Life is pretty busy here in Upper Jay. I’ve got my paws full surveying and monitoring a new yard and getting to know its inhabitants. Here are a few highlights.
My tree of choice right now is the many-trunked Tilia americana, Linden or Basswood, just behind the house at the base of a hill. It sits in a very slight depression with spongy, spring-fed ground around it, sprouting sedges and other cool wet-loving plants. I’ve ascended three of the trunks so far – one at a dead run this morning with a successful 10-foot climb. Here I am scoping out the approach and launch area.I find the damp wet ground a very appealing launch pad substrate. The shallow mini-pools of water make it possible to abort a run, stop and take a drink of ground water like it was all planned. There is a very nice medium-sized glacial erratic next to the lone trunk, which could serve as an alternative launch pad or sunning rock. It also affords a perch for viewing frogs, who congregate among the sedges and are amazing creatures. The frogs I’m meeting so far are streamlined numbers…not the peepers of my native Wisconsin. They don’t seem too disturbed by me looking at them, but there’s something about them that doesn’t inspire a paws-on approach.
The Linden tree dominates our view from the back porch, and it seems to be one of the favorite haunts of many of the birds that visit us.
While I’m out in the yard, at least once a day, Alex keeps tabs on our winged friends from the back porch. The Linden has hosted racketing Blue Jays, mrrmrrring Cedar Waxwings, staccato Chickadees, tippity tapping Downey and Hairy Woodpeckers, Rose-breasted Grosbeaks, Juncos, Phoebes, Nuthatches, at least one White-crowned Sparrow and a couple of elusive little warbler-types that Alex and Kelley have not yet identified.Our most frequent bird visitor of late is “Stinker,” a noisy, very territorial male House wren who is renovating the Carolina Wren box hanging from our back porch. He’s had his eye on the place for a month or so, but only recently took the plunge. We think he’s trying to convince his partner Rose to move in for a double-clutch year. Rose seems to be a bit shy of Alex, so I’m not sure that Stinker will persevere in moving her…maybe with some further renovation of the interior he’ll convince her next year?
This bird box has an illustrious history of producing happy wren families. It was chock full of sticks and bird junk from its last happy brood (click on the House Wren link in the “Labels” column to see more on that). In a fit of human moving and organizing mania my male person cleaned it out this spring. Stinker was pretty appalled that the place didn’t come with furniture, but he took care of that right away.
