I won't make a list, but I have a couple of bird observations.

There is a nest in my back yard, a small pointy-headed bird with a pink/orange beak. Most probably a cardinal. It is a horribly constructed nest in a precarious set of small branches in the vitex in my back yard. The vitex my pit bull patrols under because she is interested in birds. I am going to try to block the space under the tree this year to keep her from killing (by playing with) or eating the fledglings. When she is interested in something she stubbornly goes back again and again . . . you should have seen her hunting lizards last summer. Oy.

On the other hand, I have my best friend's chocolate lab here, we are in our fourth month (she is in rehab after many weeks in the hospital - as a pedestrian she was hit by a car in the parking lot at work). He is getting the idea of what it is that my dogs race to the back of the yard to bark at, but he isn't so interested in the barely-visible spectres they ward off. Today there were four crows in the yard at the back. We never had crows here until last year, and then I only glimpsed them. Now I'm seeing crows instead of many of the songbirds that used to be around the yard. Someone is feeding the birds bread and they bring it to my birdbaths. They're here, but I haven't seen any cardinals (except for the nest) and jays and bluebirds and such. I used to think crows were just wonderful, I helped a friend raise a chick that fell out of the nest many years ago, but here and now, they are a problem. I saw some swarm an owl a couple of weeks ago and I do believe they killed it. The ruckus in the woods was incredible, and after a lot of crow squawks I heard a different bird, the cry was loud but defensive - I think it was the owl.

Anyway, Zeke and I made eye contact, and though I didn't think he'd understand me I pointed and said "get rid of those crows, Zeke!" and off he went at a tear, headed straight for the birds, who flew off when they saw him. I think Zeke knows his role in the yard now, and I am sad to say that my old favorite birds now seem to be harbingers of not-so-great-climate-change to come.

SRS