Different Birds at the Aerie

Last evening after dinner I was sitting in the living room when I heard a loud "THUMP" against the glass. I figured a mourning dove or a robin had smacked into the window and got up to see if I had to remove its body from the deck. (Yeah, it was that loud.) Chester beat me to the window and was perplexed as was I for nothing lay upon the deck at all. Thinking that perhaps the bird had enough energy to flutter over the side, I went out to take a look. That's when I saw the bird fluttering its wings as it clung to the drip cap over the French doors heading out to the deck.

Not a robin or mourning dove at all, this was a cuckoo. No really, a Black-billed Cuckoo. I reached up and took it in hand to check its wings which seemed fine, but it certainly had a bit of a concussion. It was dazed and a little blood ran down its beak.

I set it on the rail under the covered porch and kept an eye on it for a while. It took a few moments but it cot its feet under it and proceeded to stand. Then it voided a fluid all over the deck rail, turned so its rear was over the deck and voided a broken egg onto the deck. Now I felt really down. This was a nesting female who had just had to abort one of her eggs because the impact of her flight into the glass had been enough to break the shell. Still she was looking better.

I let her sit on the deck hand rail and made no rapid movements that would startle her as I went back inside. A half hour later, the rail was empty. I went out to check and found no bird on the deck anywhere and none laying on the ground below. Apparently she recovered enough to take herself off to who knows where.

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This morning I was standing on the deck thinking I had to cut the lawn...again...when a bright blue bird flew across my line of sight. Aha! I thought. My Indigo Bunting is back! WRONG! As it landed on the wires and faced me, I could see the rusty band of color that formed a bib beneath its chin and the white of its belly. This was a male Eastern Bluebird. I often see them on the edges of the fields and pastures just a few hundred yards down the hill, but they seldom come up to the Aerie. This may have been the second or third I remember seeing in the yard.

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When the lawn was done and Terry had come home from another of her sewing club meetings, I was telling her about the Bluebird and lamenting the missing Indigo Bunting. Moments later, as we stood on the deck admiring the newly cut lawn, a flash of blue again moved across the opening and alit on a branch on the edge of the clearing. This time it WAS and Indigo Bunting. Then he started to sing and there was no doubt that he was home--especially when he moved to the very tippy top of the aspens and continued to serenade us.

These little gems of the bird world have been regulars in the yard since we started to build back in 2006. A male would sit high atop the aspens and sing its heart out as the sun rose over the hill and hit those branches first. This was the first to appear in 2010, however, and I was beginning to wonder if they would return. They prefer abandoned fields but maybe the one in the back end of the property and the power line right of way running along side the house are enough to keep them around.

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Three birds; each "different" from the normal customers around the Aerie; each welcome to return any time (sans the smashing into the window thing, of course)