14 Apr 2006

Here, here, pretty bird

More pheasants: saw three male pheasants perched and preening today. Grey morning, mild temperature, slight occasional precipitation. In Christchurch Meadow - they were positioned in triangular format, at opposite corners of the meadow, each one atop the highest thing around. Were they searching for mates, forming a trifecta, or just coincidentally simultaneously ascending a summit in their corner of the world? I vote mating, since i've never seen a pheasant in the Meadows before.

4 comments:

Ms. Book Lady 5280 said...

neat that you get signs of spring in oxford...its interesting to have spring in the city and colorado, because in co, apparently woodpeckers are close to extinction? or endangered? is this true? we have a stubborn guy that likes to bang on our metal thing that sticks out of our house... it's so interesting to think that they are, because we've got a nice collection in kansas, lol... hope life is going great, talk to you soon

naomi said...

hey my dear - well, woodpeckers are rare, and they need trees of a certain type (namely old trees with plenty of holes to nest in and fund grubs) to survive. there are several kinds of woodpeckers, and two are certainly very rare: the Lewis's Woodpecker and the Acorn Woodpecker. Downy Woodpeckers are a little more common, but still somewhat unusual and perhaps threatened. But Northern Flickers are probably what you're hearing outside your house - and they're everywhere! They're gray with small spots, still quite pretty but not stark black and white like the others. So - if you hear that guy banging outside your window...peek out and see what color he is and i'll let you know if its one of the endangered ones. Glad to know they're doing ok in Kansas, regardless! xoxo

Anonymous said...

I love reading everyone's comments...our interests are all so diverse! Sam wishes for deer at his end of town, for me, the deer would eat my lovely flowers so stay away! Even the rabbits were chewing my clematis early this morning. Now, every day I scrutinize my gardens to see what else has come up and what has grown even a quarter inch! Yup.

naomi said...

hey Nannie! welcome to the blogosphere! its nice and...flower-munching deer free here. anyway, every day i see more buds on trees, more flowers making their way to the sky. hooray for spring! xoxo