This morning the Tree Swallow family that has made my spot here on the Rondout their nesting destination for the past 8 years have finished their month of prenuptial rites and shooed away their yearlings for a bit and begun the next step in keeping their species alive! ~ A little over a week ago swimming upstream a Canada Goose pair introduced six new goslings and this morning the first Mallard mom of the season poked through the area with four of her new brood. ~ Right above them perched on an empty nesting house -- still scouting out the place, but staying around for a longer time span this morning was a Blue Bird couple. Everything seems to be okay for them this morning except for one thing...me. And that's an unsolvable problem! ~ Downstream on the other side of the creek just below the hotel island, an Osprey crashed into the water to successfully fly up and into the trees with a decent sized fish for someone's breakfast. Directly across from me five minutes later a Belted Kingfisher "dropped" from it's fence post in a dive into the creek unsuccessfully but flew upstream still hopeful,"rattling" all the way to a nest I've been looking for, for 15 years! ~ And for a "first-here" - reporting, two days ago -- an Indigo Bunting pair joined in the band of House Finch couples breakfasting under my Mulberry tree - the females of course sitting aside waiting to be fed by their male partners. The Buntings didn't seem to be hungry and flew on upstream within five minutes, leaving me with my treat. Nice first 45 minutes of the day for me that's for sure.
