Birdwatching

On sunny mornings before nine o'clock, the meadow is glorious for birdwatching. I like to take my coffee and lean against the gate on Fifth Avenue and look out over the meadow.

This morning one of the American holly trees, the one with the thinning leaves, was full of birds--blue jays, mocking birds, robins, cardinals, perched on the boughs like Christmas tree ornaments. These common urban birds are especially entertaining now, because they all have families: the parents still feeding their almost-grown fledglings, the young birds flapping around acting the fool. One morning we watched a mocking bird, a robin, and a hairy woodpecker, all sitting in the mulberry tree at the same time stuffing food into their babies' open mouths.

We've also spotted rarer birds in the meadow. I grabbed some internet images of the different species of birds I've personally seen in the meadow. I didn't take any of the birds photos below. I wish!

We've seen a small flock of adult towhees-similar to robins, thrillingly not robins.

One of the most exciting sights was a mated pair of flickers. These large brown woodpeckers have a reputation for shyness so I felt lucky to see them. 

I didn't quite know what they were at first, then one of them soared over my head and I saw the bright yellow underwings against the blue sky.

A family of Cooper's hawks lives on Polk Street--a mated pair and one fledgling. We often see them soaring over the meadow emitting a strange turkey-gobble cry, and usually being chased by a pack of mockingbirds. So undignified.

A family of hairy woodpeckers live in the meadow, and are often seen perched on the limbs of a dying dogwood. It's good to leave some dead limbs (snags) for the use of birds and insects.

Here are a few more:

Grackle, such a crisp silhouette in flight.

Brown Thrasher, always on the ground kicking up the straw.

Cowbird, that leaves its eggs in the nests of other birds.

There are also mystery birds I haven't identified yet. An all-gray one that may be a catbird, and some plain brown ones that may be females of some unidentifiable species. It must be the diversity of trees and habitat that attract so many different kinds of birds, and the relative peace that encourages some to stay. I imagine from a birds-eye view, the meadow looks like an oasis.

I have recently planted some sunflowers (Autumn beauty and Mexican) for goldfinches, and bog sage (donated by Stanley's Greenhouse!) to attract hummingbirds. Maybe soon, I can add them to the list of birds spotted in the meadow.

Field Trip!

Generous Parkridger Amber Crouse, who likes to walk her dogs in the Parkridge Butterfly Meadow with her husband Steve, just gave us a valuable gift.

A big pile of horse manure!

On Monday, she drove me and the kids out to Crosstie Stables in Mascot for as much horse manure as the two of us could load into the bed of her pick-up truck.

It's free, and you are allowed to take as much as you want.

As one of the owners of the stables told Amber, "They make it everyday."

While Amber and I worked, the little girls had a nice time running around the farm counting the horses. Crossties Stables has 27 horses, according to the father of one of the owners. That's a lot of manure.

I didn't realize what city girls I had raised until one of them asked what horse poop looked like. It looks like this:

We dumped it near the sidewalk on Polk Street where Nickie Bold, Parkridger who co-owns Meadowsweet Massage and Wellness on Gay Street, plans to start an herbal demonstration garden.

I will spread most of the manure on the clay inside the fence to add nitrogen and other nutrients to the very poor soil. Maybe next year we can get some really pretty flowers growing in the heart of the meadow.

Hooray for horse poop!