My Back Yard Entertainment

At last – Spring.

No one can fault the absolutely fabulous spring Oklahoma has delighted us with so far. Of course we Okies are always concerned about this early warm weather, but this year’s lovely warmth is so much better than snow and ice that we’ll take it. At least I will.

I take it so well that every evening after work I sit out on the back porch and just enjoy. I’ve raved about Oklahoma’s spring before, and it’s so great I’ve just got to do it again.

And sitting out on the back porch is not boring. It’s like going to the movies, movies with sequels. The dramas are constantly ongoing, especially if anyone, like me, is so into wildlife that bird feeders and feed stations are scattered everywhere in the yard. I should have been a wildlife biologist. The critters just fascinate me.

Take the birds. Or some would say, please take the birds away. No. I’ll keep my own birdies, thanks. Don’t mess with my birds. I might hurt you.

There are so many now, even Darling Daughter, who also likes to watch birds, comments on the noise at my house. My birds are singing their little hearts out this year. I have two sets of cardinals, two sets of woodpeckers, a pair of tufted titmice, too many Carolina chickadees and juncos to count, and a nuthatch who eats upside down and is absolutely adorable.

Then there is the house wren who has moved in, literally. House wren found a hole and has set up housekeeping in the back room. I don’t even let the dog in anymore for fear she will scare the wren so badly that wren abandons the nest built in a box of old clothes.

Then there are the red-winged black birds who have taken over the biggest feeder. They run all the other birds off. I was thinking about running them off, or hoping they would migrate north. Then a huge gray hawk flew in one day and picked out a black bird for lunch, again, literally. That poor blackbird didn’t have a chance to fight back. Now I feel guilty. But the hawk was magnificent, and no longer hungry apparently. I feel guilty I might have set up a smorgasbord for hawks, because several have been sighted.

And then there’s the squirrel who cleans out the bird feeders when I’m not around. I may feel guilty about the hawk eating that blackbird but I don’t feel at all guilty about looking up squirrel stew recipes on the internet.

I feel really guilty about yard dog Reba finding the baby rabbit nest, and eating all those young’uns. But mom is still hopping around the back yard, so we may have more babies, better hidden in the future we hope. And mom is too fast for old Reba to catch.

And those are just the critters who come to visit. My fence row is also home to a dive-bombing mockingbird, one loud-mouthed blue jay family, some bluebirds and a red-headed woodpecker. No signs of any hummingbirds yet, but it may be a little bit too early.

But we want to welcome back that fabulous Oklahoma state bird, the scissortail fly catcher, from wherever it spent the winter. It has returned.

I always think I’m going to sign up for the state or even the national bird count, but I get so busy watching them, I forget to count. Every one of them has a different personality and behavior, and are so much fun to watch. Forget the Backyard Bird Count. Let’s watch the Back Yard Movie.

I love Oklahoma!