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Canada Geese are never welcome in the pond, but it’s hard to be angry with the goslings when they are in their maximum tennis ball phase. On Sunday, I looked out the kitchen window to see this fox stalking the goslings near the pond. If I hadn’t gone outside to take a photograph, the goslings […]

Today was our annual sweeping of the barn, in which the droppings of a generation of barn swallows and pigeons are removed to make way for this year’s crop. The barn swallows should arrive any day. The pigeons never left.

A healthy complement of Ring-necked Ducks — maybe fifteen or twenty — has arrived on our pond, sharing space with the pioneer Canada Geese of last weekend. These ducks say it’s almost spring the same way the Salt Point Stewart’s says you’re almost in Rhinebeck.

Last weekend we had first-of-the-season Redwing Blackbirds, and today we had a pair of Canada Geese on the pond. Sadly for the geese, the pond retains its protective ice covering. They made a racket but they didn’t stay long. Similarly uninterested in a human encounter was this deer we spied while looking for owls.

A hummingbird in the secret garden wonders if the dahlias will ever bloom. Of course they do bloom, but only at the end of the summer. We returned for Labor Day weekend from dropping off Sarah in France. We had fine weather here, with a briief visit from Jen’s parents. While we were gone, our […]

Sarah rode both bicycle and horse this weekend. Jen took a short break from jam-making to see what the birds were up to in Vlei Marsh.

The Ring-necked Ducks remain on the pond as we make the long transition into spring. There is still a bit of snow on the ground from last week’s squall, making it feel as if we have a long way to go. Other weekend events included an earthquake Friday and Daisy’s eleventh birthday Saturday.

Here are our steadfast avian harbingers the Ring-necked Ducks, on the pond at the start of March to signify the coming spring. They are camera-shy, and I scared them off, but they are back again this morning.

We had despaired of having any hay this year, given how rainy it’s been — but lo, here is some late October hay. A pair of bluebirds presided over the tedder. The round bales are handsome in the afternoon sun.

The pigeons, now a flock of perhaps fifteen, seem unhappy after being evicted from the barn. We chased them out and closed the barn doors after the barn swallows left, on August 30, to head south. We plan to overwinter with the aggrieved pigeons.