Birds

During our last trip to the Island there where three bird sitings worth of noting:

We saw a buzzard land about 300′ away from Stella. I don’t think I’ve seen a buzzard on the ground unless it was enjoying asphalt warmed road kill. I set off to see if I could sneak up on it. Not a chance, though I got a lot closer than I thought I could. S/he took off, and I couldn’t find anything on the ground that would entice a buzzard to land in the field.

The ravens hop on the wood shed’s metal roof when they pick up treats from it. It’s a delightful thing to watch huge black birds go boinga-boinga across the roof after cheese, grapes or whatever the fridge has an excess of. This trip, for the first time, the ravens came back hours after being fed and hopped on the roof while calling and making one of their chattering noises. I know they have us well trained, and now I think they’ve upped the game. We have advanced to the next class!

Just before dusk one evening we heard the cross between a coo and a gentle hoot. I spotted something leaving one of the little apple trees. It turned out to be a huge barred owl. It had a friend, and they flew from tree to tree making these lovely noises. It was almost like one was leading the other through the edge of the wood. If it was spring I’d say they were courting. We watched them until they headed into our AN’s woods.