Sunday, March 27, 2016

Outdoors -- true spring

Squirrels beware -- the mockingbird is back.

He opened up Thursday morning which, coincidentally, was Purim. 

I've seen him all winter.  He has finally started taking berries from my back porch.
Mockingbirds are very smart; he might have seen the robin come to the porch  and decided something good was going.
He was right.  When I ran out of blueberries, I substituted raisins.  The robins really love those.

Yes, my robin is back and I think he has taught his wife about the berries.
Odd thing: he now has some white dots next to his right eye.
I did some googling and sometimes this is a sign of trauma, so maybe he got into it with another  robin.
I did see a robin scuffle Wednesday but scuffles are never deadly.

The song sparrows have been singing for a couple of weeks when it was warm.
The Carolina chickadees are establishing their turf.

The trees and flowers have been amazing: Bradford pear, rich white with a brown undercurrent;
ethereal cherry with its pink blush;
soulangea magnolia, huge teacup bloomss with deep pink bases;
golden yellow forsythia;
purple-pink redbud;
narcissus of all varieties -- pure yellow, white with yellow or orange trumpets;
fresh green of privet and euonymus hedges.
My grape hyacinths have extended their turf a little bit into a place where normally I have to keep pulling up creeping charlie.  You go guys!

I picked some chickweed for a salad for lunch  on the Ides of March with a classic vinaigrette dressing.
I picked dandelion greens the day after Purim and they made a nice stir fry with smoked turkey and red bell pepper and mushrooms.

Spring is really here!

© Patricia Jo Heil, 2013-2018 All Rights Reserved

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