Bird Days.

9-4-18 VERMONT: Today the leveled pasture was limed, fertilized, seeded and hayed. I did a little of the haying, and after Eric and EJ left, I spent the day watering, with sprinklers, to get the hay wet so that it won’t blow away if it gets windy. The seed itself doesn’t need much watering yet, but it will after it germinates if the weather stays dry.

The two days before today, I spent rebuilding an outdoor bench. The first day I cut and prepared and painted the slats, and the second day I put the new slats on the bench after removing the old ones. It was harder than I thought it would be.

Afterwards I was relaxing on a different bench with a refreshing beverage and saw lots of bird activity so took some pix when they posed on a flower, tree or shrub and waited long enough for me to focus. I did get some pix and made tentative ID’s and would welcome any others thoughts.

This morning was foggy after rain yesterday and heavy dew overnight, and everything was dripping wet. I saw a blue heron through the mist at the edge of the pond and watched him/her silently wade around the perimeter stalking prey.

New blooms: hardy hibiscus.


Can you see anything in this early morning shot?

Yes, a great blue heron was patrolling the edge of the pond in the morning mist.

He/she was here for almost an hour and at one point swallowed something.

Doing some trash talk.

Two days before the heron, I was sitting outside and saw lots of bird activity and caught a few. The ID's are all tentative, that said, I think this is a yellow-rumped warbler. Hemlock tree.

A Nashville warbler and a monarch butterfly. BTW, I saw a big monarch caterpillar in the pasture today. Joe Pye weed.

Black and white warbler doing a headstand. Willow tree.

An immature yellow-bellied sapsucker, no red head marking as yet on an apple tree. The funny looking apple has him puzzled.

Cerulean warbler. You can see a blue foot between the leaves of the viburnum bush. Almost all of the berries have been eaten.