May 18th I now have spent some six weeks with my daily walks, and I have come to appreciate the slow unraveling of spring and feel attuned to the changing season.  I imagine that many people are only vaguely aware of the evolution, perhaps just subdividing spring into early and late.  But I have notice…

May 11th I look back at my entry of April 26th, where I smugly talk about being able to pick out the strands of individual songs.  Now, in the thick of prime migration time, I realize that this is a load of self serving crap.  What was I thinking.  I am surrounded by whistles, trills,…

May 5th The last few days have been disappointing with few additional birds.  Where are they?  A whole new wave of migrants should be arriving any day now, although the cold north winds have probably kept them at bay.  Although I am pleased that I am increasingly recognizing bird songs, I realize that that this…

April 26th: The woods are now teeming with yellow rumped and palm warblers.  The noise level has risen to a surrounding white noise, but instead of standing befuddled in the midst of a cacophonous UN debate, I can begin to sort out individual strands.  Most of the songs are from the quintet of song sparrows,…

April 10th During the winter, I have also spent some time reading some of the bird watching literature.  Some of these books tell stories about amazing encounters in the woods, with compelling first hand accounts of a Goshhawk snatching a bird in mid air or the struggles of a nesting pair of owls, and it…

March 31 The calendar says that Spring begins March 21st, but for all practical purposes, such as planting a garden, playing golf or outdoor tennis, you really need to wait another month.  The rush of migratory birds also doesn’t begin to arrive until late April through Memorial day.  But I am restless and anxious to…

This summer marked out debut performance as gardeners.  Our new house came with a dedicated, fenced in garden and underground automatic watering system which would have been handy if we could ever figure out how to use it. We had a very casual and expedient approach; we got some seeds and simply threw them into…

For the past 17 years Joe had rarely looked at himself in the mirror.  For a while he had stopped on the way to work every morning to get a shave, but he eventually abandoned this indulgence and just grew a beard.  He took a deep breath and looked straight into the mirror and at…