Here are early observations:

A pair of wrens are nesting in the box right off the deck. While one wren carried sticks to the nest, the other spent considerable energy trying to drive off a red-bellied woodpecker that wanted to feed in the area. The fact that the woodpecker seemed to totally ignore the racket and diving attacks didn’t seem to hinder the enthusiasm nor the persistence of the wren.

A pair of rough-wing swallows are apparently building a nest in the pole shed. They are carrying nesting material into a box that contains my deer decoy. It is on a shelf about 10′ off the ground. They seem to work as a pair, first landing on the gravel drive, then one picks up some nest material which looks like small grassy stuff possibly from the last few days of lawn mowing. Next they both fly back into the pole shed and disappear into the box with the material.

A pair of barn swallows are nesting in the same location over the sliding door of the pole shed where a pair nested last year.

A pair of blue birds are using the nest box just south of the pole shed. The female gathers primarily dead grasses from the lane where I accidentally sprayed Roundup and killed the grass.

An eastern phoebe is attracted to the frame work under my tower blind about 10 yards off the deck. Last year I attached some lumber scraps to the bottom of the frame work so robins, swallows, and phoebe could build nests there. Last year barn swallows took advantage of the site.

Starlings have managed to get past my mesh barrier and are nesting again in the overhang of the trailer.

Canada geese were interested in the pond again this year but by the time I rigged up a floating nest tub they had chosen another location. I have mixed feelings about that. It would have been fun to watch and listen to them but I won’t miss the goose droppings that would have likely been deposited on the dock.

I can also hear and see a number of other birds that have not yet found nest sites. These include the red-bellied woodpecker, red-headed woodpeckers, downy woodpecker, white breasted nuthatch, tree swallows, rose-breasted grossbeaks, red-winged blackbirds, purple grackles, song sparrows, ruby-throated hummingbirds, goldfinch (will nest later), yellow-throated warbler, vultures (may be nesting in the bulldozed brush pile from when the pond was built), eastern meadowlark, wild turkey and chipping sparrow are the species that come to mind at this moment.

It’s always amazing the sheer amount of wildlife you will see if you can sit still long enough to look for it.

I got a lot of work done at the farm earlier this week. I took some soybeans with me for planting food plots. Unfortunately… the tractor wouldn’t start. We worked on it much of the day and finally got it going. I tilled and disc-ed until about 9:30pm because of the rain forecast. Good thing I did, because it started raining about dawn the next day. I’ll see if I can get some spraying done between rains.

I also worked up 5 spots for fruit trees in the orchard to replace trees killed by rabbits and mice.

Planting corn and prairie will have to wait until it dries out again.

When I travel or go to the farm I can take my laptop and hard drive along and do virtually anything here at the farm that I can do at the home office. That means when it rains, or at night when I can’t work outside, I just fire up the computer and go to work in the trailer. For example, I have thousands upon thousands of digital photos that need to be sorted and tagged as reference material for future paintings.

I just glanced out the window to see how the rain was doing and there was a male bluebird sitting on the cottonwood tree 10 feet from my window. I’ve got the curtains pulled back so I can sit right here and look at the evergreens, prairie, food plots, timber, wetland and pond just by turning my head. Things are really coming along down here.

This year I’ve put in about 10 acres of switchgrass, 500 miscanthus (I will write later about my goals for planting these tall plants), 8 acres of beans in in 8 different plots, and corn in 4 plots. I still have more switchgrass, prairie, beans, Egyptian wheat, and fruit trees to put in.

There are lots of birds feeding and gathering nest material right hear by the trailer. Whenever I have good lighting at dawn I get in a blind and shoot bird reference for future paintings. See this post for notes on the birds living around the trailer.