How the Days Fly!

I cannot believe I have been here for almost a month now! Since my last post I have been to Arizona and back.  I brought my bins with me, but somehow did not have the heart to take them out and use them. My empty feeders hung from their hooks in the yard and I filled only one with the leftover thistle seed I had in the garage. A few hummingbirds were buzzing around.  My son and his wife did attempt to feed them.  I got a brief glimpse of a Rufous hummingbird and a Black-chinned.  The Costa's are still there in force feeding from the Cape Honeysuckle I planted to attract them.  Butterflys flitted all around and I couldn't help thinking that Doug Taron would love to be there right now.

But mostly I was busy.  Too busy to stop and think until the last day when I was there alone in the almost empty house.  Walls stipped bare of artwork. Trees stripped bare of feeders.  After three days of blazing hot weather a storm moved in and the air cooled to 70 degrees in the afternoon!  I changed into my bathing suit and soaked in my hot tub one last time.  It felt so good on my sore muscles. Then I got out, showered and dressed and drove away.  I did not look back.  I did not take even one photograph. I boarded the plane the next day and came back to New England.

 And I started counting birds once again.

I saw an Osprey as I crossed the town green in Colchester. I discovered there are Turkey Vultures hanging out on top of the steeple of the Federated Church.  I have been trying to count birds on a regular basis at the Lion's Pond on Halls Hill Road. I can tell you that there is almost always a Great Blue Heron hanging out there if you want to see one.

I have not seen anymore Life Birds since the Piping PloverI saw in Rhode Island, but today I spotted a new bird for my Connecticut List: a Cooper's Hawk that was flying over Salmon River State Park.  I wanted to go out birding today, and indeed I did, but the rain foiled my plans and soon sent me home where I had a cup of tea and a nap instead. This stormy autumn New England weather makes me moody and wild and creative.  I wrote poetry all evening.  Some of it will show up on my poetry blog, Kathie's Poet Tree.

For those of you who are birders, here is what I saw today in various places:

1. Turkey vulture
2. Cooper's hawk
3. Great Blue Heron
4. Mourning dove
5. American Crow
6. Blue Jay
7. Black-capped chickadee
8. Tufted titmouse
9. White-breasted nuthatch
10. Northern Cardinal
11. House finch
12. House sparrow

And here is an update to the stats I posted last time (changes are in bold):

Life Birds-386 species/387

Total species for the Year-250/261

So far this month 31 species/67

Connecticut Life Birds 94 species/97

Maine Life Birds 85 species/85

Massachusetts Life Birds 18 species/36

New Hampshire Life Birds 8 species/8

Rhode Island Life Birds 2 species/15

Vermont Life Birds 0 species/0

We move into our apartment next week.  I hope to have my own computer up and running by then and I hope to have the photo thing all work out as well.

Come visit me on Kathie's Poet Tree where poetry is happening!