in some form. But the weather forecast is not predicting any precipitation for the rest of the week.
This, of course, does not bode well for our drought situation. We haven't gotten very much snow, and by now, at the middle of March, I am wondering if it we are actually going to go through the winter without any kind of major snow event. Sure, we got six inches a couple of weeks ago, but in a normal year, that probably would have been 12 inches, since March typically is the month with the most snow.
Anyway, the temperature got up to 60 degrees Monday afternoon. And I heard a killdeer. Often the killdeer arrive back here before the robins and bluebirds. But not this year.
Quite a few years ago now, the killdeer used to nest in the horse pasture. But in more recent years, they have passed up our horse pasture for the neighbor's cow pasture. I don't know why a cow pasture is more desirable than a horse pasture, but that seems to be the case. It was fun to see the momma killdeer after the babies had ventured from the nest. She would pretend to have a broken wing to lead me away from her babies. The young killdeer, unlike many other birds, look like miniature adults right from the start.
So far we have robins, bluebirds, killdeer, geese headed north and wild turkeys gobbling once in a while. We have seen the Redtail hawk circling over the big pines, too. She has nested in a tall pine for the past several years right across the road from Isabelle's pasture. I must say -- those baby Redtail hawks are noisy. They squawk constantly, even after they leave the nest and are learning to fly.
The horse pastures, especially up the by gates, have turned into quagmires again, too. The ground is going to have to dry up considerably before I can really get at cleaning up the horse manure I couldn't chip loose during the winter because it was much too frozen.
But, as they say, all in good time. . .
LeAnn R. Ralph
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Monday, March 16, 2009, 05:08
The Hills Are Alive . . . With the Sound of Music
First thing Sunday morning when I went outside with Pixie, I heard it -- a robin!
The robin was in the big oak tree by the road, and as I walked around the corner of the house, it flew off, chirping and tweeting.
There is nothing quite so sweet as the sound of the first robin in March.
A short while later, I heard a wild turkey gobbling.
And not long after that, a flock of geese headed north.
Later on, after we got home from church, I heard another twittering sound coming from the old pasture down by the road.
Bluebirds! Bluebirds twittering happily.
The temperature got up into the mid-50s Sunday with quite a lot of sunshine.
Oh, yes -- the hills around us are coming alive with sound of music. Only the kind of music that the birds can sing. . .
LeAnn R. Ralph