Looking out my Back Door

Parent of the Jeff Borland memorial lilac

And front door...etc.....

Which is slowly coming into its own, and reminding me of Jeff whenever I pass

A male Yellow Warbler tugging strands of wool out of the wool ball hung for the birds...nest lining I suppose. And then another day, another yellow, this time a female. A lot of birds must come when I'm not as the ball is getting pulled to bits this year, after hanging there for the past three, more or less ignored.

Inside this cluster of ordinary cottonwood leaves
there is a swinging cradle for some mighty fine orange birds

The answer to the puzzle of the female Baltimore Oriole spending so much time inspecting a single spot on a certain branch in the cottonwood across the driveway. Once I saw how she knitted the still growing leaves of the tree into a shield, hiding the nest from view I was able to spot another just like it up in the cottonwood by the spring up on the back hill.

Another up in the fields, similarly disguised but visible from below.

Hummingbird wars, talk about a cat fight! Nothing benign or gentle about a hummer. We have more than usual this year and they are oh, so violent.

House Wren, lookin' out her back door

House Wrens, bold as brass, hopping right up to my feet to loudly request that I get my fanny indoors so they can get back to tending the nest they built in the ornamental birdhouse.

Robins, more polite, but more annoying, also wanting me to get gone for the same reason, only their nest is on top of one of the porch pillars.

And woven through it all, like magic thread, the scent of the lilacs blooming on the west side of the house, fragrant as fresh laundry and a whole lot prettier. 

Back door of the machine shed after being untracked by the storm....

from Northview Diary https://ift.tt/2wRog0Z