A walk with the birds

The prairie is a noisy place again, now that all the birds are back and settling in. Or passing through, as the case may be -- and I hope that's the case for some of them, as there are at the moment a ridiculous number of blackbirds here! Some can stay, but they are going to have to stake out territory on every fence post instead of every third if they all decide to stick around.

I had a lovely walk on Friday morning observing all sorts of feathered activity. (The children are in daycare two days a week, and I decided to engage in a little solitude on one of them last week!)

This pintail pair was not far from the farm. We saw a pintail pair on our walk tonight as well -- not sure if it's the same couple.


I do like taking pictures of the birds I see -- I can zoom in and ID on the computer screen later, even if I couldn't do so when I saw them in real life! Here is a slough full of lesser scaup, with a few redheads mixed in.

And here are some of the blackbirds! That fence is going to need a "no vacancy" sign.

This looks quite nice -- it's almost as if the trees are decorated for a holiday -- but it's not the most impressive blackbird tree I've seen this spring. On two other occasions I've seen a tree nearly black with birds. From one, the birds started to fly out in a coordinated exodus, just three or four at a time, like a lacy ribbon unspooling into the sky. It was absolutely beautiful.

That little walk had so much beauty in it that it was almost sad, if that makes any sense. I knew that (especially since I saw three abandoned farm sites on my way) there are far too few people who would see the beauty in a walk on the prairie in the early spring. Even, frankly, myself, as that was one of the first walks I've been on since the weather warmed.

We all need to get out more!