the deck

Welcome to a casual vibe, a view into the world of MYA’s founder, Holly, and whatever her mind is moving to in the moment. Sometimes it will be about adventures, sometimes not. Today is about the ongoing adventurers on her deck, the wildlife that fascinates…

Constantly staring out the windows from all perspectives from the kitchen, dining room, upstairs in the bathroom, from Augi’s room, I can’t get enough of my bird visitors. It’s been this way since we first moved in over 15 years ago from our first goldfinch pair, Luigi & Maude to my latest obsessions, a hermit thrush and a carolina wren. The later species are pretty rare for where we’re located but there’s the necessities of food, water, places to hide, and habitat. Seemed like they were drawn in at first from genuine curiosity (yes, I tend towards anthropomorphic conclusions from time to time but I am human), drawn in by other bird activity and they seemed to like it, they stayed the winter. I even added in mealworms to the offerings to help cover their dietary needs :)

Hermit thrushes have the most beautiful flutelike song heard deep in the forest which you will not hear in the wintertime, feathers are brownish red on the backside with a breast of white with brown speckling. A bill made for catching insects that has been busy here eating up bits of peanut butter that fall off the suet hunk. The best bit is catching them run, think robins running across lawns (yes, they’re in the same family) or seabirds skittering on the shoreline, before they take flight. The carolina wren is just as sweet looking, a bit smaller with the flip tail on the back end, a tawny brown/reddish coloration, long petite bill, and a streak of white above the eyes. I’ve already heard the song from my visitor, cheeseburger cheeseburger cheeseburger, perhaps this bird is already feeling that springtime vibe.

The deck also got checked out this season by a pileated woodpecker, that dinosaur of a bird with the flashy red top, that swooped in to the homemade suet and a super rare flock of evening grosbeaks (they didn’t used to be rare but that’s another story). Yes, I do celebrate wildly when new species arrive, hooting & hollering running around to all the windows to get the best view but I also celebrate my everyday feathered friends, the chickadees, nuthatches and titmice that travel as a crew, the cardinal couple, the bluejay gang, the crows that hang a bit further back at the hanging feeder and compost bin (a bin that’s totally devoted to wildlife and of course the neighbor’s chickens), and the sparrows with the white throats that like to call out old sam peabody peabody peabody in the breeding season.

Right at this moment we’re in the midst of change, the shift is happening towards spring and as new species arrive the old guard will either decide to stay and nest or move on to new territory. It’s a pregnant pause, quiet and slow, a gradual tipping from a constant to an unknown. A fav that I’m waiting for is the catbird, my gray friend, the loud singer sometimes sounding like a computer sometimes mewing like a cat, always amusing and so lovely in their simple shades of coal.

Now, out my window I hear the geese, the river is still frozen out of my bedroom window, but they are calling, waiting for the thaw, waiting for the greening to begin…