Spring Beauty

This has been an odd spring so far. It's been beautiful! Cloudless skies, few bugs, low humidity where I can see for miles. And that's the bad news. Really. The area has had almost no rain. Currently, we are almost 4 inches below normal for the year, and this is after a winter with almost no snow.

Isn't it funny how nature is almost always a double-edged sword? Beautiful spring weather means no rain. Good road conditions during the winter translates into no snow. No bugs means no birds or bats.

I am seeing a few new spring migrants. I had a black-throated blue warbler just a few feet from my nose when was typing at my computer a few minutes ago. It flitted by the greenery outside my window, oblivious to my presence. I've heard the first of the great-crested flycatchers this season. And a very distant cuckoo.

So far the only resident who hasn't yet arrived is the eastern wood pewee, and they are always the last to show up.

Yesterday, I was momentarily surrounded by 3 madly circling wood thrush. If those birds had had ropes in their beaks, I'd have been trussed up better than the good guy on a bad cop show. I think it was 2 males argueing over a female, but for a few seconds it was pandemonium, and I was in the center of it.