Phoebes and other friends

Cool, bright weather, perfect for walking down by the pond. Trees opening leaves and wonderful scent of honey around these blossoms and reflections of trees in water, one of my favorite things to see.







Cool, bright weather, perfect for walking down by the pond. Trees opening leaves and wonderful scent of honey around these blossoms and reflections of trees in water, one of my favorite things to see.


And the birds evidently thought so, too. As I stood on the little bridge suddenly there was one, then there were two, then there were many barnswallows, and tree swallows and a couple of purple martins, out of nowhere swooping and flying over and around me, under the bridge I was standing on, and up on the other side, making sharp U turns and back under the bridge again. This is a favorite nesting site, so I guess these were the early arrivals from wherever they spent the winter.

And there was a pair of phoebes, obligingly saying their name over and over, lovely alto sound like singing not whistling, and sitting around close enough to try for a picture.

Here's one in a tree



and the other one of the pair checking out the bridge



And Carolina wrens shouting endlessly, all around, huge noise from a tiny bird.

And among all this wealth, a cormorant appeared from underwater and swam around, very hard to picture, since as soon as you get him in the frame, he dives and reappears yards away. These are very primitive birds who have to get out of the water and stand on a low branch to dry their wings after diving for a while, not enough natural oils to let the water roll off as they swim. Cormorants are a good sign that the water's clean and the fishing is good.

And that life in general is good, too.