Nature Literature discussion

Hello Everyone-- we had fun with this thread some years back, so I thought it would be good to revive it. Please let us know where in the world you hail from and what your are seeing in your yard, woods, fields... nature wise. Are you working on some land, environment, or conservation projects you would like to share?

This is really a fun way for us to connect with each other as we observe and interact with our natural world.

I occasionally post to eBird. Today when I opened the blinds in my library, an orange-crowned warbler was foraging for food around the tropical sage and hairy cluster vine. I live in Katy, Texas and volunteer at the the Katy Prairie Conservancy’s native plants nursery. Yesterday I saw a green-tailed towhee, far out of its normal range! I love hearing the sandhill cranes when I’m out on the prairie this time of year.

Northern Minnesota here (Itasca County). We have sandhill cranes in our field in summer, they make a fun sound!
Most birds fly away leaving winter very quiet here.
There was a barn owl in a tree in our backyard Christmas day. Pileated woodpeckers are regulars in our yard and woods year round, and a trumpeter swan flew over the other day. Our kids have been skating on the pond since late November, and local lakes have been frozen enough for winter activity on them for a while now. Some flowage areas on and around the Mississippi still offer open water to the trumpeters.

Wow, Iris - you have such an opportunity there. We are shrouded in ice fog here in the Columbia River Basin in Oregon. Eastern cascades...

https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/O...#

Apparently the orange-crowned warbler moves through my area on migration. I didn't know that. Lovely warbler. I feel inept in my warbler identification... we are on a 200 acre native grassland restoration farm comprising oak savannah, riparian, ponderosa pine, and prairie. The warblers are usually found down along the creek.

Thanks for sharing...

Hi Amanda-- do you have any small songbirds that remain in winter?

The only small birds that remain over winter are chickadees and nuthatch. Occasionally goldfinches. Other year round birds are blue jays and other woodpeckers. Other than those, just big birds - eagles and owls. Late spring, usually sometime in April, our world comes alive with bird song again - it feels like a celebration after the long winter!
Columbia River area in Oregon is one of my favorite places away from home. Beautiful.

I am a new eBird member, and love using it to checkout new species before I head out to a specific hotspot, so I know what I might see. I'm just outside DC, near the Potomac River, so we have great parks and wetlands nearby. Currently stalking a Sora at one of the parks, as often as I can get there.

Wish I had a feeder, but have no outdoor access in my 30-story building. I envy you folks with ready window viewing of birds.

Hi Cindy Ann-- I grew up in Northern Virginia, so I am familiar with your region... That's great you are using eBird.

We just completed the Christmas Bird Count here at our farm as we do on Dec 31st every year! First year in a while that we were not weighed down and dressing in hoarfrost -- partly sunny instead -- 3 - 5 inches of melting snow. I saw one new species a varied thrush -- I know this bird from Alaska , but I had never seen it on our farm, so that was such a delightful surprise ...

With the dawning of a New Year, I am always drawn back to Thomas Hardy’s (1840-1928) poem “The Darkling Thrush.” Written in December of 1900 this atmospheric work heralds a new century – a new year.

Deep winter and a frosty suspension of time and movement isolates everyone behind their heavy doors. Like at our farm and in this poem each year on December 31st – all landscapes are touched by clinging hoarfrost and quiet musing (not this year though).

A New Year, in Hardy’s poem, is announced by the frail singing thrush. Its joyful song cuts through the gloomy air and banishes specters from the previous year.

December 31st each year also marks the day when we do the Christmas Bird Count at the farm. And, to my absolute delight—I saw a new species – a Varied Thrush. A solitary black and orange thrush emitting its buzzy police whistle. Must be Thomas Hardy’s bird come to visit!


The Darkling Thrush
BY THOMAS HARDY
I leant upon a coppice gate
When Frost was spectre-grey,
And Winter's dregs made desolate
The weakening eye of day.
The tangled bine-stems scored the sky
Like strings of broken lyres,
And all mankind that haunted nigh
Had sought their household fires.

The land's sharp features seemed to be
The Century's corpse outleant,
His crypt the cloudy canopy,
The wind his death-lament.
The ancient pulse of germ and birth
Was shrunken hard and dry,
And every spirit upon earth
Seemed fervourless as I.

At once a voice arose among
The bleak twigs overhead
In a full-hearted evensong
Of joy illimited;
An aged thrush, frail, gaunt, and small,
In blast-beruffled plume,
Had chosen thus to fling his soul
Upon the growing gloom.

So little cause for carolings
Of such ecstatic sound
Was written on terrestrial things
Afar or nigh around,
That I could think there trembled through
His happy good-night air
Some blessed Hope, whereof he knew
And I was unaware.

Thanks for sharing a beautiful poem on New Year's Day! The Varied Thrush is gorgeous. An auspicious start for 2021.

Sher wrote: "With the dawning of a New Year, I am always drawn back to Thomas Hardy’s (1840-1928) poem “The Darkling Thrush.” Written in December of 1900 this atmospheric work heralds a new century – a new year..."
Thanks for sharing this lovely poem.
I don't know if you saw this or not, but the world of nature writers lost a giant on Christmas day. https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/b...

Hello Ray-- yes, I saw your notice of Lopez's passing, and I also shared this with several other friends. Thank you for sharing this news. A time for reflection...

Cindy Ann-- I am so glad you appreciated Hardy's poem. Posting 19th C poetry sometimes feels a risk, because of the language- so good to hear it was nice for you...

Happy Jan 1st Day everyone- I am toying with taking the eBird Daily Challenge -- it's a bit crazy because well it is a challenge as they say to do it daily, but it seems like a really good practice...

Here is more information- if you would like to be crazy too. :)

https://ebird.org/news/2021-checklist...

Really fun day here on the farm-- sun and all the snow has melted, and I saw a bald eagle circling overhead. Usually they don't stray so far from the Columbia River (6 miles away), so seeing one was a real treat.

And I also spied 11 common ravens circling and air-playing .. we have 3 - 5 resident ravens, so it was odd to see so many.

Oh, and I also ran into a small group of lesser goldfinch feeding on small bud sprays in alder trees along the creek...

All interesting sightings...

Did anyone see anything interesting in your environment this weekend. Perhaps you saw something during a hike or...?

A warmer- wet Oregon winter so far. Anna's Hummingbird still coming daily to my feeder.

Anything interesting going on in your landscape? Anyone gearing up for the Polar Vortex?

We've had a very warm-for-us January here in northern Minnesota so far. Currently lots of fresh snow, and temps should be dropping more toward normal (sub-zero nights) this coming week. I'm amazed that you have hummingbirds this time of year, Sher! I see a lone pileated woodpecker swooping through the trees regularly. Quiet winter woodland activity.

Your scene there Amanda actually quite lovely-- especially the fresh snow and neighborhood "pileated woodpecker swooping through the trees."

We are on the borderline for Anna's hummingbirds, and if it doesn't drop consistently to the 20s and below, these birds will remain all winter, but we can still get a ton of snow in February. So! We stay tuned.

It's possible to get a big weather event in February, but here in the Columbia River Basin region in Oregon, we have had a warmer, slightly wetter winter so far. The Anna's hummingbirds have never moved west.

I'm already thinking about the bird nesting season on the farm.

Bird boxes cleaned and just about ready for the nest season.

We have some boxes to repair and move, which I'll be working on today with my worker.

How has winter been for you this year in the environment where you live?

So far we've had a mild winter in northern MN. It looks like February will bring deeper cold weather. We're expected to dip to 30 below zero this weekend with daytime highs in the negatives for a few days. (high of -13° predicted, not much of a daily "warm up" .. gives the air quite a bite.)
The other day I watched a rafter of wild turkeys on our frozen pond. Our kids keep it cleared of snow for skating, the turkeys seem to like the reprieve from struggling awkwardly through deeper snow.
Interesting fact, I've lived in northern MN my whole life, as have generations before me, and never had we seen wild turkeys in our area until maybe 10 or so years ago. They have quickly grown in population, having hone from never before seen in these parts to a common sighting, sometimes in very large groups.
At first the DNR didn't recognize that they were here, but now their numbers are large enough that there are regular hunting seasons established for them.
There is some science that says they aren't good for our forests. Watching a flock of wild turkeys is like seeing a small army canvassing through the undergrowth, scratching it up with their big feet while they feed, and while doing so, scratching away the leaf litter and insulation so important to the roots of our native trees so that they may survive the deep freeze of winter.
Normally this is Ruffed Grouse territory, a significantly smaller bird, accustomed to snow and deep cold. It conserves energy by not moving much in winter and will plunge right into the snow for an insulated little igloo fort on cold nights. The turkey is incredibly awkward in the snow, and covers so much territory (big eaters, and I can see why, moving like they do, and roosting in the open in trees). Many see the wild turkeys as large invasive species that may disrupt the ecosystem.
Time will tell.
Sher, I bet you'll understand when I say that they sure get our bearded, birdy dog excited!

Amanda, I love hearing your turkey stories. I have a few stories myself. Here's an article I wrote about wild turkeys in the Driftless a few years ago. Fair warning, it does describe turkey hunting. https://www.bigrivermagazine.com/wild...

We are having a mild winter in southern Minnesota too. Right now we're experiencing a few days above freezing, which is ruining the perfect powder snow we've had for cross-country skiing.

My husband observed a new deer behavior. They are licking road salt off our car! I worry that this type of salt may harm them. Does anyone know? We do wash our car but the 15-miles between the carwash and our place results in more salt on the car!

Thanks for sharing that article, Julie. Well done, I enjoyed it!
Now that they're abundant in our area, the only turkey our household eats is wild turkey.

The battle of winter road salt on cars.. I relate.
I know road salt is a nuisance up on the Gunflint Trail, moose love to come out and lick the roads, which makes for a hazard at night. I've never heard of it harming these animals, but that it isn't good for surrounding vegetation, run-off and aquatic life.
As far as deer go, (if the road salt is without other additives) maybe it's a win-win: minerals for them, and a salt removal for your car!

Julie:
What a well written story. I enjoyed the diversity, and it made me think about the wild turkeys we have here in Oregon.

My mother's family hails from West Virginia, and in the sixties all my relatives (the males) hunted wild turkey.

In Oregon where we live now, we have wild turkeys, but because of my 3 - 6 high octane hunting dogs, I never see a turkey on the acreage close to the farmhouse. But, we hear them, and I find where they have scratched under the oaks. Plus in light snowfall I see their tracks.

We have oak savanna here- a unique system of open grasses and wide spread white oaks or scrub oaks. The scene here is much drier than what I saw in the images in your article. So, I mean -- the turkeys don't seem to cause problems in our woods with all their scratching and litter disruption, but for whatever reasons- we do not have too many wild turkey roaming this canyon.

Interesting to me that that north and south Minnesota has seen great increases in the wild turkey.

Julie- all the meat of the wild turkey is dark--like that of a wild duck?

Amanda wrote: "So far we've had a mild winter in northern MN. It looks like February will bring deeper cold weather. We're expected to dip to 30 below zero this weekend with daytime highs in the negatives for a f..."

Amanda- this is so interesting! I can imagine how awkward these big birds are in deep snow.

I would think your bearded bird dog would be a problem with all those turkeys around. But, then the dog would be slowed down too. It's hard to envision the turkeys gaining flight in such deep snow. Wow--thanks for sharing.

John:
A lovely message. yes, to be able to see trees 10-20-even 30 years later that you planted is satisfying. I wonder why some of us humans find that so enriching-- I guess because we really want to do something helpful--versus be aware of something 20 years ago that provided harm to a landscape. Stewardship can be deeply satisfying.

I have recently seen a scarlet honeyeater in a magazine. That curved beak is amazing. I am envious you live around this bird. Australia seems very exotic to me. I was listening a Buddhist nun speak last month from a monastery there, and while she was speaking I heard all sorts of unusual bird calls in the background. It made me feel a long to visit...really.

John wrote: "It is moving into late summer here. It is the best summer we have had in a decade - mild temperatures and good rain. A complete contrast to the previous two summers of extreme heat and bushfires. W..."

It's wonderful news to hear you've had good rain and a good summer, John. I have a pen pal-ish friend who lives in Coffs Harbour, before that near the Clarence River. I marvel at the birds she shares. I'd love to see a splendid fairywren and a tawny frogmouth! To think of rainbow lorikeets out one's window is something close to magical. The scarlet honeyeater looks charming. I've not visited Australia, but have always hoped to.

For bird enthusiasts, I have to share my love for Matt Sewel's work. His Atlas of Amazing Birds is a delight.

PS, John & Sher, I agree with you both on the joy of planting trees!
Trees are a common gift given for birthdays, anniversaries, and memorials in my family. My parents have passed to me their love of planting trees.
A favorite plot we planted as just tiny seedlings nearly 17 years ago, just before our daughter was born. She was late.. I was nesting. It's a fun indicator of time, watching them grow next to her, and now towering over her. Time flies and their growth rewards us.

"The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The second best time is now.” ― Chinese proverb

We planted a mountain ash tree (native to our area) in our yard several years ago, which has matured into a beauty. Late every summer when its branches are bowing with the weight of berries, flocks of Cedar Waxwings come in and feed on in in a frenzy of activity. This occurs like clockwork around the third week of August.
As you described with the spring flurry in your flowering tree, no matter how many times I see these cedar waxwings fill this tree, it thrills me. They clear all of its berries and then move on, leaving the branches lightened of their load and aiming upward again. It's only about a two day spectacle, I look forward to it each year.
Especially now, as we head into a long stretch of sub-zero temps day and night, when most life is dormant and the earth is frozen to six feet below ground. I'm warmed by thoughts of the life and growth that will return.

I thought we might get by without a winter snow storm this year, but nope we are getting hit-- all day today and all day tomorrow. Farm animals are restless! It made me think of this lovely poem by
Emerson

The Snow-Storm

By Ralph Waldo Emerson

Announced by all the trumpets of the sky,
Arrives the snow, and, driving o’er the fields,
Seems nowhere to alight: the whited air
Hides hills and woods, the river, and the heaven,
And veils the farm-house at the garden’s end.
The sled and traveller stopped, the courier’s feet
Delayed, all friends shut out, the housemates sit
Around the radiant fireplace, enclosed
In a tumultuous privacy of storm.

Come see the north wind’s masonry.
Out of an unseen quarry evermore
Furnished with tile, the fierce artificer
Curves his white bastions with projected roof
Round every windward stake, or tree, or door.
Speeding, the myriad-handed, his wild work
So fanciful, so savage, nought cares he
For number or proportion. Mockingly,
On coop or kennel he hangs Parian wreaths;
A swan-like form invests the hidden thorn;
Fills up the farmer’s lane from wall to wall,
Maugre the farmer’s sighs; and, at the gate,
A tapering turret overtops the work.
And when his hours are numbered, and the world
Is all his own, retiring, as he were not,
Leaves, when the sun appears, astonished Art
To mimic in slow structures, stone by stone,
Built in an age, the mad wind’s night-work,
The frolic architecture of the snow.

I hope all are well after your winter storm, Sher.
We're coming out of our long cold stretch, lasting a couple of weeks, with consistent -30 F nights for a couple of weeks straight. Even with the cold, we can feel the sun gaining strength. We're expected to reach above freezing temps in the coming week. That kind of jump up on the thermometer gets us excited for maple sap season. Last year we collected about 200 gallons of maple sap during the run, pulled by sled throughout the maples in our woods. It boiled down to enough syrup to last us all year.

So good to hear what's happening there Amanda. Maple syrup and getting it yourself. I am impressed.

We are thawing and will be able to work outside again next week.

Building three new large flower boxes. Constructing two ash-throated flycatcher nesting boxes. Cutting up a fallen Ponderosa pine. Irrigation projects...

Amanda, maple syrup is my favorite sweetener. I only ran my own sugarbush once. With my high school girlfriend at her aunt’s land. Sweetener from trees. The best!

Do you see signs of spring yet?

Do you have a bird that arrives and its arrival means spring is here?

What bird leaves your area with the arrival of spring?

Is it so clearcut in your region?

In Oregon, in the Columbia River Basin-- my arrival bird is the Say's Phoebe, and my departure bird is the Dark - eyed Junco. We are not quite there yet.

The days are longer, it is true. And yesterday there was a bit of melting, which immediately turned to ice as the nighttime temperatures dropped below zero. We are experiencing strong winds, which whip the snow into frenzied clouds. But the slowly retuning birds at the feeder know Spring IS coming and so do the tiny herbs I have started on my windowsill. It is Town Meeting Day here in Northeastern Vermont today, a traditional day to start warm weather favorites like tomatoes and peppers. But with the wood cook stove glowing and my dog curled up beside me it seems like a perfect day to stay on the couch and read...and maybe pull out a garden plan!

I love reading this Pam. We can depend on nature to know. My family is from West Virginia, and we all had wood cook stove growing up-fond memories for me. Though, in the West, I am not sure I have ever seen one.

6:27 a.m. and the Say's Phoebe have arrived. I heard the male's song- for the first time outside the window. A wonderful feeling of promise.

Yesterday we had some warm sun and bugs flying and thousands of red and black box elder bugs stuck to the old barn walls. They were sunning themselves. I had to work around them to open the big barn door.

Juncoes are still here but half the numbers we had last week.

John:
I'm happy to hear about your peepers. We have them here--called spring peepers, and they are just beginning.

It's so funny to think of you in winter while we will be in the heat of summer.

Are fires a concern for your region, and do you only worry about wildfires in the summer? Also, do you actually cook using the cookstove? If so , I am curious what is made?

In June our fire season will begin again.

I sure wish we could post video clips here at GR. It would be so nice to share segments of sound and image from our landscapes.

Our Spring peepers won't be seen our heard until April or May. After our long deep freeze, they are a sound of celebration I look forward to each year. (We are frog fanatics here at our house.)
Snow and ice are starting to steadily melt here this week, March has come in like a lamb.

The Sandhill cranes have departed their winter homes here. That tells me spring has arrived.

John wrote: "I have always found it a puzzle when people complain about interrupted sleep due to the callings of frogs. I find perhaps nothing better, except maybe the hooting of Boobook Owls, to fall gently in..."

John, we have seven common frogs in our wilderness, one in particular is named the Spring Peeper. They are a shy, small frog (very cute, I think!), heard more often than seen, in our woods.
The ones we have are the northern Pseudacris crucifer.. the scientific name comes from the "x" or "cross" marking on its back.
They are called Spring peepers because of their call that marks the beginning of spring.
Wood frogs and chorus frogs are other harbingers of spring here. Toads and leopard frogs chime in soon after. Summer brings the sounds of green frogs and perhaps my favorite of all - the gray tree frog. It never fails to amaze me that these delicate creatures survive the deep frozen months and reemerge each spring.
Our kids have grown up with the tadpoles and frogs, we've all learned to recognize each by their call.

Ray, we'll be awaiting the arrival of the Sandhill crane's return to the north. Another special sound.

Wow, Amanda-- what an array of frogs you have, and to know them by all their different calls, is fantastic. Like a version of bird watching but frog watching.

So, our "peepers" are the Pacific Tree frogs or chorus frogs. But everyone in the valley refers to them as spring peepers.

John- thanks for explaining further about your wood stove cooking. When I lived in Maryland near a Civil War battlefield our house circa 1860s had an attached kitchen -- and we cooked on a wood stove year in the winter -- as did my great-grandmother all year in West Virginia. Fond memories.

Ha! Sher - I'd never thought of it quite that way. Yes, we are frog watchers! I have also photographed frogs over the years just as a birdwatchers would birds.

Ray, the Sandhills Cranes have made it as far north as southern Minnesota! I thought I heard some the other day. Today, I definitely heard and saw a lone Sandhill flying. My friend said, They remind me of dinosaurs.” Yes! I’ve been craving their song and am elated by their return. March may not be warm or green in Minnesota, but it’s filled with the excitement of migratory birds returning.

Julie, I read somewhere recently that Sandhill Cranes are believed to be the oldest living bird species. I like the dinosaur comparison!

Maple trees are tapped and sap is running (about a month earlier than last year) here in northern Minnesota today.

John, I'd love to hear a whistling tree frog, it sounds whimsical, as do others you mention (laughing frogs, rocket frogs).. I'll be looking these up to learn more!)

How about a donkey frog? That would be really fun to hear.

Julie wrote: "Ray, the Sandhills Cranes have made it as far north as southern Minnesota! I thought I heard some the other day. Today, I definitely heard and saw a lone Sandhill flying. My friend said, They remin..."

Return of cranes for you amounts to cranes leaving for me. They are winter birds in Tennessee.

Hello Everyone:
What does the month of April mean for your place? What are you seeing and hearing about now?

Here is Oregon spring peepers are going full throttle, and the song bird activity and sound is also at a very high and festive level. Most of the summer nesters are not here yet -- western wood peewee, orioles, kingbirds, as throated flycatchers , swallows...

Red- winged blackbirds though arrived a month ago, and the say's phoebe are engaging in some nesting activity.

Still 50s and low 60s during the day and can freeze at night until first week in May.

Still quiet in northern MN, although we're seeing and hearing waterfowl - geese, ducks, and swans in the sky and on river areas with open water. (Lakes still frozen, ice is slowly thinning.)
I did see a discombobulated looking robin while in town this week!
We collected maple sap from our woods all of March, a good run. We are fully stocked up again on a bounty of maple syrup.
Frost has been and will continue to be working it's way out of the ground in coming weeks, which means mud season that is April..but the forecast is mild and the only way is through!

Enjoy all the spring festivity in your area, Sher! We aren't near that level yet, but each little sign is a celebration.

Flooding in Chattanooga.
Not at my residence, but in the lowlands.

Amanda wrote: "Still quiet in northern MN, although we're seeing and hearing waterfowl - geese, ducks, and swans in the sky and on river areas with open water. (Lakes still frozen, ice is slowly thinning.)
I did..."

Hi Amanda- great to get a sense regarding what is happening there. Mud- makes sense though not something I have to deal with here. After May, we probably won't have any rain until fall. All our greens (grasses) will fade by the end of April and go to yellow where they will remain until November!

Ray wrote: "Flooding in Chattanooga.
Not at my residence, but in the lowlands."

A natural annual event, or because of weather events? Effects to the wildlife?

John wrote: "It is raining here in the Northern Rivers, Australia. We had a few fine days but an East Coast low is forming. They bring a lot of rain. The whole region is on flood alert. The estimates of rain, w..."

Handsome pigeons John. I'm a pigeon enthusiast, and these are new for me. Thanks for sharing the photo. We are moving into our dry season, which will start in May.