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Meet Pseudotriton ruber ruber, the northern red salamander. I found this nifty newt on the mulch pile this morning.

copyright 2011 ron dees all rights reserved

Remember this number: 811.000.00. You’ll be seeing it again soon. There are a few people in this county who will be seeing this number in their sleep.

After, we bought a basic feeder and hung it from a cane on the edge of the bamboo grove. To one side of the bamboo is the Dead Tree, and to the other side is a row of hemlocks and a couple of large chinkapin (chinquapin) oaks. This inadvertently turned out to be the ideal arrangement for every type of bird found in southeastern Wythe County.

This page is intended to be the beginning of a pictorial reference of many of those birds, broken down by season. They were taken at different times of the day with two different cameras. I will continue to add to and refine the page as I get new and better pictures. For detailed information about the birds shown on this page, I recommend the Cornell Lab of Ornithology website.

Spring Birds

the view from the front porch

brown-headed cowbird (pair)

downy woodpecker (male)

downy woodpecker (female)

mourning dove

northern cardinal (female)

northern cardinal (male)

house finch (pair)

american goldfinch (male)

american goldfinch (female)

tufted titmouse and american gold finch

The unarmed pair fled when I confronted them only to return a few minutes later after the porch light went out to continue raiding the birdseed bucket. After a more strongly worded second confrontation with the furry little fornicators, one flew east, and one flew west; I returned to our humble little nest.

No sooner had I turned out the light than the masked duo returned to their criminal trespass. It went that way for over an hour. Chase the little buggers away only to have them return. After almost an hour and a half, the pair tired of running on full stomachs and melted away into the night.

Right now, we have the usual assortment of year-round and winter birds: cardinals, blue jays, sparrows, black cap chickadees, and the fearless tufted titmouse. Last year we had a group of eastern towhees that monopolized the feeder; this year it’s the tufted titmouses (titmice?) Just one of those determined little dudes can clean out a feeder faster than a fat chick can chew through a bucket of fried chicken. Apparently, they are very fond of large seeds and will sit on a feeder perch quickly sorting through the contents looking for that one perfect seed. Everything else ends up on the ground, which is just fine with the rest of the feathered crowd.

a male downy woodpecker. the female doesn't have the red spot

For the last couple of years, we’ve had this strange little bird that lives in the woods on Chestnut Ridge. I’ve tried dozens of times to photograph it, but it moves too fast. It was only when she (and it is a female) showed up at the feeder last month that we were able to identify her.

Meet Picoides pubescens, the Downy Woodpecker. This is what The Cornell Ornithology Guide has to say about her clan:

“The active little Downy Woodpecker is a familiar sight at backyard feeders and in parks and woodlots, where it joins flocks of chickadees and nuthatches, barely outsizing them. An often acrobatic forager, this black-and-white woodpecker is at home on tiny branches or balancing on slender plant galls, sycamore seed balls, and suet feeders. Downies . . . are one of the first identification challenges that beginning bird watchers master.”

Acrobatic forager is an understatement. Watching this striking little critter flit from tree to tree, looking for food, zipping up and down their trunks like a maniac has given us hours of fun. I think I’ll call her Debi. Debi Downy.

This one is for my favorite Joisey Goil, Andy Jarvis.

Maybe, just maybe a little relief from the miserable heat is in store for the next few days. I got to tell you, folks are getting MEAN. The various weather reporting services are all over the place. But as I write this, it’s 12:45pm and it’s not yet 80 degrees and the humidity is much lower. Kevin Myatt is predicting rain Sunday and Monday. Yesterday was so hot, George the groundhog lay on the foundation of the old chicken coop gasping for breath trying to catch a breeze. Anne is going to do her rain dance this afternoon…i.e. she’s going to spray the grapes. Keep your fingers crossed.

REMINDERS

Anne and I are deck people. We have had a deck for most of the last three decades, and during good weather we spend a lot of time on it. At the end of the day, we relax with a drink, often have supper, and do a lot of entertaining there.

Basically, the deck is our outside room. Adjacent to the deck is The Dead Tree. It stands there like a totem, very sculptural in its appearance. It’s a favored perch for birds and Rocky, the Demon Squirrel. I usually see the Effing Chipmunk running from the strawberry patch towards it. I’ve photographed The Tree dozens of times under many different conditions.

A couple of evenings ago, I noticed something kind of odd. Little Wayne was half-way up the tree. Now I know black rat snakes go pretty much anywhere they damn well please, but I’ve never seen one climb a dead tree before. And this one was not only up the tree, he was disappearing inside the tree.

Obviously I know squat about Black Snakes, so I did a little more research and found that not only do they climb trees, they spend a lot of time in trees. Much of their diet is derived from the various creatures that inhabit trees. Now I wonder what LW was going after. I’m sure there are plenty of insects, and I guess it’s possible mice are nesting there. The birds that nested in The Tree this spring are gone. There is a chance that Little Wayne may have been going after the Effing Chipmunk.

If that was the case, all I can say is “ROCK ON YOU WEIRD LITTLE DUDE!”

George the Groundhog

George has been here about as long as we have. He has an entrance to his burrow under the remains of an old chicken coop. I usually see George early in the morning munching away on dandelions and clover in the side yard near the bamboo grove. Anne is particularly fond of George because she has less work to do as a result of his fondness for weeds.

Bozo the Side Yard Rabbit

Bozo likes the dandelions and clover all most as much as George. Bozo is pretty skittish though. He goes into his “rabbit freeze” stance at the first sound of anyone stirring in the kitchen. A second sound sends him hauling his little bunny ass back up the ridge to his burrow.

DeWayne the Black Snake and his buddy

Little Wayne

For a long time we thought we only had one snake who moved around a lot. A couple of weeks ago though, we came home around 4 pm and found DeWayne on the deck in back and Little Wayne on the front porch. Both of them spend time in the attic feeding on whatever they find there….birds, mice, insects. Periodically, one of them will climb down the front wall and scare the shit out of anyone nearby. Black Snakes are good to have around as long as you don’t mess with them. I’m told that their bite quote, “hurts like a sumbitch,” unquote.

The Damn Deer

These are two of the four deer who winter with us. In fact, these two were born on the ridge and tried to climb up the front steps when they were fawns. They spent most of the winter about 20 feet from the back door. They also spent most of the winter pruning a lot of our decorative evergreens. During most of the warm weather, they fade back up the ridge. During hunting season, I think they go to Florida.

There is also Rocky, the Demon Squirrel, and That Effing Chipmunk. Both of them have eluded the camera so far. If they don’t leave the strawberries alone, they’re gonna have to evade a fusillade from a .22 rifle. Anyone for squirrel gravy ?