The mercury is finally above 20 and Spring Equinox is here. Alas, the birds are the reminder that daylight grows and, true enough, daytime now runs 6 to 6. Ahh, the bird…. What a wacky winter for birds. I know this has been the “Farmer Notes” theme season-long but I can’t help myself! We had… Continued
The New Year is barely a month old and one can already feel time slipping away! How can this be? To use one of my daughters once upon a time go-to lines when frustrated as a child: “Not Fair.” Well, I suppose fairness is as an objective assumption as any, yet it just doesn’t seem… Continued
And another year has come to pass. At times it is easy to think it has all been a blur, yet if/when one can find time to reflect and can begin piecing the year back together a bit at a time well, the pieces can easily fill up a year. Winter should be this time… Continued
“ The desolate, deserted trees, The faded earth, the heavy sky,” Oh, I can’t help but quote Robert Frost’s My November Guest when one of my absolute favorite months settles in. Indeed the trees are bare, and skies have turned heavy here right around the year’s earlier Thanksgiving. This, however, only after weeks and… Continued
To be sure this October has been fine as any I can recall. Following the sowing of our winter peas we received a good ½ inch of rain here – our first, really, since May. And after some mountain snows and blustery early October weather, the high pressure settled in. For almost two weeks now… Continued
Sandhill cranes sanctified the autumn equinox, making their punctual southbound journey way up in our September sky just a couple days before the “official” calendar date. Each September, I anticipate their lofty chatter. Sure enough this year we heard them, and then looked way up to see 100’s scarcely below the puffy afternoon clouds: at… Continued
We all know much can change from month to month. Here in the Methow following as nice of a June/July as I can recall, August arrived with our first wildfires of the year. The good news: fires held off until August this year! The bad: the West is stuck in this seemingly endless annual fire… Continued
Fledgling bluebirds, flycatchers, hummingbirds and yes, wrens! One morning about 3 weeks ago I stepped onto the “coffee” porch for the early hour and suddenly, all was quiet. After a month or more of ‘wreny’ chatter, it had ceased. That fast. Soon I spied a few chicks taking short flights, and they were gone from… Continued
The common house wren – easily confused with the winter wren: Tenacious, noisy, spider-man like the way it clings sideways to siding, posts, tree limbs…alas, does not just like houses. For two years now one particular mother has nested up above the exterior lights in our John Deere’s cab. To be exact, directly on top… Continued
Most all of the Methow’s spring birds have returned, so far as I know. It isn’t hard to know when the house wrens return! This year they arrived the first of May, and have been the voice I wake to most every morning now. Truth to tell, there are far worse things to wake… Continued