Mutt Monday & Avian Rush Hour

I've mentioned that there is major site work happening on the land behind our yard in order to make way for new houses.

 It means that the delightful cow pasture that used to back up to our yard is now farther away. The dogs are kinda sad about it.

Well, Boston is. Hokie spends most of her time under the shed hunting rabbits.

In other news, we just had 2 days of steady rain, which has left great pools of standing water all over the yard. The rain also brought in significant bird traffic from the decrease in flying bugs.

I actually refilled the feeder twice this weekend for those greedy birds. Most of them were the red-winged blackbirds, which I'd never seen before and had to google.

I never imagined that I would turn into the type of person who watches birds, but they are a little interesting. Today there was a trio of blackbirds with neon yellow heads...almost like neon bald eagles. I reached for my camera but they flew away.

My Winged Army

I've been SUCH a bad blogger lately, folks. Sorry. There's so much going on that it's been impossible to write up posts. But fear not--I have been taking pictures.

This weekend, in addition to the storm shelter, we installed a few other things in the garden.

We spent a small fortune at Lowes stocking up on bird feeding gear. Why? Lately spending time in the garden has been a noisy affair, with a chorus of loud grasshoppers buzzing around as they munched on my plants. I've already applied an application of diatomaceous earth (organic pesticide made from fossilized algae) and neem oil to fight off the unwelcome guests, but this year I have a lot of ground to cover. Call in the birds. I read one article recently about how a few birds can eat about 1000 insects per day, and I knew I had to invite them to the party.

Two suet feeders, a birdbath, and one recycled pole bird feeder (made from our largely useless Tomato Tree from last season) later, and we've going some action:

Not pictured is several of his buddies hopping around on the ground eating the seed he tossed down to them. And it's working. The birds have been visiting for just 3 days now, and already tonight I could hear the difference in the garden. I still saw a few hoppers here and there, but they weren't making as much racket as they used to.

We also have been watching the very busy progress of our summer guests, the mudswallows as they build their nest. I have to admit that they're not very tidy neighbors, as this is the scene on my front porch:

I could blame them for the sidewalk chalk, too... Anyway their construction efforts will soon give way to egg-laying, and angrily chirping at us as we inconsiderately go in and out the front door. They usually race across the street and perch on my neighbor's roof where they screech obscenities until we go back inside.

In another few weeks this nest will be much larger, and the tiny peeps of new babies (and therefore, new bug hunters) will emerge.