I spent almost a whole week at home on my Muskingum County farm on Flint Ridge, a "visit" wedged between business trips. It frustrates me that my observation of the pageant of the seasons unfolds in fits and starts, but one takes what one can get. Nothing startling on our farm, but it is nice to see old feathered friends again.
Relevant to a current discussion, Jane and I noticed the season's first tent caterpillars on Monday. No cuckoos, but bring 'em on.
I don't know when exactly they returned, but I heard my first Louisiana waterthrush last Friday (4/9) in a reliable location, right around Valhalla Falls, a small cascade over the Upper Mercer Limestone in our deepest and easternmost ravine. My earliest date for the species was 3/31, last year. (I was absent this year 3/22 - 4/7.) Yesterday morning (4/14) I heard two of them calling and answering in another ravine (the one I call Nibelheim). Do pairs of Louisiana waterthrush do this or does it represent a territorial contest between males?
No hooded warblers or common yellowthroats yet, but I expect them soon, maybe the next time I'm home.
Migrant sparrows: Field sparrows are singing everywhere, as are smaller numbers of chipping sparrows. I saw a junco on the ground under the new finch-dominated sunflower tubes on Saturday (4/10). White-throateds seem to have departed entirely. Towhees are "wheeping" and urging us to drink our tea everywhere in the woods. Sometimes they make excursions to the backyard under the feeders.
I heard my FOS house wren on Sunday (4/11.)
I heard a turkey gobbling somewhere down in the hollow on Sunday afternoon, when I was in the sheep pasture burning multi-flora rose brush I had cleared.
Tree swallows have returned in force to the "blue bird trail." I didn't have too much time for systematic study, but one pair has definitely set up residence in Box No. 1, another male was perched atop Box No. 5.
Meanwhile, bluebirds are around and singing, although I have seen none occupying any boxes yet. Perhaps they are using the abundant woodpecker holes in our dead, standing wood, as I suspect they usually do.
The good news on the trail is that I haven't seen any house sparrows in the boxes... yet. If I see this next time I'm home (4/23,) it's war. There are plenty of them in the horse barn, with their allies the euro-starlings.
Waiting for the next wave of arrivals...
Bob Evans
Geologist, etc.
Hopewell Township, Muskingum County
DeLorme 70 A1 ("classic" editions) The Gratiot USGS quadrangle
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