Diario de jobird

These past few days I have been studying different parts of ecosystems and different kinds. Yesterday I traveled to Rutland and studied the habitat there along the river. The forest overlapped into a meadow, the meadow overlapped into a swampy area which the river flowed into. They are all so interconnected that understanding the difference between ecosystem and habitat has been difficult for me but I think I am getting closer to understanding. There were Common yellow throats singing that were mostly in the bushes along the edge of the water but would sometimes fly into the pine trees and sing from there instead. There were also yellow warblers hunting and singing in the bushes near the water. Sometimes I would see a grub in their beak and watched in fascination as they would lightly toss it into the air to catch in their beak, other times they seemed to slurp it up like spaghetti. There was an alder flycatcher flying back and forth, swiveling in midair to catch the small insects that filled the air alongside the darting tree swallows and barn swallows. The bullfrogs in the stream were hunting the dragonflies, water striders and there were whirligwigs but I am unsure if they were eating those as well. There was so much to see there that I can not cover it here.
Today I went back to Dennison and there were signs of beaver, and were blue headed vireos,warbling vireos, common yellowthroats, yellow warblers, gray catbirds, eastern kingbird, ovenbirds, common grackles, red winged blackbirds, crows and ravens. I saw the pair of bald eagles and one dove into the water and seemed to catch a brook trout. There were two grackles bombarding the eagle as it tried to eat its prey in peace. There was also a chickadee excavating a nest hole.
So much life, so much to see, all you have to do and stop and be. What a beautiful day!!!

I am not good at sitting still, I never have been. I'm the kind of person who is always moving, "oh saw that now time to move on." is my kind of mind set but nature is slowly teaching me to be still, a silent watcher. Birds have taught me some patience which I am glad of but the whole sitting in one place thing is still difficult for me.
This past week I have been very busy but I finally took some time to just sit and watch yesterday and what I found surprised me. As I sat there a bluejay flew into pine tree and we both sat and watched each other curiously, I felt connected to it the longer I watched it until it finally flew away. It was about 76 degrees with a cloud cover and I could feel the heaviness in the air, knowing it may rain in a few days. My attention was soon drawn away from the sky to the ground where a greater bee fly hovered, I wonder what it was looking for. I then closed my eyes to allow my ears to see for me and I heard bluejays,robins, red-eyed vireo,chipmunks scolding, a hermit thrush soon joined with its ethereal flute like songs, chimney swifts twittered above as they flew through the sky. I opened up my eyes once again and turned my attention to the ground where an ant dragged a dead counter part. As I watched in fascination my bluejay swooped back into the yard, turning my eyes toward him as he scooped up a piece of bread and flew into a oak. A tiger swallowtail floated past and as I watched I wrote down in my journal how they made me think of a small bird, or a flying leaf at times when they fly high into the canopy. I already had drawn my bluejay and the ant and bee fly that I had seen. A woodpecker began drumming deep in the forest as the half hour went by. I saw a spider, goldthread, a moth, canada mayflower, a red squrriel, robin, patridge berry and sketched them as well. I noticed how I could smell rain on the air and this is what I jotted down in my little journal: " The air smells like rain. I know it is a odd thing to say but for one who spends much time outside I can sense it. I can sense the slightest change of light on my skin and tell when the sun is about to emerge from behind a cloud." A warbling vireo and Blue headed vireo soon began to sing but I had to head inside lest I be eaten alive by desperate mosquitos looking for protien so that they may lay their eggs. I did not want to be the one to provide the blood for their spawn, and did not want to have itchy wellts but some got me anyways.
Being Still and Silent has more benefits than I thought and I am striving to become better at it.

Just warning everyone about a new user @ ballsypen. They aren't part of this project but commented on my most recent post in a different language. I was able to translate some of it and it sounded sketchy, it said something about some site that sounded like a scam or something. I deleted the comment and reported it. Please be careful.

I have been watching a pair of robins nest. I believe the first egg was laid on the 3 of June and I checked today and now they have 4 eggs. An American's robin's Incubation period is 13 days so on the 19th I will be checking for signs of piping!! So exciting!