Fox and Phoebe at the Bluffs: April 9, 2022

With two walks at the Bluffs today, I experienced many weather changes: wind, cloud, rain, sun and hail.

The afternoon group had a good look at a Fox as it sprinted just ahead of us.

Fox
Fox

Foxes do not hibernate and eat animals ranging in size from insects to hares. Berries and other fruits round out their diet.

Fox
Fox
Fox

The Eastern Phoebe is usually the first flycatcher to appear in spring and the last to leave in fall. Both morning and afternoon groups saw one.

Eastern Phoebe
Eastern Phoebe
Eastern Phoebe
Eastern Phoebe
Eastern Phoebe

Other birds:

Song Sparrow
Cooper’s Hawk
Brown-headed Cowbirds
Cooper’s Hawk
Red-winged Blackbird (male)
Brown-headed Cowbird (female)
American Goldfinch (male)
Northern Cardinal (female)
Brown-headed Cowbirds
Sharp-shinned Hawk (note the long square-tipped tail)
Rock Pigeon
Song Sparrow
Red-winged Blackbird (male)
American Goldfinch (male)
Turkey Vulture
Turkey Vulture

Other sights:

Red Squirrel
Aconite

8 am group:

11:30 group:

MAILBOX

Hi Miles,

These mallards have been hanging out next door to me. The female sits way up in a silver maple much of the day, and the male stands guard on the sidewalk or sometimes in the middle of the street below. We will watch for ducklings.

NATURE POETRY

A Prayer in Spring

Oh, give us pleasure in the flowers today;
And give us not to think so far away
As the uncertain harvest; keep us here
All simply in the springing of the year.

Oh, give us pleasure in the orchard white,
Like nothing else by day, like ghosts by night;
And make us happy in the happy bees,
The swarm dilating round the perfect trees.

And make us happy in the darting bird
That suddenly above the bees is heard,
The meteor that thrusts in with needle bill,
And off a blossom in mid air stands still.

For this is love and nothing else is love,
The which it is reserved for God above
To sanctify to what far ends He will,
But which it only needs that we fulfill.   – Robert Frost

Miles Hearn

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