An unusual visitor

At one of the bird feeders outside my study window early yesterday morning, I saw two visitors that weren’t usual at all. The dark black bird with the brown head that caught my eye turned out to be a male cowbird, but I didn’t recognize the other. Doing a bit of investigation (that is, checking out my ID in one of the many bird books that I have), and after noticing that they flew up into the oak tree together, I realized that the other bird was a female cowbird – a drab light brown bird, with streaky feathers. Since cowbirds are brood parasites, laying eggs in other species' nests for them to raise, it's hard to feel too warm or fuzzy about them, but they're interesting birds, nevertheless. Their range greatly expanded east following waves of forest clearing, as they're birds of open areas and edges, originally native to the Great Plains.

They normally forage on the ground, eating seeds and insects, but must have figured the seed mix in the feeder was worth checking out. They often are parts of blackbird foraging 'flocks' in spring, as they move towards their breeding grounds.

These illustrations of a male and female cowbird are from birds.cornell.edu. Here's some more information about cowbirds on All About Birds, on Cornell Lab of Ornithology's website. Hilton Pond had a nice piece, too, last spring describing cowbird behavior in York, SC.

A spring afternoon

With water and warmth, leaves are expanding rapidly and flowers are opening.

All of the potato sprouts are up, the coral honeysuckle at the kitchen door is loaded with flowers (still waiting for hummingbirds), and honeybees, bumblebees, and carpenter bees are avidly visiting the redbuds in full bloom.

The columbines (Aquilegia canadense) that have self-seeded around the house are just coming into flower.

I saw a monarch this afternoon -- I was surprised to see one. They're coming north, but I didn't see any last spring, even though we're on the eastern 'flyway'.

Even more rain

We had an inch and a quarter of rain today, according to the new rain gauge, excellent for catch up and soaking into the soil. I was on an excursion to mid-state South Carolina for a program, and was surprised to learn that they not only weren't still in deficit, but had a surplus of rainfall so far this year. Geez, and I was just cheered up that our drought projection is now strongly in the improved category. But rain is spotty, and regional, and the downpour here is nothing down the road.

Tomorrow is projected as sunny and mild -- perfect gardening weather. There are lots more winter annuals to pull up. They're survivors, for sure. Somehow their seeds can germinate in deep mulch (doesn't matter if it's leaves, hardwood, or pine bark) and their vegetative abundance coats the surface of the soil. In a 'previous life', I studied weed ecology as a researcher -- the take home message is that weedy plants have reproductive strategies that can take advantage of ANY disturbance, and are quick to do so.

I still have some low-growing thymes to plant in the crevices of the front pathway, as well as some knocking back of lawn weeds. My gardening companion is away visiting family, so Mocha and I are on our own this weekend.