Pour in the New
Two new visitors to my yard
I have an amazing view from my studio window. There's a lot going on in our side yard. We have a growing brush pile that birds and chipmunks seem to love. On and around that stick pile I've seen white-throated sparrows, Carolina wrens, house wrens, and a newer addition....eastern towhees!
I was looking out the window from my desk (a constant distraction, unless I'm nature journaling), and saw a larger bird with black. Hmmm....that was different. Thank goodness for binoculars. I saw a black head and back, rust-colored flank, and white belly. It reminded me of the rufous-sided towhees in California. Sibley unveiled the mystery....eastern towhee! There wasn't just the one bird. After looking up repeatedly throughout the day, I discovered one with a deep, rich black head, back and wings with just a notch of white on his wing edge. Another one was a little mottled brown on the head with a bit of fluff. Another one was not as deep black and had some slight greying around the eye and cheek. The next day I saw an even wonkier one with different colors on its head looking quite scruffy. It all added up to a family of towhees!
My biggest question was where did they come from? I've never seen this bird in my yard before and then there was a family!? Where did they nest?
As if this wasn't enough of a treat, from the same place at my desk, in the late afternoon, something caught my eye trundling across the yard. It took me a moment to register what it was. A porcupine!!! I screamed, "PORCUPINE!!!!!!" Both my husband and daughter came swiftly to catch him make his way down to the hidden realm behind the brush pile. Since moving to Massachusetts, seeing a porcupine has been high on my want list. I definitely wasn't expecting it to be in my own yard!
It's funny how nature makes me feel extremely child-like with awe and wonder. Nothing else seems to have that affect. I enjoy curiosity and delight in other areas of my life, but there's something about nature, especially animals, that touches my heart in a special way. Thank you nature journaling for opening that door.
What an exciting day, I bet the whole family loved seeing the porcupine, I wish I was there to experience seeing it with you. When Karen and I were working and living on our bosses property here in Montana, we would see wild animals and birds "all the time", it was truly living in the wilderness. That is the one MAJOR thing I miss the most about not living on that property any more. But luckily, I got to experience it for 4 solid years...
We would see wild turkeys and deer so often I almost want to say daily. We would also see black bears, and skunks regularly. I would also see bald eagles, great horned owls, Black-billed Magpie, sandhill crane, mallard, swallow, rufous hummingbirds, red winged blackbird, raven, osprey, turkey vulture, great blue heron, wood duck, Canadian geese, common loon, red tailed hawk, steller's jay, yellow headed blackbird, also a few times we even saw pronghorn & Grizzly bears.