Tag: birds
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Maple Festival
We know the Highland County Maple Festival is just around the corner when we see the yellow-bellied sapsucker drilling sapwells in the maple trees in our backyard. These woodpeckers spend hours making holes in a horizontal pattern to find sap and insects. They migrate south during the coldest months of winter, but they come back… Read more
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Winter Birds
We were delighted to get our first snowfall of winter this week in the Roanoke Valley. Less than two inches fell but enough to make the trees sparkle. Unfortunately, the snow was topped with a coating of ice. Schools are closed, and travel is discouraged, but the roads were pretreated, and the plows are out… Read more
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The H.I.T. Squad
Have you ever noticed sparrows lining up on the gutter of your house or the neighbor’s roofline? First one flies in, then two more, then three join them, until there are twelve sparrows looking out over the yard. Suddenly, they all fly down to a bird feeder or a birdbath as if the leader gave… Read more
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Winky the Wren
Last summer, Walter was sitting on the veranda at sunset and heard a wren singing in the trees. Within a few minutes, the wren appeared on the patio less than ten feet away from him. Walter sat very still while the wren hopped around the birdbath and potted plants. Suddenly, the little bird flew up… Read more