Hello again! Margo told me that some of you have been asking after me. It has been a long time [Editor's Note: Nearly five years, to be exact.] since the last time I've written in this blog, so it's high time I tell you what I've been up to lately. So far, about 50 feet. [Colorado blue spruces can grow 75 feet tall in the wild but 30-60 feet in the yard, so I think Spruce might be exaggerating a little.) Spruce Bringsgreen after the Feb. 28, 2023, snow. (Modified photo by Margo D. Beller) Yes, I've been growing. I put out my first cones so I am now a mature Colorado blue spruce ..read more

The story never ends, it just enters another chapter. It was over a month ago I heard the knocking of a pileated woodpecker excavating one of my neighbor's trees. At that time I wasn't sure if it was digging out a nest or just hunting for carpenter ants. If the latter that meant the tree might decay and die in a matter of years. Pileated trying to hide from a sharp-shinned hawk.  (Margo D. Beller) When a squirrel climbed too close the woodpecker flew off. It was then I saw two holes so it was looking for a meal. I later learned February is not when these birds build nests and bre ..read more

A woodpecker's drilling/Echoes To/the mountain clouds.-- Haiku poet Dakotsu Iida Around 4 o'clock in the afternoon during a particularly hellish workday, I went outside into my backyard to get some air and listen to the bird sounds around me as I tried to calm down. That was when I heard the hammering.  I looked around but there were no workmen at any of the neighboring houses, for once. So I followed the sound and looked at the nearby trees. That is when I saw the pileated woodpecker. Backyard pileated woodpecker (Margo D. Beller) Back in early December I mentioned se ..read more

I don't get questions from my readers, but if I did they might look like this: Dear Birder: My neighbor has spent the last week having some very tall, very old trees cut down in her backyard and one in her front yard. Why would someone want to take down so many trees at once? Perplexed My cut tree (Margo D. Beller Dear Perplexed: There could be many reasons why. Perhaps these were ash trees infected with the emerald ash borer, the reason I had a dead tree removed earlier this month. Perhaps the homeowner was afraid a strong wind or snow storm would bring one or more of them down on th ..read more

I've written many times about my dislike of winter and how the cold and long darkness affect my spirits. We have had no snow this year, which could be good or bad. (Margo D. Beller) This year has a different wrinkle. We have not had any measurable snow in my part of the world at all this winter. While family members in New Hampshire are wallowing in the white stuff, where I live can be summed up in two colors: gray and brown. Snow would throw a blanket of white on the scene, which would be good for the plants but bad for my back (shoveling) and wallet (hiring the plow guy). Today ..read more

The apple tree needed to be pruned. That much I knew. Its branches had grown long and tall and at least one high branch would drop its fruit behind the deer netting on the other side of the walkway. (I hope she forgives me.) Overgrown apple tree, 2022 (Margo D. Beller) The pear tree also needed pruning, to at least slow down the squirrels climbing to the roof of the screened porch. I did some pruning but there was one area I could not reach unless I stood on the very top of the ladder, and I was not going to do that even with my trusty spotter standing below.  Pruned appl ..read more

I went for a walk yesterday, enjoying the sunshine and the cold air before today's expected snow. I have had a very bad cold for the past two weeks and this was one of the few times I wanted to walk and make sure my legs still worked. Still, I didn't want to go too far, so I went up my street and around to a brook the officials call the "north branch of the Whippany River," tho' that river is some distance away. It is calming to look at this brook from this bridge. In early spring there is usually a pair of phoebes flying to and fro with nest materials. Later in the spring they do the same wit ..read more

There are as many opinions as there are experts.  -- U.S. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt  Among my friends I am the bird expert. Some even refer to me as the "Bird Lady" (including my husband). When they see a bird they don't recognize they call or send me an email about it. My response is usually the same. If they don't tell me what color or size the bird is I ask about it. Then I get more specific. Where were you when you saw it? What was the bird doing? Was it on the ground or in a tree or flying? Did it make a sound? What did it sound like? Was it bigger than a robin or smal ..read more

If an object A exerts a force on object B, then object B must exert a force of equal magnitude and opposite direction back on object A. -- Newton's Third Law of Physics If something happens, there is an unintended consequence. -- Margo's corollary Until we finally got some relief in the form of showers and some cooler air, it had been so very, very dry in August. What rain we got prompted the dogwood to put out some fresh leaves, but for the most part the tree is dry, brown and forlorn. What birds came into the yard - including, briefly, a hummingbird -- came to the water dish to drink before ..read more

 If a story is in you, it has to come out. -- William Faulkner, author of "Light in August" August is not my favorite month.  I've written of this before. I still feel the need to complain, especially this year when we are going through a prolonged drought (after a year of too much rain) and the garden I've worked so hard to make beautiful is suffering. (It does not help when the leaders of this country can't come to anything resembling agreement on climate change, much less any other issue.)  Lots of reminders of death come to me in August, even in good garden years. My favorit ..read more