Thank you, evergreens, for the Cooper's hawk!

Time flies like an arrow.
Fruit flies like a banana, an old friend once told me.
How can it be December 13 already?!
Nature gave me a gift this morning: a close-up Cooper's hawk in my front yard, reeling back from a missed strike inside the branches of a tall arborvitae in my front yard. I disdain my new, rental yard for having too much mowed grass and too few weeds, but I gotta give it credit for having plenty of cover for birds in the form of evergreens.
In the front yard, in addition to that tall arborvitae, there are several smaller shrubs, also arborvitae I think. And in the back is a massive, berry-laden holly tree. Both provide shelter and security for the little songbirds that visit my feeders. Day and night, they are full of birds, invisible, but noisy.
Just two nights ago as I was walking past the arborvitae towards my front door, my footsteps disturbed a mourning dove tucked inside. They have a distinctive sound when they move around, so I'm certain that's what it was, even though I never saw it.
This morning, that Coop was pulling back from the very spot where I had heard the dove, but with empty talons. It flew into a snag across the street and perched in the warming, low-angled sunshine, where I got a great look at it, all fluffed up in the frigid dawn air.
I'm grateful to have evergreens—year round cover for birds—in my yard.

Junco!

New yard bird: Dark-eyed junco, seen yesterday evening in the tulip tree!
It was rewarding to have such a lengthy and diverse yard list from my old house in Bloomington. New species were few and far between, and always a thrill.
But starting over has its rewards, too. I am anticipating new species. Which will be next?

Yard bird list: 17 species!

My yard list is up to 17 species!  They are, in chronological order:
Northern Cardinal
Carolina Wren
Blue Jay
American Crow
Northern Flicker
American Robin
House Sparrow
Carolina Chickadee
White-breasted Nuthatch
Tufted Titmouse
Black-throated Green Warbler
Downy Woodpecker
Chimney Swift
Mourning Dove
Turkey Vulture
Eastern Bluebird
House Finch

While walking my dogs along the miles of trails around my house and in the streets of my neighborhood, I've also seen or heard:
Eastern Screech-owl
Cedar Waxwing
White-eyed Vireo
Swainson's Thrush

I'm planning on staying in Marietta this weekend (for a change), and hope to do some yard work to help make the property more bird-friendly. Just being out there during daylight hours should lengthen this list. Let's hope the weather cooperates!

Meet my old yard

This is the view from the kitchen window of the house I own in Bloomington, Indiana, soon to be for sale. Here's what this yard has going for it:

1. Winterberry bushes just feet outside the window. Mockingbirds and robins strip the berries in a matter of hours during the depths of winter. What a treat to see those birds too close for binoculars on a cold, dreary day.

2. Tons of cover. Admittedly, this photo was taken in late October, when vegetation was most abundant. A lovely stand of ironweed — the stalk is leaning to the right in the lower right of the photo — a native perennial, grows in the middle of the yard, providing seed heads, plenty of perches and lovely purple flowers in late summer. Vegetation on the far side of my raised-bed garden (the limestone wall) includes dogwood, sassafras, goldenrod, poison ivy (yikes!), rudbeckia, and many plants I don't know, and then a woodlot containing big trees and lots of undergrowth.

3. A big old snag. This photo doesn't show it, but that standing dead oak tree is huge, too big to hug. Years ago, when it started to die, it was so tall that it threatened to smash my house if it fell, so I asked the tree cutter to take off the top so it would no longer be a threat. Woodpeckers are all over it, and squirrels often sit on the flat top. I'm certain my yard has hosted all seven species of woodpecker found in Indiana, although I've never seen Yellow-bellied Sapsuckers there — just their signs.

4. Not much mowing. The property on which my house sits is about 1/3 acre, and it takes 5 minutes to mow. The grassy area is tiny. The rest is natural (some people might call it weedy),  which means it's great habitat for birds.

I provided sugar-water, black oil sunflower and thistle in tubes, mixed seeds in a hopper and on a platform, suet, and a bird bath. It was yardbird paradise for the 21 years I lived there.

My new challenge is to convert the property I now rent in Marietta, Ohio, into a more welcoming place for birds, but without offending my landlord or neighbors, and without investing a lot of money into a yard I expect to leave in a year or so.

Meet my new yard

Here's my new backyard, in Marietta, Ohio, as viewed from my kitchen window. Positives: A big ol' tulip tree!  Should be a good source of bugs for insectivores and good perching spot for songbirds and hawks. Also, a big ol' holly tree full of berries. Great food source for winter residents. There's also a shrub with red berries on the other side of the yard. Not sure what kind it is, but I'll find out. Negatives: Way more grass than I'm used to. My yard in Bloomington was much larger, more than an acre fenced, and mostly woods. It took me 5 minutes to mow the grass there. Here, since I'm renting, I'll have to keep it tidy and conventional. Mowing. Raking. Yuck. Grassy expanses expanses aren't attractive to birds. So, without investing too much in landscaping, I'm going to attempt to keep this yard looking attractive to people (especially my landlord), while becoming more attractive to birds. I've hung a couple of bird feeders and found a rusty old birdbath under the holly tree. But more on all that to come.

Introduction to the blog

This blog will focus mainly on backyard birding, since I'm effectively starting over, and exploring a community that is new to me, finding the local birding spots and making new friends, both human and avian.