Outdoors

The questions I am most frequently asked are, “What is the best bird book for this area?” or “What is the best bird book for identification? or “What book do you use?” Actually, I use three books most frequently.

Although many species of bird return to nest in this area at various times, the hummingbirds seem to be very regular in their arrival dates, and most everyone who lives here seems to agree that when the hummingbirds arrive, it is truly summer.
Although they return at lower elevations a bit earlier than they do here, the broad-tailed hummingbirds that nest in our immediate area usually arrive between April 25 and April 27, and they have done so for close to the 50 years I have lived here.

May has had its usual fling of one last snowstorm. Fortunately, this year it was just about four inches, not the four feet it brought us a few years ago. Now that it has succeeded in ruining Mother’s Day for a good many people, it seems to be clearing up and the coming week’s forecast looks like we will be having not just spring, but summer weather.

Last week, Loie Evans phoned to tell me there was a Virginia rail at Evergreen Lake. They have been seen and heard at the lake before, but they are not as regularly seen as the sora.
Rails are difficult to see for they live among the reeds and grasses in marshes and seldom come out in the open where you can have a good look at them. They are not particularly shy or afraid of people; they just like to stay in their marsh where they find the food they need.