This morning when I took Phoebe out to the bus, dawn was barely breaking and there was a heavy dew on the ground. By the time I took out Liam to his bus, just after 8 am, the dew was still there, and it was joined by a heavy, filmy mist, which obscured the sun. As we walked to the garage, the silhouette of a bird sitting on the power line caught my eye."Is that a tree swallow?" I asked myself. Liam overheard me and said "Walll, you know what preddy-mush all the birds are Daddy, so, yep, it prolly is!" He was right! It WAS a tree swallow.
Now THAT'S a good sign of spring's arrival.
Bus duties completed, I tossed a handful of dried eggshell bits up onto the dark-shingles of the garage roof. The tree and barn swallows eat these eggshell bits all spring and summer. I know it's early, but it felt good to start yet another spring ritual: The Feeding of the Eggshells.
Also in full song this morning: eastern meadowlarks, eastern bluebirds, house finches, a red-shouldered hawk, and all the usual suspects (cardinals, chickadees, titmice, nuthatches, woodpeckers, song sparrow, wild turkey) joined by some het-up dark-eyed juncos who are getting a head start on their spring concertos.
10 comments:
Eggshells on the roof: brilliant.
You have caught our Liam's voice exactly. So sweet! Now, please tell us about your Adventure with Zick Dough.
Oh thanks for outing me on THAT, Zicketattle.
I'm just lookin' at this stuff.
What a nice capture of the tree swallow. The are so nice, and I always enjoyed their flying patterns. Anna :)
We just discovered your blog -- what a beautiful picture, and we learned what to do with our eggshells! Thanks for teaching us something new to enhance our relationship with birds =)
Great idea, using the roof shingles!
Thnx for the hint.
Meadowlarks! How I miss them, and I can't recall when I saw the last one. I may have to get off my duff and go looking!
That's cool Bill! I love seeing and hearing the tree swallows, but I hope ours wait at least a week till it warms up a little more here in Minnesota.
Aren't our wee ones precious? Great story to start the morning! I hadn't heard of doing that with eggshells. Drat! I already had my scrambled eggs this morning!
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