Like a kid in a candy shop

I finally forced myself out of bed, fed the dog because heaven forbid she wait another second – and groggily eyed the thermometer. 40 degrees. Any vestiges of sleep flew out the window, as I saw how cold it had gotten. Excitement started to bubble up, and I hadn’t even had my cup of coffee yet. 40 degrees. Why if you just use a little imagination you c-o-u-l-d say it was almost 39.9 degrees. Oh yes, today was going to be a GREAT day. It didn’t take me long to dress and get out to feed my ladies and feel the wonderful cold awakening my senses. I hustled and bustled a bit but I also took a few turns on the porch rocking chair and, following a friends advice,  just savored the wonderfulness of the day. For the next few days I was as excited as a kid in a candy shop, enjoying being outside and doing all kinds of things in the cooler weather.

Eurasian Collared Doves

I’ve noticed something in these last 10 months, and it’s been a bit unsettling. Maybe you could help me solve this mystery. I love my wild birds and encourage them as best as I can to stop for a while and visit. We are on a well used migratory fly zone and if I’m watchful, I can see different birds all year long. Plus we have the usual regulars that find themselves at home here. One of my chief delights in the cold winter is to hear the songs of the meadowlarks. They usually stick around all year long, and when all other bird song has long been silenced by the cold, their liquid songs would bless my heart as I milked in the early cold mornings. Except last year. Last year there wasn’t a meadowlark to be found within acres of our home.

Yellow Headed Blackbird

This spring started out with the usual large handful of bob-white quail we hear and see on a regular basis. But by the end of August, not a whistle was to be heard anywhere near our farm. As a matter of fact, there wasn’t very many birds here at all except the usual mobs of house sparrows that I find annoying. They chase away my blue birds and I have declared war on them. Unfortunately they are winning. But back to my missing birds. The robins left. Several varieties of woodpeckers no longer clamored at the suet feeder. Just a few king birds and barn swallows gave chase to the insects in the air.   There was maybe one blue jay and the two collared doves that would come, but that was all. Gone were all the other regulars.

Downy Woodpecker

Then things became more bleak as I began to realize, the local flocks of geese that stick around all year long hadn’t flown over in a long time. Also the breeding pair of herons have been missing too. It’s like everyone packed up and flew the coop. And honestly, it’s a little scary! I ponder on different scenarios as to what would make them leave en masse like that. I can’t say that the farmers sprayed any more than usual. We had bits of rain here and there so it wasn’t lack of moisture. We had heat, but not record-breaking – just the usual normal August temperatures. There haven’t been an influx of cats around. The only difference is we did have huge, devastating swarms of Japanese Beetles that covered our lands like the locusts and grasshoppers of the Dust Bowl era. I guess that might have spooked the birds, but honestly – with all that free food around, why would they leave?? We do have our share of barn owls and hawks, but would they scare away everything? They never have before.

One of these things is not like the others

If anyone has any insight to this mystery, I’d be glad to hear about it. It hangs over me like a foreboding shadow, an omen of the future to come. Silly of me, guess you could say that I watch to many movies. But we don’t watch T.V. Haven’t for most of our 37 years of marriage. I’m hopeful that the weather change will bring back my winter visitors, and I have stocked up on some really good seed and suet. But I’d sure like to know where everybody in the bird world has gone.

Barn Owl